COLLECTING: Players value baseball cards

How much are baseball players paid by trading card companies for endorsement rights? Considerably more than they pocketed when George Culver was a mid-1960s cardboard prospect, that's for sure.

"A guy would come to spring training and sign you up when it looked like you might be a big league candidate," recalls Culver, who did go on to the big leagues. "He paid you $5 after getting your picture, for exclusive rights."

But the rights weren't all that exclusive.

"When someone came around from another company, he'd say, "No problem. We'll just predate the contract.' Another five bucks," said Culver, 57, shrugging at the thought of an easy five.

That all changed in 1968. Mainly through Marvin Miller's efforts, the Major League Baseball Players Association joined into a special agreement with Sy Berger's Topps Chewing Gum Co., then the world's largest producer of bubble gum, and the price for an endorsement went up to $250. And it's higher today, of course.

In 1980, a federal judge ruled that Topps and the players association were violating federal antitrust laws by excluding other companies from the baseball card business. Fleer Corp., a Philadelphia gum company, filed the suit against Brooklyn-based Topps. Fleer was eventually awarded $3 million in damages as a result of the litigation, but they were asking for $16 million. Both companies appealed the decision.

"Fleer used to ask players to sign a pre-dated contract so they could compete with Topps," said Culver, who pitched for six big league clubs from 1966-74.

Longtime baseball manager John McNamara goes way back in his dealings with the card companies. A resident of Brentwood, Tenn., McNamara, 68, is out of baseball for 2001. He recently resigned as minor-league catching instructor for the Angels. With the exception of two years in the military, he had spent the past 40 summers on a baseball diamond.

"I've dealt mainly with Topps over the years," he said. "When I was in Idaho managing my first club at Lewiston, in 1959, I met Sy Berger. He'd come around and discuss the talent with me."

McNamara, named AL Manager of the Year in 1986 while piloting the Red Sox, liked the concept. "Young players, it helped them out, televisions and items they could use. As I recall, they had a catalog to pick from. The bigger you were, the more you got."

But how much are we talking about here?

Tyler Green, chosen for the NL All-Star team in 1995 as a Phillies rookie pitcher, has his story.

"Everyone's agent does things differently," said Green. "They set up different deals. Some push the envelope. I didn't get a car or anything special."

The card companies don't always make it easy for the players, either. There's more to it than just posing for a photograph.

"A company called Front Row sent me 10,000 cards to autograph and send back, when I first started out. I got paid a percentage of what they sold."

Did anyone consider the possibility of some serious hand cramps?

"They gave me a month," Green said.

In 1981, a higher court decision shot down the lower court ruling against Topps. Other companies, apparently undaunted by the decision, re-emerged and new ones sprang up to form a wide mix, operating now larger than ever -- and doing it without the bubble gum.