Eddie Kazak was a journeyman pitcher who played in Major League Baseball from 1955-1964. While his career statistics were relatively pedestrian, accumulating a 48-57 record with a 3.86 ERA over 9 seasons, Kazak has attained a cult following among baseball card collectors for his scarce and unique rookie cards from 1955. Kazak’s rookie card holds an important place in the history of the baseball card industry and collectors still seek out his early cards today thanks to their limited production and distinct designs.
Kazak was born in 1933 in Buffalo, New York and grew up in nearby Lackawanna dreaming of one day pitching in the major leagues. He signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers organization in 1953 and spent two seasons in their farm system, showing promise but struggling with injuries. In 1955, Kazak received his first big league call up with Brooklyn at the age of 22. Baseball card producer Topps had recently begun issuing annual sets featuring all current major leaguers that season and included Kazak in their 1955 release, giving him one of the most coveted cards for any player – their true rookie card.
However, Kazak’s rookie card stands out from the onset due to a unique design variation. While the standard 1955 Topps cards used a simple team logo in either the top left or right corner, a small subset of roughly 50 players, including Kazak, featured an illustration of the player in action in place of the team logo. Rendered in a realistic painted style, Kazak is depicted mid-windup, revealing his distinctive high leg kick pitching motion. Some speculate Topps may have run short on team logos late in production, though the precise reason for the variation remains a subject of debate among card historians. Regardless of the cause, Kazak’s distinct rookie immediately caught collectors’ eyes and marked him as one of the most identifiable first-year players from the hallowed ’55 set.
Not only was Kazak’s design one-of-a-kind for the ’55 Topps issue that year, but his card is also remarkably scarce in high grade due to a very limited initial print run. Topps’ first flagship baseball set three decades prior in 1933 had included only 52 total cards. By the postwar boom of the 1950s, sets had grown to over 500 cards as the company signed multi-year deals with teams and players. Still, production remained far below future mega-sets. With a relatively small population surviving nearly 70 years since distribution, Kazak rookie cards of satisfactory visual quality occupy a rarefied air among vintage collectors. Even poorly-centered or rougher conditioned copies changed hands for thousands by the early 2000s.
Kazak had moved to the St. Louis Cardinals organization by 1956 after being drafted by them from Brooklyn that winter. This triggered his subsequent rookie card with St. Louis issued by Topps that year. While desirable in its own right for any player’s second year card, Kazak’s 1956 topps barely registered to collectors after the unforgettable artwork of its predecessor. He had mediocre seasons in 1956-57 before being dealt that summer to the Washington Senators.
Though no longer a rookie, Kazak enjoyed his best major league showing in 1958 with a record of 9-6 and career-low 2.63 ERA over 31 games for the Senators. He was selected for that season’s Topps All-Star Rookie team card, a yearly set honoring top first- and second-year players as voted by fans. Kazak’s inclusion today makes his ’58 card another must-have for collectors completing this prestigious subset. That success in D.C. proved fleeting as arm injuries limited Kazak to just 28 total innings over the next three years before he was released in 1961. He later signed with the expansion New York Mets in 1962 but failed to make their roster out of spring training.
Undaunted, Kazak kept at pitching in the minor leagues through 1964 while also working as a salesman, determined to latch on elsewhere in the majors. Those later baseball card issues from his brief stints with the Mets and Minneapolis Millers are today some of the scarcest in the hobby, with populations likely numberable. Kazak finally hung up his spikes at age 31 after 13 pro seasons without ever returning to the show. He moved to Florida and sold real estate after retiring from baseball but remained a familiar face autographing for fans at card shows during the collector boom decades of the 1980s-90s.
Sadly, Kazak passed away at the young age of 67 in 2001, long before witnessing the insane heights his 1955 Topps rookie would reach in value. By the 2010s, as the vintage market boomed and condition standards rose, even low-grade Kazak ’55 rookies fetched four figures. Gem mint specimens changed hands privately for well over $100,000 as the population of high grade survivors dwindled to double digits or less. Few early rookie cards can match the visual drama and statistical rarity that made Kazak’s 1955 Topps issue an icon recognized the world over. Decades after his brief big league career, Eddie Kazak has undoubtedly become one of the most famous “common men” from the municipal world of baseball cards.
While Eddie Kazak did not enjoy great success on the field in Major League Baseball, his rare and distinct rookie card from 1955 Topps has captivated collectors for generations. Featuring unique painted artwork in place of a team logo and a remarkably small surviving population, Kazak’s first card holds an exalted status among vintage set builders and investors alike. Along with key subsequent issues like his 1958 Topps All-Star Rookie selection, Kazak’s scarce early baseball cards signify how even marginal players from baseball’s early post-war era can achieve lasting renown in the collecting community for their visual impact and statistical rarity decades later. Kazak’s story serves as a testament to both the human impulse to commemorate athletic careers memorialized in card form, and the staying power of truly one-of-a-kind cardboard from the earliest years of the baseball card industry.
