Well well...
Feels good to have this blog going strong and making it to it's 200th post!
Thanks to all who are reading it...
Let's jump right in and take a look at all the cards #'erd 200 for the decade of the 1970's:
1970: Kind of a bummer here. For some reason Topps let a sub-set take the #200 spot in the set, and the sub-set was a bit lame for my tastes.
Big burly Boog Powell scoring the winning run in game two of the A.L. playoffs. In black and white nonetheless!
1971: Well, Topps went and did it again! Total bummer that we have two years in a row that card #200 wasn't dedicated to a superstar.
This year we have the National League playoffs depicted, showing Reds' player Bobby Tolan scoring his third run of the game in Game Two of the series. This time Topps went for the tonal image instead of black and white. Ugh. The card borders are infinitely more interesting than the photo itself.
1972: Finally! We have a Hall of Famer! Lou Brock graces card #200 in the 1972 set.
Nice card of the St. Louis speedster. After two straight years of bland, colorless photos we have a nice explosion of color here.
On a more personal note, I'm almost positive that the Lou Brock card was the first "star card" of 1972 that I got as a kid years later. Great card!
1973: Nice to have another Hall of Famer at #200, but too bad we have a bit of a boring card for Cubs' slugger Billy Williams.
Williams was just coming off perhaps his best year in his solid career, leading the league in batting while also slugging 37 homers and driving in 122 runs.
As mentioned earlier, it would be the second time in three years he'd lose out on the M.V.P. award, finishing second both times to Johnny Bench.
1974: Here's a nice card of a player that seemed to be on the verge of becoming a monster of a player for years to come.
Coming off of two incredible years for the Houston Astros, Cesar Cedeno looked like he was indeed set to be one of the true superstars of baseball as both a slugger and a base stealer.
After stealing over 50 bases, clubbing over 20 homers, AND batting .320 in 1972 and 1973, everyone was just waiting to see what else he would accomplish between the foul lines.
And while he went on to drive in over 100 runs for the first time in 1974, his average dipped almost 60 points to .269.
He remained solid for the rest of his 17 year career, topping 2000 hits, stealing over 500 bases and just missing 200 homers with 199, but he never really blossomed into that superstar that fans were waiting for after exploding on the baseball world in the early '70's.
I like this card for showing that promise and expectation that was hovering around him then.
1975: One of my favorite sub-sets of the 1970's was the "M.V.P." series celebrating 25 years of Topps baseball cards.
Just so happens that one the reasons I loved it as a kid was because Topps had to create cards for the sub-set that never existed before, and THIS card happens to be one of them.
Maury Wills didn't have a Topps card until 1967, as a Pittsburgh Pirate. So when Topps was putting this sub-set together, they had to go back a create a 1962 card for him since he was the N.L. M.V.P. that year.
Nice. Early cards "that should have been" going on in 1975!
1976: Kind of a bummer. Even though you have two Hall of Famers here, plus one of the most "colorful" (pun intended) characters in Vida Blue depicted on the card, it kind of sucks that card #200 in my favorite set was a league leader card.
Nevertheless, it could have been worse. It could have been that dumb Kurt Bevaqua bubble-gum blowing card that I always thought was silly, even when I was seven years old!
1977: Here's a guy that really came on the baseball scene and was ready to team up with Nolan Ryan as the most powerful one-two fire-balling punch in the Majors.
Frank Tanana wasn't exactly a superstar in the late 70's, but people were gambling on the future with him as a star, and he didn't disappoint for a little while.
Topps went ahead and gave him a superstar number based on a successful 1976 season which saw him finish third in the Cy Young voting behind Jim Palmer and Mark Fidrych.
His first five full seasons in the bigs were excellent. A strikeout crown, and E.R.A. crown, four seasons of 15 or more wins and three years of sub-3.00 E.R.A.'s.
He really was well on his way to being a star.
Sadly arm-trouble set in and even though he managed to stick around for 21 years, he never did become the star pitcher everyone was expecting.
1978: Well, not much to say here since I already profiled this card earlier on this blog.
One of my all-time favorite cards. Quite possibly my second all-time favorite behind the 1976 Johnny Bench card actually.
Total perfection. A truly amazing card for "Mr. October" right after he elevated himself into baseball eternity in the 1977 World Series.
Man when I first saw this card I flipped out! What an awesome freaking card!
Reggie at the height of his fame. He really was a player who lived for the spotlight, and was absolutely up for the big obnoxious glare of the new York City spotlight.
1979: Great superstar, pretty lame-looking card.
Was never a fan of this card. Seems like bench just grounded to a middle-infielder and was swinging through, ready to drop the bat and run out the futile at-bat.
And by now I'm sure you all know how much I hate photos of superstars on cards that show futility. No need for it!
But it WAS an All-Star card, and I have always had a soft-spot for that n ice "all-star" banner blazing across a card.
Not nearly as entertaining as the "100's" profiled earlier, so let's hope I get up to the "300's" and have better cards to profile.
But then again, having seven Hall of Famers among the cards #'ered 200 isn't too shabby a selection to look at.
