Time To Check Out Some of My 1976 Topps Cards

 In keeping with my goal of checking out my other cards, here are some of my 1976 Topps cards along with a few comments that came to mind without any research.

For the fourth year in a row Topps had Hank Aaron on the first card in the set.  Just another reason we knew that he was the best guy in baseball.  

From 1967 to 1972 card #1 featured the league leaders from the previous year or the team picture of the World Series champs.  I used to know who was card #1 in every Topps set up to 1990, but now I can only think of some of them.  How many can you name?

Stennett's card was a painful reminder of the Pirates crushing the Cubs.  FYI - we never had any previews of subsets or anything in 1976.  We found these things out by getting a checklist or getting a subset card.  My friends and I would try to see if we had all of the checklists so that we could find out what was included in the set.  

What a great hat.  The NFL would fine players for that.

Yes, this is still me marking up my cards.  No online lists, no home printer, no internet, etc.  This worked for me.  

One of my final two cards for the set.  Almost.  

We loved the back of the cards and we were excited that Fred was born in Chicago.  His was one of the most chased cards of the year.

The game action was really great in 1976.  I always liked the design too.

Baker and Spencer.  The last two I needed - almost.

In the early 1970s it seemed like all of the A's were going to the Hall of Fame.  They all made big free agent money.  

I used blue pen as usual.  

Old school - two hands on the mitt.  

More great action shots.

I liked seeing the stadiums in the background although the scoreboard is usually more interesting.

One of my favorites.

He doesn't look really fast here.  Sorry, that's not just the track coach here talking.  I saw him play for the Cubs.  Nice background star here - is that Mike Schmidt?  I'm going to stick to my plan and not look into it.

This just looks like a slow knuckle ball will be heading in soon.

There's Wrigley Field.  

My friend went to one game in college and got a BP ball that Hendrick hit.

I was needing a few of the rookie cards to complete my set.  I did like these cards.  

I just needed Spencer and Baker until I ended up getting this checklist and a few traded cards in what we thought was a normal pack.  How about that card numbering?  I really needed to fill in the checklist since they were not consecutively numbered.  

What made the traded cards worse?  They were not well done at all.  

It gets worse.  Airbrushing, no action and I was getting a bunch of them in each pack.  

Everyone knew Ed Armbrister after the 1975 World Series.  

Everyone knew Dave Winfield long before and after the 1975 World Series.  He looked like a giant here. 

"That George Brett card is off center" said no one ever to me in 1976.  It was just part of my set.  I know now that it is a condition sensitive card, but I will stick to the no research plan.   

Brooks can't even look at the Brett card since it is so off center.  I should have listened to Robinson.

I'd forgotten that Bull had such a big year.  He also had longer sideburns that the other two. 

I never liked Rose because he always found ways to win and I was never a Reds fan.  Topps did get some great cards for him.

More great action shots - one of AL's best.  

More great action shots - one of NL's best.  

This was one of our favorite subsets.  We were playing Strat-o-matic baseball at this point so we knew lots of stats about the old timers.  

Carter was always fun to watch.  The trophy worked well with the 1976 design. 

I was tempted to buy a pack at BBCE yesterday, but I didn't see anything older than 1980 on display.  Good thing too, because I probably would have been too cheap to actually make that purchase.