We all know the story: that Monday Night game, how he ended up starting the all-star game, how he won 19 games and led the league in earned run average, how he was given the nickname "Bird" and the antics he displayed on the mound.
Sadly we also know how his career was derailed because of injuries, how he was never able to make it back successfully, and how years later he was tragically killed in an accident at the young age of 54.
But the "Bird" legend will always be around, and for those of us lucky enough to have witnessed it, it was incredible.
His 1977 Topps card is STILL one of my all-time favorites solely because I feel it captured that "essence", that personality he had, as a character that comes along all too rarely.
In 1976 I was seven years old and just starting to pay attention to baseball, and all I kept seeing was this phenomena of “The Bird”, his act on the mound, that smile, and of course images of him with Sesame Street’s “Big Bird”.
This man came across as a God to my young impressionable mind, and when ripping open packs of 1977 cards soon after, and pulling that card of his, jeez, it was like nothing else.
What an icon of the game for that era. Perfect.