The 1975 Topps countdown, worst to best (No. 20-1)

 

 

This is it. The final episode of the 1975 Topps worst-to-best countdown.

This series lasted a little longer than I had intended. Those who wanted me to finish it within a week back when I started in April of last year probably gave up a long time ago. I had planned to wrap it up by September or early October of this year all along. Per usual, life had to butt in.

But we're here. Let's just say this is my gift to you before everyone turns off the internet for a day (I know I will).

 

These are the 20 best cards in the '75 Topps set in my lowly opinion. Actually these are the 21 best cards. I must have skipped a number somewhere, possibly repeated a card. I just know I haven't had time to comb through all that to uncover the error. So there will be two No. 20's to start the finale. I don't think anyone will mind. If you do, you need more help than the guy counting down a 49-year-old set.

 

Let's get into it: 

20. Boog Powell (card 625)

A classic straight from childhood, one of the most talked about cards in that year of 1975 among my brother and I, and by "talked about" I mean laughed ourselves silly over the made-up predicaments we believed ol' Boog had gotten himself into. It was either that or he decided to suddenly proclaim himself, amid a mostly empty ballpark, king of all that you see. Truly a unique card, I can't think of anything similar.

 

 

20 (part 2). Bucky Dent (card 299)

The Bad News Bears came out in 1976, one year after this set arrived, and this was the cardboard version of Kelly Leak. Bucky Dent was youthful, good at baseball -- at least that's what the rookie cup said -- wore the long hair and seemed to convey a devil-may-care attitude on his rookie cup card. Also, I believe this is one of the rare cases from the '70s of a rookie cup card in which the featured player already had a solo card in a previous set.

19. Carlton Fisk (card 80)

Buildings in the background of cards aren't that much of a rarity but rarely does one stand out like this one. The structure, along with the palm trees, gave this card an exotic look for us kid collectors in 1975. This was a coveted card for a lot of reasons.

18. Harmon Killebrew (card 640)

I owned the mini version of Killebrew's card in 1975. I never noticed that he was signing a program for a fan in the photo. It's a nice final tribute card for Harmon, who did not appear in the '76 Topps set. Print ad fanatics will notice on the back of a program a cigarette ad, because this was the '70s. It was almost a requirement.

 

17. Steve Carlton (card 1985)

Really cool card, one of those I coveted from afar, because neither me nor any of my friends owned it, but I saw it somewhere. The border color matches nicely with Carlton's team uniform. The action shots in this set are all over the map, as action photography was still at an experimental stage on baseball cards. I think Carlton's image is just a little too small. Also this card is one of the very few in Carlton's career in which he's displaying a mustache.

16. Steve Garvey (card 140)

This card arrived in my collection just as I was learning about Steve Garvey, his All-Star exploits the preceding year, his playoff achievements that year. I had a paperback book that contained a story about him. I owned Garvey's mini card and it was my favorite mini, easily. I really like all the trees in the background. He almost appears to be posing on a golf course.

15. Mike Marshall (card 330)

About as good as action cards got during the mid-1970s. You can see how powerful Marshall is in this shot. Look at that right arm. Marshall had won the Cy Young Award the previous year, appearing in a staggering 106 games, and this card sums up everyone's perception of the guy at the time very well.

14. Johnny Bench (card 260)

I have sung this card's praises many times since I started blogging. Johnny Bench was a huge deal in 1975, even for someone like me who barely knew the sport at the time. I immediately sensed how powerful a card this was when I pulled it while walking home from the drug store on a hot, sun-splashed day. There is not anything very fancy about the photo, but everything about it screams Star Baseball Card.

13. Rod Carew (card 600)

The last card I needed to complete the set back in 2004 and another huge card from childhood. One of several cards that I considered putting at No. 1 (the Bench card is among those). To us, Carew's bat looked 70 feet long and had to weigh at least 500 pounds. I had no idea that Carew was a singles-hitter and not a slugger. Who could blame me. Look at this card!

12. Hank Aaron, Highlights (card 1)

I am not impressed with Aaron's set-ending card and the countdown reflected it. This one that begins the set, however, is cool. Topps mashed two features together and stuck Aaron's All-Star star on his highlights card. It's a little odd considering all the other All-Stars have yellow-and-red borders, and, yes, it has played with my OCD. But it's better than putting a NL All-Star on a card that says Aaron is with the Brewers (but it would be appropriate today). We had that mess with Bobby Murcer.

11. Chris Speier (card 505)

 

I adored this card as a kid. Speier was a good player, but not an All-Star. I wouldn't trade this card for anything. It is an unusual action card, and whatever Speier just did could be a hit or an out, but he's definitely doing something, and that was important to us. Back when I wrote the 1975 Topps blog, I said this was a top 10 card in the set. It just misses the top 10 here. The truth comes out when you actually do the countdowns.

 

10. Ken Holtzman (card 145)

Big-time childhood favorite. The Greenery on this card is everything. Had I been aware of Holtzman's role in leading the Dodgers to a World Series loss in 1974, I probably wouldn't have liked this card. But bliss is the reason that I love the 1975 set to this day. The realities of life back then was whether there would be dessert after supper.

9. Robin Yount (card 223)

Traditionally the most expensive card in the set. But I liked it long before Yount was a Hall of Famer or even a consistent All-Star. Robin Yount was just 18 years old at the time of this photo and I'm sure that appealed to me as a youngster myself. Of course, seeing teenagers on baseball cards is no big deal now (thank Bowman), but it was then.

8. Bob Gibson (card 150)

I've long thought that Topps broke out the red-and-yellow border for Bob Gibson's final card as a colorful tribute. It works exceedingly well. One of the best-looking cards in the entire set.

7. Ron Cey (card 390)

Another one of the great-looking cards in the set. Look at how everything matches, from border to photo, as you travel from top-to-bottom. Obviously this is my all-time favorite card of my all-time favorite player. But I have at least some objectivity in this countdown. It's probably not the best card in the set, just the best one for me.

 

6. Luis Tiant (card 430)

The recently-departed Luis Tiant produced a much-coveted card back in '75 (no, I never got it). It's the best action card in the set and does a pretty good job for 1975 of showing Tiant's exaggerated wind-up. Many of the yellow-red cards in this set that are not All-Stars seem like they got those borders because they should have been All-Stars.

 

5. Brooks Robinson (card 50)

OK, this card is action, too, but action is just part of the card's appeal. The close-up nature of the photo provides additional impact, and we sure felt that in 1975. We get a terrific shot at Robinson's sawed-off brim on his helmet and some eye black, too. It really seems to be the last card of Robinson before he turned into "old man Robinson" on his later cards, or at least that's the way I saw it as a youngster.

4. Bert Blyleven (card 30)

Super-appealing card in so many ways. The Twins uniforms of this era go so well with the red-blue borders. Bert Blyleven is intent, yet blowing a bubble in what appears to be not a dugout but a dungeon. It has a "whistling-in-the-graveyard" look and that's a lot of the appeal. One of my most favorite cards in the set for many, many years.

3. Herb Washington (card 407)

The 1975 set is unique, there is no other set like it (except for retro tributes). But there are few cards in the set that you can say "they never did that again." Here is one you can say that about. Topps created a card for a pinch-runner, someone who never came to bat. It is the most unusual card in the set, from front to back. It is also exceedingly colorful, more so than many cards in the set. And a bonus: Topps abbreviated "pinch runner". This is a first-ballot Hall of Fame card.

2. Oscar Gamble (card 213)

When Gamble devotees cite his most popular cards, often his 1976 Traded card comes out on top. It is definitely the one that shows his huge afro the best. But the airbrushed Yankees hat and the crudely drawn pinstripes take away from the appeal for me. This is Gamble's best card from his big afro days. He's still sporting the hair but he also looks like a ball player. He looks like A Ball Player in the 1970s. The pink-yellow border adds a lot, too. From the moment I pulled this card out of a pack on a July day, it was a no-trade card.

1. Vida Blue (card 510)

The best thing I can say about this card to explain why it is No. 1 in this countdown is that if somebody wandered off the street and wanted to know what 1970s baseball was like in 1974-75 -- what was the vibe, the aesthetic, where was the excitement, and who was the best -- I would hand him this card before any other. It just captures everything about that time. Colorful card, colorful team, colorful player, colorful player name.

What else can I say?

And so, that's a wrap. I hope you enjoyed the countdown. I don't know if I'll be doing any others. I suppose something is possible. But for now I'm tapped out.

Long live the '70s.