One evening in the early 1950s, Sy Berger came home from work, sat down at his kitchen table, and changed America.
His bosses at Topps Gum Co. wanted to sell more gum, so they gave him an assignment: Make a new kind of baseball card.
Back then, baseball cards were black-and-white and boring. A post-war America needed something flashier — something more alive — especially during the coming age of Mickey Mantle, the Dodgers and the transistor radio.
So Berger sat down with scissors and cardboard — I imagine hot coffee nearby, with the kitchen window cracked open — and began to tinker.
He began to piddle.