We officially have ourselves a World Series. I was happy the Dodgers won last night for obvious reasons. But I was also happy because five-game World Series make me sad. With the exception of the 1988 Series -- again for obvious reasons -- five-game Series just don't represent the competitive spirit we like to see from baseball's finale. Six- and seven-game Series are usually more memorable. And at least with a four-game sweep, you know that one team really, really cares.
I will be a wreck for the rest of the Series, in a continual state of suspense and agony. It will be Serious business. However, one thing will sustain me, other than the thought of a Dodger championship, and that is the thought of the Dodgers appearing in 2018 Heritage's World Series subset.
I mentioned a few posts ago that the 1969 Topps World Series subset is my favorite WS subset of all-time, by far. And since Heritage next year will pay homage to the '69 set, we'll see the Dodgers and Astros in newspaper layout form. It's very exciting. Please send me any of these cards when you get them.
But, in general, I enjoy all World Series subsets and I am sad when there are no World Series cards the following year. Topps has rectified that in recent seasons in flagship, although I prefer a bit more effort than merely slapping the World Series logo on the front, which has been the way Topps has recognized the World Series for the last several years.
Most of my other favorite World Series subsets showed up many, many years ago -- when cards were done right, dammit. I thought I'd show a few of them.
Here are my favorite Series subsets that aren't the '69 Series subset:
1971: This is the first World Series subset in full color in which the photos didn't look like paintings (there was full color in the early '60s). Combine that with the colorful lettering on a pitch-black background and these are powerful, memorable cards. I knew I loved them the first time I saw them.
1967: It's difficult for me to recognize this subset considering that it is recognizing a sweep of the Dodgers. But you have to hand it to Topps, using a wood-panel television theme to document the Series. There were few bigger TV moments back then than the World Series.
1987: Fleer picked up the slack when Topps dropped the ball on the World Series in the early 1980s. By 1986, Fleer was issuing a multi-card series of the Series. I like the '87 representation of the 1986 World Series with the simplistic stars-and-stripes border. I should get the rest of these cards someday.
1975: These are the first World Series cards I ever saw. Of course, I love the colorful borders. The '75 Topps set chose just the purple-and-pink and pink-and-yellow borders for Series cards, why I don't know.
2001: I received the entire set of this subset from a fellow collector because each of these cards are night cards. I think Fleer Tradition did a great job recognizing the 2000 Subway Series, including Game 1, which if it happened today would have never gotten into our newspaper. There would've been a giant hole where the story should go (OK, not really).
1992: Imagine for a moment that gold foil should have disappeared when the last "Who Let the Dogs Out" record was sold. There was something about foil in the early '90s that classed up a card. Just adding "1991 World Series" in gold foil on these Stadium Club cards added importance. It was almost like footlights on a stage.
1989: During the '60s and the '70s, this subset would have been five cards (funny, this is the third five-game Series subset I'm showing). Fleer found a way to make it 12 cards. Not that I'm complaining. There is nothing all that special about this set except the DODGERS WON.
1974: This subset contains some of my favorite Series night cards. With the bunting banner, these cards scream World Series.
I like Series subsets that display a card for each and every game of the Series. I'm not fond of "one-card-covers the Series" efforts, such as 1978 and 1981 Topps. And I don't like the scattershot treatment today in flagship (I realize that often fans of the Series winner can get a box set of cards from the Series and, of course, there is Topps Now, but I'm a traditional guy who likes spending no more than a buck a card).
There are lots of other kinds of World Series subsets in which moments are selected from various Series and placed on cards. That's fun, too, although for that kind of treatment you'll never top another Series set that came out in the early '70s:
Fleer's Laughlin sets from 1970 and 1971 are unbeatable.
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