Taking a Break to Look at One Of My Sets That Gets Neglected - 1975 Topps

I made it a goal to not ignore my original card collection just because I spend most of my time now on Kellogg's and Sportscaster cards.  Today I grabbed the 1975 Topps baseball card set.  It's been a long time since I looked at it.  Here are my thoughts from this 30 minutes of fun.  

I made my set by buying packs and trading beginning in 1971.  I eventually worked my way back to 1969.  I stopped making sets by the late 1980s when there were too many to track.  Since my room is getting more organized I might get back to working on the 1968 set.  

No-hitter highlights.  Whenever something big happened, my brother and I would find out before going out to deliver the daily papers to our 100+ customers.  That would slow us a bit since we'd read every story about a no-hitter or any other great game.  No ESPN highlights were around in 1974 and the news usually spent a few seconds on out-of-town sporting events.   

It was hard to see this card, especially for my older brother who was a long-time Cub fan before me.  

The Cubs of my childhood were just about done.  I couldn't even add the Billy Williams here.

There are so many great things about this card.  I like the uniform, the fact that they took the picture outside of an MLB stadium and even trees.

Everyone who played baseball with us knew who the MVPs were from 1951 to 1974 because Topps told us.  We also knew that the first year of Topps cards was 1951 and we made sure to get some.  

We didn't see the Brewers much as Comiskey.  Even though they are about 90 miles away, they played in the A.L. East.  The White Sox were in the West with Minnesota, Oakland, California, Kansas City and Texas.  

We all knew Ken Brett since he was a starting pitcher for the Pirates.  

Not only the Cubs did the odd team pictures.

Okay, now the truth.  This set was not collated by me.  This checklist proves it.  I always filled these in since I didn't have Excel, Lotus 1-2-3, a typewriter or even a notebook.  My set is in much worse condition that this one that I bought from an older neighbor sometime around 1976.  

I didn't order the checklists, but I think I've gotten them somehow.  I need to look for them and put them with this set if I have them.  

When I got to card number 288 I stopped.  Why?   I didn't recognize the picture or the pitcher.  Time to find out more about Bruce Ellingsen.  He was drafted by the Dodgers in 1967 and finally made it to the big leagues in 1974.  He went 1-1 in 16 games and never played in the majors again.

As I finished looking up Bruce I found something that will help me remember him.  The Dodgers traded him to the Indians in 1974 for Pedro Guerrero who was 17 at the time.  Pedro must have signed at age 16.  

This is a great card.  The donut is a nice touch.  The only thing better today would be how they manage to also keep shadows off their faces. 

There were a bunch of cards centered like the Seaver below.  We didn't care about that much in 1975.

The only card in the set with a rough cut on the right edge.  I didn't look close enough to see how many cards in the set would need an upgrade but one of my favorites, Bill Madlock, needs an upgrade.

Everything is great with the Dick Allen card including the helmet and the star denoting him as being an all-star.

I wasn't a track runner yet, but Herb was.  

Kids today can easily mimic the players they see constantly on television.  We didn't have that but we had their cards to help us think we could be like them.  We certainly noticed that Paciorek had the hat in his back pocket.  

We always read the backs of these cards.  I only looked at four of the backs.  The checklist above, the Yount and Brett to check for conditions and the Tom House below.  I knew that there was a mention of Tom's greatest accomplishment as an active player.  

That was fun.  Now I know why I kept all of those sets.  FYI, the cards are still in the same box for a long time.  The original box had those tabs on the bottom of the inside of the box.  I got rid of that as soon as the new style was available.