By 1973 Topps decided it would no longer have statistical leader
cards for the National and American leagues, but just portray the leader
of both leagues on the same card.
It would remain this way for the rest of the decade and make for
some classic leader cards featuring some of baseball's all-time greats.
Today we take a look at the 1973 Batting Leaders card (#61), which
shows to of the game's best, Billy Williams of the Chicago Cubs and Rod
Carew of the Minnesota Twins.
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| Topps' first year of dual league leaders. |
Each lead their league in batting in 1972 and as such, we are given a nice card featuring two future Hall of Famers.
Billy Williams hit a robust .333 to pace the National league, also
slamming 37 home runs and driving in 122 runs, good enough for an M.V.P.
award most years if it wasn't for a guy in Cincinnati named Johnny
Bench.
It would be the only batting title for "Billy from Whistler", but
combined with all the other achievements during his 18 year baseball
career he would be elected to Cooperstown's hallowed halls in 1987.
Next up we have the batting champ of the 1970's, Rod Carew. In 1972
Carew sported the lowest batting average of all his seven batting
championships, but it would be the first of six batting titles in seven
years! George Brett would break his string in
1976 by only two points! Or we'd be looking at seven titles in a row
between 1972 and 1978.
Carew was a machine in the 70's and into the 80's, and was WELL on
his way to Hall of Fame enshrinement on his first try in 1991.