Clearing The Bases - Issue 030
January 10, 2025
Hello and welcome to Issue 030 of Clearing The Bases, an email newsletter in conjunction with the My Baseball History podcast hosted by Dan Wallach.
On Wednesday, January 8th, our latest episode with MICHAEL ARONSTEIN went live.
Michael was a baseball card show pioneer, having arranged and hosted one of the very first card “conventions” in 1970. He went on to co-organize the biannual American Sports Card Collectors Association shows in New York City. He was the publisher of the Collectors Quarterly and Baseball Quarterly magazines. He provided collectors with collecting supplies such as plastic sheets before they were widely available anywhere else.
As long ago as 1968, Michael was the first to make and sell new cards of old players. He became one of the hobby’s first full-time dealers, providing collectors with alternatives to mainstream sets. But he also produced hundreds of current minor league team card sets, including the “pre-rookie” cards of Rickey Henderson, Cal Ripken, Jr., and Wade Boggs, re-launching the minor league card industry in the process.
His Sports Stars Publishing Company card set challenged the monopoly Topps had on the card industry. Michael was the exclusive distributor of the 1981 Donruss baseball card set, and he founded the company Photo File, Inc., which supplied the hobby with high quality 8 x 10 photos with the intention to be autographed by athletes at conventions and signings.
All of those things I just listed aren’t even what he is most famous for. Michael Aronstein is the “MA” in TCMA Ltd., the card company he co-founded in 1972. TCMA offered sets that allowed collectors of modest means to own cards of 19th century players, along with 20th century players who didn’t appear on a lot of cards.
For an entire generation, Michael Aronstein’s cards taught kids about baseball history, and the players who made it. Before the internet existed, before things like Baseball Reference or the SABR Biography Project made it easy for someone to learn about any player who ever put on a uniform, Michael’s cards showed us what those guys looked like, and told us their stories.
Everyone knew Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, and even Bill Dickey, but players like Steve Sundra, Kemp Wicker, and Poison Ivy Andrews had long since been forgotten. Michael put them on cards anyway. It’s that attention to detail, that need to document history, which set Michael apart from his contemporaries, and made him the pioneer that he is.
We were lucky enough to be joined by Michael’s son, Andrew, for this interview. Andrew grew up around baseball cards and, more importantly, baseball photos. He’s not only had a collector’s mindset from the very beginning, but also that of an archivist.
Andrew has thankfully kept boxes full of papers, letters, contracts, magazines, photos, and, of course, cards relating to TCMA and all of the other ventures from his father’s storied past. This interview wouldn’t have happened without Andrew, and the liner notes for this episode are full of artifacts from his impressive archives.
Any individual line item from Michael’s resume is impressive, but when you put them all together, it doesn’t seem realistic that one person could have accomplished so much. The word “legend” gets thrown around a lot these days. Probably far more often than is warranted. But I have absolutely no hesitation when I call Michael Aronstein a legend. By the time you finish listening to this episode, even if you don’t already know who Michael is, you’re going to feel the same way about him.
In this episode, we cover LOTS of ground.
Michael tells us what gave him the idea to invite 18 fellow card collectors to his basement in 1970, and why that gathering was so significant in hobby history.
We find out what it felt like the first time Michael saw a T-206 Honus Wagner card in person, and what lengths he went to, to acquire the iconic card.
We learn what “The Pure Card” is, and the cards from which Michael drew inspiration for the sets he would later design.
And we hear how Michael employed Earl Weaver’s managerial strategy to his life, allowing him to come up with a few big innings throughout his own career.
I don’t want to give too much away, but the episode is out now, so you can listen to it as soon as you get done reading this email and re-listen whenever you want after that. Don’t forget to CLICK HERE to follow along with the liner notes as you listen.
The liner notes have over 250 (!!!) carefully curated photos and videos which directly and chronologically follow the conversation Michael, Andrew, and I had. In the caption for each, I also included extra links so you can do a deeper dive into any particular person or story which piques your interest as you listen. I’ve already done all the work for you, so all you need to do is sit back and enjoy the episode.
As you know, we do giveaways related to each episode, so I also want to tell you about an opportunity to win something for being an active listener to My Baseball History. You can enter for your chance to win a Shoeless Joe Jackson card from the 1981 Renata Galasso set that TCMA put out by following @ShoelessPodcast on twitter or Bluesky. The pinned post at the top of both our Twitter profile and our Bluesky profile asks a trivia question which is answered during the episode with Michael. Answer that trivia question correctly with your quote-post, and you’re automatically entered into the contest.
We’ll pick a winner before the next episode of the podcast goes live on Wednesday, February 12th. All you have to do to be considered is follow us on whichever platform you use, and re-post that pinned post before then. You can also feel free to tag a friend in the comments or write why you think you should win. It may help your chances of winning…
Don’t forget, it’s a huge help when you Rate and Review the podcast on whatever platform you choose to listen. 5-Star ratings help our podcast get shown on more people’s suggested podcast pages, which means more people will hear our show. It just takes a couple seconds of your time, but it really helps us a lot. And of course, liking us on social media, interacting with our posts, and sharing things with your friends is great, too. Feel free to forward this email to anyone in your life who loves baseball, and hopefully they’ll enjoy the podcast and learn a thing or two. But no matter how you choose to support us, even if it’s just by listening, we appreciate you being here.
Until next time, I’m Dan Wallach, and this is My Baseball History.
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