I've always considered the 1979 Topps set one of the more boring,
uninspired sets of the decade. The design was flat, it lacked any kind
of color or excitement, most of the "important" players had lame photos,
and I swear it seemed like Topps used a different
kind of card stock, which felt less "slick" (I'm probably imagining
this one, but I STILL insist).
Even their good idea of having an "All-Time Record Holders" sub-set
fell flat on its face with horrible design choice (see below. Ugh).
Funny enough however, the set did include what ended up being two
of my favorite cards of the decade: George Brett (#330) and Rod Carew
(#300). For some reason, the way the photos interacted with the rest of
the card design ended up working well together. The blue tones of
the Brett card image play well off the brown, yellow and red of the card
design, while the overall blue and red tones
on the Carew card work well with the Twins design color scheme.
Two classic cards depicting
two classic players. I'm sure what help's even more is the fact that both
cards show "action" shots, instead of some lame photos like Mike Schmidt
and Reggie Jackson, or sadly Thurman Munson's
last card and Ozzie Smith's first card.
As a side note, many baseball fans will point out that Carew was
actually an Angel for the 1979 season, and there are some out there who
went ahead and designed a "card that never was" with Carew as an Angel.
I've also drawn one up and included it here
to add to the virtual "collection.
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| Topps regular issue card as a Twin |
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| My own "corrected" update as an Angel |