A Palette Drawback: This second a part of a tribute to the 1975 Topps baseball card set highlights some distinctive ‘good’, ‘dangerous’ and ‘ugly’ options of the set.
My primary downside with the ’75 set is that coloration hues are persistently inconsistent, making all the pieces look a bit haphazard. Right here’s an instance – two totally different greens (and skies and pores and skin tones) from playing cards of Yankee Alex Johnson (#534), to not point out the awful centering of the darker card. These two playing cards are from my meager boyhood assortment, indicating that there have to be even larger variance than this. A lot for high quality management!
In truth, when sorting playing cards into coloration scheme variations I initially had 18 piles, however by the tip there was just one card within the “Orange/Blue/Yellow” stack – Ken Singleton (#125). That’s as a result of he was imagined to be “Purple/Blue/Yellow”, however who might inform and not using a reference level (#183)?
One draw back of such an emphasis being positioned on coloration is that when that went awry, ugliness ensued. Right here’s one – Willie Montanez (#162), wanting oddly washed out:
The Unhealthy:
As with each set (however perhaps much more so) there are poor prints, dangerous centering, and miscuts (galore), plus outright boners, together with puzzling circumstances of mistaken id. There look to be two situations of this – card #120 reveals Fran Healy fairly than Steve Busby, and card #626 options Dave Duncan, not Larry Haney. You will discover extra obscure set miscues here beneath “Trivia” and likewise throughout the itemizing there of all of the playing cards.
And as common there are a couple of outright duds, even when they nonetheless have their very own attraction. How in regards to the Wayne Garrett card (#111) – poor Wayne simply barely will get prime billing right here. Is that you just too, John Milner (#264)?
Then there are the unhappy sack catchers: George Mitterwald (#411), captured in a kind of odd in-between moments, most of his signature misplaced within the black background – at the very least a candid, if uninspiring shot. In the meantime, Dave Duncan (#238) appears to be like dazed and misplaced someplace in his foul-tip addled ideas.
The Good and the Something-However-Ugly:
All that mentioned, there are some particularly good playing cards in right here, together with the (full-size) rookies Brett and Yount, retiring future corridor of famers Gibson, Killebrew, and Robinson, plus one other legendary Oscar Gamble effort (#213). However the principle declare to fame of the set would be the Herb Washington card (#407) – the primary and just one ever the place a participant’s place is designated “Pinch Run.”.
A bit background: Washington was a world class sprinter and the primary of some specialised speedsters whom Charlie Finley employed within the mid-to-late Nineteen Seventies when he hatched varied plans to enliven the sport (orange baseballs, anybody?). It’s honest to say that Herb W. had the least baseball capacity of that pinch-running crew since he was the one one in every of them to by no means use a bat or glove throughout his tenure. However nonetheless, he’ll at all times have this attractive card (empty stands however).
The Hirsute:
Earlier than wrapping up we should always at the very least briefly acknowledge the chic free kind facial hair period, with many bushy heroes in circulation round 1975. (For a deep dive into the historical past of the mustache in baseball (with a deal with the glories of 1977), see this gem of a put up by blogger extraordinaire, John Racanelli).
For the document, of 573 particular person participant playing cards (plus 11 rookie playing cards, 4 gamers every, for a grand whole of 617 potential mustaches), I depend 159 gamers who’re at the very least mustachioed, with some cultivating much more unique facial “cabbage”. Maybe not as prevalent as one may assume for 1975, however general nonetheless a good 25.8%, and possibly greater than we see at this time. There are some high-quality efforts above and many extra doozies to select from.
Listed here are a couple of favorites:
Epilogue: Awfully Superior!
I most likely didn’t get pleasure from these playing cards in 1975 as a result of they seemed too goofy and recent. I nonetheless bear in mind being profoundly disenchanted by the loopy coloration combos regardless of being an enormous fan of the 1972 Topps set. Already enamored of antiques and historical past, it appeared like “the great previous days” had ended in a single day, and I wasn’t prepared for that. They seemed like tomorrow, not yesterday. We will look again now and understand that the great previous days had been at all times ongoing, they only stored evolving, showing totally different than they’d the 12 months earlier than, and in some unusual and unruly methods. It seems that this collection is mostly a cool colourful time capsule of playing cards that got here alongside on the good time throughout one other decade stuffed with change. Terrible or superior – who is aware of – however these days I undoubtedly see them as “Superior”.
What about you?
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