[zeprock]

Baseball cards have long been associated with bubble gum. Cards were first included in packs of cigarettes but it soon became apparent that the men who bought the product weren't nearly as interested in the cards as were the kids who were too young to purchase them. In the 1930s, Fleer (the creator of Dubble Bubble gum) and the Goudey Gum Company competed with one another by including baseball cards with their gum. When Topps debuted in 1951 they included taffy with their cards but the following year, they switched to gum which was included in their packs until 1991. When I was a kid, I had a wad as large as a ping pong ball on my bedpost because that's where Lonnie Donegan suggested putting it, and yeah, it lost its flavor overnight but that didn't stop me from putting it back into my mouth and working it back into bubble blowing shape. What would you expect from a kid whose dentist gave me a Tootsie Pop after each visit? All of us with vintage cards have got at least one with a gum stain on it. For an oddball post today, here are nine cards from my collection featuring players blowing bubbles with their gum.

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1976 Topps #564 Kurt Bevacqua/Bubble Gum Champ (The Brewers' Kurt Bevacqua won the first Joe Garagiola Bubble Gum Blowing Championship in 1975. Each team had a representative in the contest and Kurt beat out all of them including future Hall of Famers Bert Blyleven, George Brett, Johnny Bench and Gary Carter.)
1982 Fleer #196 Brad Mills (Brad had only appeared in 38 games coming into the 1982 season so it's safe to say he had plenty of time riding the pine to practice his bubble blowing skills.)
1992 O-Pee-Chee Premier #146 Will Clark (Sweet-swinging Will Clark appears on this O-Pee-Chee card. Did you know that O-Pee-chee was a Canadian confectionery company that was founded in 1911 as a manufacturer of chewing gum?)

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1995 Pinnacle #128 Ken Griffey Jr. (I'm not entirely convinced this isn't a balloon Griffey is exhaling into here. If it's gum, it's impressive.)
1996 Pinnacle #131 Hideo Nomo (Here's Hideo making an effort.)
1996 Pinnacle Christie Brinkley Collection #5 Chipper Jones (Here's another card from Pinnacle's insert set featuring the photography of Christie Brinkley. The back of this card features a selfie of Christie and Chipper both blowing bubbles so there are actually three bubbles being blown on this card.)

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1999 Stadium Club #112 Chan Ho Park (Chan Ho Park with a wide-eyed expression at the result of his effort.)
2000 Ultra #41 Billy Wagner (Here's Billy kicking back in the bullpen probably prior to one of his 422 saves.)
2016 Topps Opening Day Bubble Trouble #BT5 Albert Pujols (King Albert featured on a Topps insert set entirely devoted to bubble gum bubbles.)