OK. Now today I start what I hope grows on me, a full set of 1970 cards
with on-card All-Star designations, like my favorite cards between 1975
and 1981.We will begin this new thread with all-time great Johnny
Bench, who of course was the National League starting catcher for the
1969 game:
Now, to begin with, if you recall
Topps ended up producing All-Star cards in the 1970 that were actually
the "Sporting News" All-Stars, not necessarily the starters from the
game, so there will be some cool players getting their rightful All-Star call-out after all these years.
Now
for the design: I weighed everything Topps did for this set and figured
they wouldn't have done much to call-our an All-Star with this design,
so I played it safe with a banner running across the bottom somewhat
like the 1977 set.
Not a
design that reaches out and grabs you by the throat, but just a little
something extra to draw your eyes to an All-Star player.
Now
as for Mr. Bench, the young rising star was already entrenched as the
catcher of the era, making his second straight All-Star team in just his
second season.
All
he would go on to do in his career is win the National League Rookie of
the Year as a 20-year old in 1968, win TWO Most Valuable Player Awards
by the age of 24, and win a couple of championships by the age of 28.
Oh yeah, he'd also end up being what most consider the greatest catcher the game has ever seen!
Just an incredible career that took him straight to the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 1989, as if there was any chance of that NOT happening!
All-time legend of the game.
Just an incredible career that took him straight to the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 1989, as if there was any chance of that NOT happening!
All-time legend of the game.