COLLECTING MILWAUKEE: 70 YEARS OF TOPPS MILWAUKEE BASEBALL CARDS By Russell Streur

 

COLLECTING MILWAUKEE:  70 YEARS OF TOPPS MILWAUKEE BASEBALL CARDS  

 

By common practice, baseball is passed on from father to son.  Not so in my case.  My mother’s marriage busted up when I was at a young age and in the absence of any other alternative in the mid-1950s, mom moved out of a Chicago apartment with me and Nean, the best older sister in the history of the world,  back to live with her parents, our grandparents, in a country house on Pine Lake in Waukesha County, Wisconsin.  And so I learned baseball not from a father, but from my grandmother, Esther Risley.  Grandma Esther knew everything.  She drove powerboats, sailed and rowed, played a mean hand of contract bridge and could pour a cocktail with either hand.  She knew the songs of all birds in the neighborhood, the names and growing habits of all the plants in the neighborhood, and everything about baseball a five-year old boy could want to know.  Especially, back then, everything about the Milwaukee Braves.

 

Every day, we would listen to the Braves on a Zenith 500 Royal transistor radio, maroon in color, with a gold mesh screen over the speaker, tuned to the team’s flagship station, WTMJ 620 on the AM dial, Earl Gillespie and Blaine Walsh calling the action.  Sundays were the best days, with double-headers on the schedule, and Mondays the worst, being travel days in an era when clubs rode the rails from series to series and city to city.

 

If the Braves were rained out, we would tune in the Chicago Cubs.

 

Every so often, Grandpa Russ and Grandma Esther would bundle me and Nean off to see the Braves play in Milwaukee at County Stadium, taking the train from the Oconomowoc station to the Milwaukee Depot on the morning Hiawatha.  On real special days, Grandpa would find us seats in the Dome car.  Going to a game in that kind of style was enough to faint half-dead away from the pure excitement of it all.  Even today, a lifetime later, going to a game is the better joy of the day.  Being at the game comes in second.

 

 

The Hiawatha, Postcard, 1956

 

The Braves finished a game behind the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1956 but grabbed the National League pennant the following year, capping the season with a World Series win over the New York Yankees.  Lou Burdette powered the Braves in the seven-game set, winning three games.  The Yankees won a rematch in 1958.  In 1959, the Braves lost a three game playoff series for the National League pennant to the relocated Los Angeles Dodgers.

 

I could follow standings, but I knew nothing about baseball cards until 1961, when Mom remarried and the family moved to a quiet suburb of Milwaukee.  And there on an elm-lined Idlewild Avenue, I learned the collecting business from the cool kid down the block, Danny Rumelt.

 

Topps 1953.  Left:  Bill Bruton, Card 214.  Right, Del Crandall, Card 197.

 

Topps considered the move of the Braves from Boston to Milwaukee one of the biggest sports stories of all time.

 

Braves Go to Milwaukee, Topps Scoops 1954, Card 130

 

My favorite Braves issue was the 1959 design.

 

 

Topps 1959.  Clockwise from upper left, Hand Aaron, Card 380; Lou Burdette, Card 440;

Warren Spahn, Card 40; Ed Mathews, Card 450.

 

 

And there were favorite cards from other years, too.

 

Top: Juan Pizarro, Topps 1960, Card 59.  Bottom: Braves’ Fence Busters, Topps 1958, Card 351.

 

 

Left: Frank Bolling, Topps 1964, Card 115.  Right: Rico Carty, Topps 1965, Card 305.

 

Now of course, I only touch the cards through protective plastic sheets and sleeves.  I miss the feel of that old cardboard.

 

After the Braves defected South for the 1966 season, there wasn’t any reason to keep collecting. 

 

Atlanta Braves, Topps 1966, Card 326.

 

In 1967, car dealership owner and former Braves minority stakeholder Bud Selig arranged an exhibition game in Milwaukee between the Minnesota Twins and the Chicago White Sox.  Played on Monday night, July 24, the event drew a record 51,144 fans through the turnstiles at County Stadium, far above the stadium’s official capacity of 43,678.

 

Minnesota Twins, Topps 1967, Card 211.

 

 

By then, the attention of the boys on the block had already turned away from baseball to girls, the Vietnam War, and marijuana, not necessarily in that order.  But Bud Selig had all the proof he needed to believe he could bring the game back to Milwaukee.

 

 

Bud Selig, Topps 2019, 150 Years of Baseball, Card 150-54.

 

 

The Milwaukee White Sox

 

And so the Chicago White Sox became—at least for a few nights in 1968 and 1969—the Milwaukee White Sox.  How Selig lured every American League team to give up a precious off-day to come to Milwaukee to play the nomadic Sox isn’t easy to figure, but it happened.  County Stadium hosted nine games in 1968 as the part-time home of the Pale Hose; the White Sox lost all except one, a 2 to 1 victory over the Cleveland Indians in June 17.  The results on the field counted less to the Chicago brass than the fans streaming through the gates—the few dates in Milwaukee accounted for almost a third of the total White Sox attendance for the year.  

 

Eddie Matthews had something to do about those numbers.  The legendary Milwaukee third baseman, then nearing the end of his playing career as a veteran presence on the Detroit bench, was honored in a pre-game ceremony when the Tigers faced the Sox on August 26.  42,808 fans paid respects to the slugger.  Not yet fully recovered from surgery for a ruptured disk, Matthews suited up but did not play in the game. 

 

For the Sox, the lure of big crowds and much-needed paydays guaranteed an encore season in Milwaukee.  They played better, winning five straight games to open the Milwaukee share of the season, their fifth win coming on June 16 against the Seattle Pilots, making their first—but as it turned out, not their last—trip to Milwaukee. 

 

Average attendance at the games dipped slightly from 1968, but the Wisconsin turnstile count represented an even larger percentage of the season gate for the Windy City team than the previous year.

 

It’s said that Selig had a handshake deal to move the White Sox to Milwaukee on a full-time basis for 1970, but the American League vetoed the sale, unwilling to abandon its Chicago turf to the National League Cubs.

 

Clockwise from upper left: Walt Williams, Topps 1968, Card 172; Luis Aparicio Topps 1968, Card 310; Sandy Alomar, Topps 1969, Card 283; Tommy John, Topps 1969, Card 465.

 

The Pilots Crash and Baseball Comes Home to Milwaukee  

 

Selig got the break he needed when the underfinanced 1969 Seattle Pilots went broke after their first and only year in outdated Seals Stadium.  Selig grabbed the team off the auction block and moved the club to Milwaukee a few days before the start of the 1970 season.  From 1971 to the present day, Topps has issued Milwaukee Brewers baseball cards—1,425 regular season, traded, update cards (plus 2022 season) more or less.  With the help of a few ringers thrown in here and there, the cards tell the history of the Brewers franchise.

 

Last to First. Left: The last Seattle Pilot baseball card, Gus Gil, Topps 1970, Number 651.  Right: The first Milwaukee Brewer baseball card, Phil Roof, Topps 1971, Number 22.

 

It took a while for the new team to gain a following.  Game attendance dropped sharply from 1970 to 1971 to barely half the league average.  The strike-shortened 1972 season was worse.  Hank Aaron’s return to Milwaukee provided a much-needed boost in 1975, but the team didn’t really catch on with the fans until the end of the decade.

 

The Last Hanks

 

 

Left:  Hank Aaron, Topps 1975, Card 660.  Right:  Hank Aaron, Topps 1976, Card 550.

 

Hank Aaron returned to the Brewers from the Atlanta Braves to finish his major league playing career where it began, in Milwaukee County Stadium, for the 1975 and 1976 seasons.

 

The Money Infield

 

Clockwise from upper left:  Robin Yount, Topps 1975, Card 223; Jim Gantner, Topps 197,9 Card 154; Don Money, Topps 1975, Card 175; Paul Molitor, Topps 1979, Card 24.

 

It took a while for the Brewers to figure out where to play everybody left of first, but eventually things settled down to Molitor at third, Yount at short, and Gantner at second.  The trio set a major league record by playing together for 15 consecutive seasons from 1978 through 1992.  The record held until the Yankees' Mariano Rivera, Derek Jeter, and Jorge Posada reached 16 seasons in 2010.

 

The Bombers and the Wallbangers

Clockwise from upper left:

Harvey Kuenn, Topps 1983, Card 726; George Bamberger, Topps 1987, Card 468;

Larry Hisle, Topps 1979, Card 430; Cecil Cooper, Topps 1980, Card 95.

Clockwise from upper left:

Gorman Thomas, Topps 1981, Card 135; Ben Oglivie, Topps 1979, Card 519;

Rollie Fingers, Topps 1982, Card 586; Pete Vuckovich, Topps 1982, Card 643.

Bambi‘s Bombers and Harvey’s Wallbangers tattooed American League ballparks with hundreds of homeruns between 1978 and 1982, many by the four sluggers pictured above. Pitching wasn’t bad either. Pete Vuckovich recorded 32 wins against only 10 losses in 1981 and 1982 and Rollie Fingers rang up 57 saves during the two campaigns. But it wasn’t enough to take home the flag in the Brewers first and thus far only World Series appearance. The Brew Crew fell in seven games to the St. Louis Cardinals in 1982.


The Return to the National League



The Brewers returned to the National League in 1998. In equal parts promptness and irony, the team lost the season opener on the road to: the Atlanta Braves. A few days later, the Brewers reversed direction, defeating the Montreal Expos in their home opener. Jeromy Burnitz blasted his fourth home run of the young season, a three-run shot in the fifth, to power the win. Burnitz would finish the season with 38 homers for the club and 125 RBIs, but it was strictly a one-man show. Jose Valentin was second on the team in homers, far behind at 16 homers and with just 49 RBIs to show for the swings. The best the club could do on the mound was Bob Wickman, who earned 25 saves in the late innings, and a pair of ten-game winners in starters Scott Karl and Steve Woodard, each of whom finished the season with losing records. The Brewers finished last in their division. 

Clockwise from upper left: Bob Wickman, Topps 1999, Card 151; Jose Valentine, Topps 1998, Card 158;

Scott Karl, Topps 1997, Card 58; Jeromy Burnitz, Topps 1998, Card 126.

The Prince of Diamonds 

Top to Bottom:

Thunder on the basepaths. Fielder runs down Albert Pujols off first base, Topps 2008, Card 536;

All Star MVP, Topps 2011, Card US21. Fielder bowls over his teammates, Topps 2010, Card 1.

Prince Fielder was one of the biggest—as in big—favorites with Milwaukee fans of all time during his seven seasons with the Brewers. The 275-or-thereabouts-pound giant led the National League with 50 homers in 2007 and the major leagues two years later with a whopping 141 RBIs. He won the State Farm Home Run Derby in 2009 and was selected as the All-Star MVP in 2011, the first Brewer to win the honor in the history of the franchise.

Topps Heritage.  The modern, glossy action photographs on baseball cards create an immediacy and an excitement that earlier cards certainly lacked.  But sometimes, a portrait or a pose give an insight to the player’s personality that the action shots can’t capture.  Heritage cards bring continuity to a Topps collection, building a bridge between the present and the past. 

 

Topps Heritage (2020), duplicating the design of the original 1971 Brewers set.  Clockwise from upper left:   Lorenzo Cain, Card 435; Brandon Woodruff, Card 374; Eric Thames, Card 397; Orlando Arcia, Card 34.

 

Orlando Arcia was my favorite Brewer of recent years because of his enthusiasm, team commitment and clutch hitting.  He was traded in April 2021 to:  the Atlanta Braves.

 

 

Topps Heritage 2021.  Clockwise from upper left:   Adrian Houser, Card 583; Willy Adames, Card 662; Christian Yelich, Card 251; Luis Urias, Card 512.

  

 

 Topps 2022.  The 2022 set marks the 70^th season of Topps covering Milwaukee baseball.  The cards have come a long way.  This year’s set looks pretty good.

 

 

Topps 2022.  Clockwise from upper left:   Omar Narvaez, Card 139; Freddie Peralta, Card 13;

Aaron Ashby, Card 78; Corbin Burnes, Card 240.

 

Topps Now.  In the past four seasons, Brewer pitching arms have lifted the club into post-season competition.  Devin Williams won the NL Rookie of the Year award in 2020; Josh Hader won NL Reliever of the Year for the third time in his young career in 2021; and Corbin Burnes won the Cy Young award in 2021.  That season, Burnes and Hader collaborated on a combined no-hitter.

 

 

 

 

Top Row.  Left to right: Topps Now 2021, Corbin Burnes, Card OS-39; 
Topps Now 2020, Devin Williams, Card OS-39; Topps Now 2021, Josh Hader, Card 0S-25.

Bottom:  Topps Now 2021, Burnes Hader No Hitter, Card 792.

 

But the bats haven’t kept pace, and the Brewers have been eliminated in each of the last four years without winning a league pennant.  In 2021, the Brewers were pushed aside by:  the Atlanta Braves.

 

Atlanta.  There’s that word again.  Somewhere in the world, a weary traveler is turning, turning slowly, step by step, inch by inch.

Ranking 1970s Topps Baseball Cards : How Dare I? Do I Dare?

 

Have you ever felt like you were doing something out of your element?

            Okay…maybe not that.

            After all, this is a sports card blog, and I am going to write about sport cards.

            Or maybe you’re writing about/doing something you maybe SHOULDN’T be doing?

            Hmmmm, I don’t feel that way either.

            Not really.

            Okay, the thing is…I’m going to be ranking 1970s Topps Baseball card on the blog today. My favorite to my least favorite. Totally my opinions and you are happy to disagree with me. In fact, disagreement in encouraged. It’s discourse.

            We still believe in discourse in America, right?

            So why all of the stressing?

            Well…see…I didn’t collect cards in the 1970s. I was all of five when the decade ended. I wasn’t one of those kids who ripped open the colorful cornucopia of colors in 1975 or did my best to keep my 1971 cards in as good of condition as I could. I wasn’t wowed by the psychedelic awesomeness of 1972, or those interesting action shot of 1973.

            No, I’m a product of 1980s collecting. 1980 itself to be exact. My card are the Junk Wax Era cards. That’s my time. That’s when I thrived in The Hobby. Obsessed over The Hobby. Blew every damned nickel and dime (you could still buy cards in the 1980s using those) on The Hobby.

            What business did I have ranking 1970s cards?

            Well…a lot…I think.

            1970s cards were everywhere when we were kids. You met with/traded with a collector a year or two older than you, and they were bound to have 1970s cards in their collections. Some kid your age has an older sibling who collected? Boom…1970s cards. Most of the bourgeoning LCS that me and my friends found ourselves racing into, their stock of common cards were primarily from the 1970s. I lusted over 1970s sports card like any kid desirous of that which came before him. Sometimes I wanted 1970s cards (and 1960s and 1950s cards) more than the stuff I was opening on a regular basis.

            I think I have a lot of business talking about and ranking 1970s Topps baseball cards.

            So without further ado…let’s get this show on the road.

 

1.      1976 Topps

            If someone who’d never seen a baseball card said to me, show me the quintessential baseball card, I’d show them 1976 Topps. This year is my favorite of the decade. I’m a man of simple pleasures and it doesn’t get simpler than a nice big photo, a solid white border, a thin colored border, then two bars at the end for the player’s name and team. And how about that little drawing that lists the player’s position?

            Sheer perfection in my book.

            I’ve known some collectors who consider 1976 Topps boring. And that’s…fine. I’d go with modest or unpretentious, but certainly still a beautiful card. The Johnny Bench card above is not only one of the best baseball card photos ever, but also one of my favorite baseball cards ever. The dust hasn’t even settled on whatever play just happened. It’s a great photo of one of baseball’s most badass catchers of all-time. And the simplicity of the card itself, allows for the image to really stand out.

            And the card back! I just really think the card back is…er...groovy. Yeah, yeah is standard Topps green but having that bat and ball design as the only real decorative addition also fits into my simple, modest, unpretentious yet completely elegant design that Topps was doing in the year of our lord 1976. It’s just a solid, well-done card that makes me feel like a collector, like I could’ve been one of those kids back in ’76 ripping them right out of packs and loving the heck out of this set.

            I’m actually trying to build it….am about 200 cards in.

1977 Topps

            Well, I said I liked it simple. I said I liked it modest and without pretention. You don’t get as modest as a card that’s mostly white border. But it’s what 1977 Topps does with that border that matters to me. I love that the border is top-heavy. I love that the team names are in big, bold writing with the player’s name just a little less prominent right below it. We get that small pennant vibe that often shows up on baseball cards, revealing the player’s position. And below that top-heavy border, the rest of the card is given over to the photograph.

            To me, 1977 Topps cards look like comic book covers.

            Sports stars are kinda superheroes, right?

            Before 1976 Topps caught my eye, 1977 had probably been my favorite of the decade for years. If I were born in 1977, I’d proudly be collecting my birth year set. No slouching on 1974…but…come on, man! The Rod Carew care is a personal favorite. I think I told a story about buying one once. Or my friend, Miller, buying it. When I met Miller, he was a huge Rod Carew fan. So, I became a huge Rod Carew fan, although I’d never seen him play, and had no clue he played for anyone but the California Angels. When I saw this 1977 card for the first time my eyes bugged out. Carew? A Twin?

            I’ve been a fan of that year’s style ever since.

            Now, the back of the card.

            Another simple design. More Topps green, although less saturated with the dye than 1976. The cards have a little comic box with a bit of baseball trivia. There’s one facet of the card that in all my years of collecting and loving 1977 cards, I never realized, until I listened to Matt Sammon’s awesome, and sadly missed, Wax Ecstatic podcast. It’s the little stands at the bottom of that card that make the stat line look like it’s a billboard you’d see on the side of the road. Topps designers even added little patches of grass.

            A classic design.

 1978 Topps

            That script team name. That bold color borders. The great photography…come on, isn’t this Reggie card iconic? The orange backs with navy blue trimming. The play ball game too. 1978 Topps baseball is one again one of those I wish I was around to rip in wax pack form. I mean as a collector. I was around. But I was four.

            I’ve been a fan of this design my whole entire collecting life, and even those years when I wasn’t collecting and came across cards. Topps doesn’t seem to use the 1978 design in many of its Archive or other throwback inserts…and that’s fine with me. I like that we don’t get much 1978 retread. It keeps the set special for me. Makes that Reggie card all the more iconic. My Eddie Murray rookie card all the more special.

            And see what I mean about those backs? The orange and darker blue really play off each other to give the card a crispness and clarity that some of the green and black ink backs of the seventies don’t.

            Another winner from a great decade of cards.

 

1972 Topps

            Groovy! Come on get happy! Far out! There are two sets in the 1970s that scream 1970s for me and 1972 is one of those sets. I love the psychedelic, acid-washed, black-light poster-on-your-wall feel of the front design. 1972 has a lot of color but it isn’t overwhelming. Topps took a step-back on the action that year, and that’s fine with me. I like the In-action cards for what they are. And, in taking a step back, you get great posed photography like the Henry Aaron card. Or, my favorite card from that set, the Roberto Clemente card.

            Its solemn, it’s sad, it The Great One eyes cast downward and focus on the ball bouncing in and out of his hand. It’s like an eerie, unintended foreshadowing to the fact that Roberto would be gone by the end of that year.

            The backs of the card help complete the picture too. 1972 Topps gave the decade it’s first taste of the rich, orange backs that would be repeated in the aforementioned 1978 Topps. I like the way the stats are bordered around the white. Both the front photo and back statistic feel almost like coat of arms to me.

            Groovy to the max.

            I think these cats would approve.

1971 Topps

    Another Icon of the decade. Maybe in the running for the icon Topps design of the decade. The all-black bordered, hard-to-find-in-good-shape 1971 Topps Baseball card. I know my Clemente card is pretty beat-up. But I love it because its one of the few cards that I kept from my youth when I initially stopped collecting in 1992. All of the shades and colors really add to my enjoyment of that year’s brand. The black contrasts really fantastically with the bold colors of both the team name, the player’s name, and even the position. If you’re a Pirates fan like me, on the 1971 design Three Rivers Stadium really begins to make its presence felt on the cards. Yeah, it’s a cookie-cutter…but it’s where I saw nearly all of my professional baseball when I was a kid.

            Now the backs….eh…the backs of 1971 Topps. There iconic as well. I believe this is the first time in Topps history that an image of the player was used on the back of the card as well as the front. And…I like it. But you know what I’d rather have instead? The players full career statistics instead of just the 1970 season and their career totals. I’m funny like that. Probably why I never truly enjoyed the backs of Donruss cards either.

 

1974 Topps

            My birth year…and a pretty good year for Topps baseball cards as well. The action shots at least a step up. The Pete Rose card is probably one of my favorite images on a 1970s Topps card. It’s not ’78 Reggie or ’76 Bench for me, but I’ve always been drawn to it. 

          In 1985 Fleer liked the image so much they tried to make one of their own

        Topps has used banners or pennants or what-have-you designs on their cards before, most notably 1965 Topps, another favorite of mine, but I do like the way the banner-border top and bottoms the card for the team name. Both city and team.

            That said…I have a pretty sordid history with this set so…

            As for the backs. I don’t particularly think there’s anything special about the backs of 1974 Topps cards. It’s your standard green ink coupled with a darker ink. I like the player’s signature added on the back with the player’s name in print. Beats it being on the front of the card, like Topps was about to do on and off for the rest of the decade and into the early 1980s. 

1975 Topps

            The other set from the 1970s that SCREAMS 1970s to me, is 1975 Topps. I don’t want this to be a controversial opinion…and maybe it isn’t. But I’m not, and never have been, wowed by 1975 Topps baseball cards. Though I can understand the fandom. And I love watching my fellow hobbyist get cards from the 1975 set or try and finish the 1975 set in regular and mini form.

            Topps had mini cards in 1975...which I'm not really a big fan of either.

            If 1975 Topps baseball typifies or SCREAMS the 1970s, as I’ve opined; then why am I not its biggest fan. It’s simple. There’s too much color in the set. Wherein I think 1972 gets the color and the so-called flamboyance of the era right, 1975 feels gaudy. I’m not a big fan of the two-tone borders. Though I do like the bold way the team name is on top of the card. When I was trying to get 1970s cards as I kid, ’75 was just always the design I shied away from spending my money on.  Even as an adult collector, any guys who had cards in the 1970s that I PC, their 1975 card tends to be one of my last purchases…or I haven’t even purchased it at all yet.

            Now the backs…

            I’m actually a fan of the back of 1975 cards. More so than I am the front. The red, green, pink and white combo feels totally original to me. Or I’m just enamored with the way it looks. I know, I know, it seems wrong to be so meh about the front design of 1975 Topps baseball but to be an advocate for the back of the cards. I feel you.

            But I can’t help how I feel.

 

1979 Topps

            Believe it or not, 1979 Topps used to be one of my favorite cards designs. This was the set the kids a year or so older than me had a ton of when I started collecting in 1980. This meant I wanted 1979 Topps cards. Would trade what I could to get them. Thought about 1979 cards. Lamented over the fact that I wasn’t a year older and could’ve started collecting cards in 1979. Based on my sermonizing on simplicity, 1979 Topps baseball card should probably still be on of my favorite sets.

            But it’s not.

            There’s simplicity and then there’s out and out boring. And that’s what 1979 feels like to me. It feels boring. Phoned in. It’s the only set of the decade that has to put the big Topps logo right there on the front of the card. Guess Fleer was really breathing down their neck by that time. You’d think they’d want to have something more exciting than a photo, a plain white border…and…a banner?

            Is that a banner?

            As for the back of the cards? 

            Meh. Topps has been there and done that so many times that decade with a green back, some card stock gray, and choose your dark ink. And 1979 seems the least inspired of all of them.

 1970 Topps

            I…I didn’t really know where to put 1970 Topps on this list. I know that it isn’t one of my favorite sets. But I don’t know that it’s my second to least favorite set. The worse I can say about it is that it’s kind of a dull card, albeit with a gray instead of white border, with some mostly un-exciting picture of players. If I have a reason for liking the cards, its for the fact that 1970s Topps is the last set that will show the Pittsburgh Pirates in their short-sleeved jerseys and the all-black hat that they wouldn’t bring back until 1987. It’s the last set to really show Forbes Field in the background.

            Like 1975…I LOVE the back design on the 1970 Topps baseball set. The blue and yellow on the white card stock really stands out in contrast the rather drab front side of the card.

 

1973 Topps

            And last but not least…1973 Topps. You know how all the way up above I said I was a man who preferred a simple design. Quite a number of words later, I still do adhere to that way of thinking. But then there’s 1973 Topps baseball. With its overwhelming white border. With action shots that look like they were taken with a camera on zoom from up in peanut heaven. With a just not that exciting design, placed in the decade between one of Topps best offerings (1972) and a pretty solid 1974 set.

            The only thing that ever sells me on 1973 Topps is that Wille Mays and, sadly Roberto Clemente have their last official cards in that set.

            It’s also last Topps set to be sold in series form until 1993.

            But I do like the 1973 card backs. 

            I like the black and gold motif, which I don’t think Topps used again until the Art Deco backs on their 1990 release. I like that the stats are vertical instead of horizontal…something I also like about the 1975 backs. But its not enough to sell me on a rather dull card with sophomoric action photography.

 

            Whew…okay…so I did it. But did I do it well? Is there someone sitting at home reading, saying “stick to the 1980s and leave the 1970s Topps releases out of your mouth, punk!” Look, I will say this: ranking anything is hard. And for the 1970s baseball releases and me, it’s doubly card. Ranking best to worst in a decade where I thought Topps really tried to flip their game on its head is maybe a fools game. And as I said above, I’m completely enamored with this decade and its card releases. They’re all legendary to me.

 

Thanks for reading! Happy Collecting!

 

NEXT FRIDAY:  Russell Streur will be back for Memorial Day Weekend with a piece on collecting Milwaukee baseball cards....Hmmm...does the Bucco fan in me approve of that? I'm sure you're all going to love it. It'll be good to have Russell back!