I was wrong

I just made print copies of the two 1973 Topps cards that are in my Dodgers binders so I can slip them into the empty spaces in my 1973 Topps set pages to signify that the '73 set is complete.

They'll be place-holders until I get a second copy of the Walter Alston card and the Cey-Hilton-Schmidt rookie third basemen card.

As you can see, I need a new ink cartridge, but this isn't the season for such "extras." So I'll have to make these copies again.

I wanted to get them done now though because it's time for the "1973 Topps Set Is Done" post. I'm not pushing it back any longer.

Completing the 1973 Topps set is cool for all the usual reasons, including that I have all the Topps sets from 1971-91 finished now, but for one other big reason, too.

And that is to right a wrong.

I didn't used to care about this set.

Really. There's a post about it way early in my blog history. I ranked 1973 Topps at the bottom of all the '70s Topps sets in terms of appeal. 1973 Topps. Rock bottom.

I had no plans to complete it, I didn't care that I had no plans. It was insignificant to me.

Obviously, I was wrong.

In the years since, I've grown to love the set. I appreciate all the bizarre pictures and photo tricks, the relentless airbrushing and old-fashioned poses. It still isn't my favorite 1970s set -- got to remember I started collecting in 1975 -- but it is one of the most distinct and memorable sets of all-time. It is an experimental set. Topps was experimenting with a lot at that time and it shows. You've got to love that.

In the days since that very, very wrong post, I've shown 1973 Topps cards a whole bunch. I've even written odes to it, called "Ranking 73ness." Several Cardboard Appreciation posts focus on 1973 Topps.

By now, all of those crazy 1973 Topps cards are exceedingly familiar.

You know them all, too. You know the epic final Roberto Clemente card. You know the last Willie Mays card. You know the first Goose Gossage card.

You know the Tommie Agee card, where Agee -- and Mets teammates Rusty Staub and Bud Harrelson -- are all airbrushed into Astros uniforms. You know the Pat Corrales plate collision card that actually doesn't feature a plate collision. You know the Luis Alvarado card with the Chevys in the background. You know the Joe Rudi card that doesn't feature Joe Rudi. You know the passing-the-torch Steve Garvey card. You know the pissed-off Carlton Fisk rookie cup card, and the Terry Crowley card featuring Thurman Munson's bootie, and the Dave Roberts card where he's wearing a golden uniform brighter than the sun.

All of those cards have been featured on this blog and on several other blogs.

So what else is there about 1973 Topps? What else can I talk about to close out this set?

One of the things I thought I could do is focus on one of my favorite parts of the set and that's what's going on in the background.

In today's sets, there's almost nothing going on in the background. Players are lined up on photoshoot day early in the morning before anyone has gotten onto the field and pictures are snapped. In other cards, fans are cropped out, photoshopped out or smoke-screened out of the background (see 2016 Topps).

But 1973 was a different time, there was plenty going on in the background. Because life was still happening on baseball cards in 1973.

I decided to count how many gloves were on the field in 1973 Topps.

There are 18 gloves on the field.

How about bats on the field? How many bats are there on the field in '73 Topps?

Well, there are more than six bats on the field. Some cards show a grouping of bats on the field that's difficult to count, so that's the best I could do.

There is one chest protector on the field.

Batting cages on the field? Well there are plenty of those. It's spring training on most of these 1973 cards and there's plenty of batting practice going on.

There are 23 batting cages featured in 1973 Topps.

There are seven folding chairs in 1973 Topps.

There are three tractors in 1973 Topps.

One

Two

Three.

There are four helmets on the field. I thought there would be a lot more.

There are three equipment carts on the field.

There is one guy in a purple leisure suit on the field.

There is one guy in a red leisure suit on the field.

There is one guy who appears to have just been hit in the crotch on the field.

That is one of the great things about 1973 Topps. You can count any number of things in the background. Equipment bags, American flags, players choking up on the bat, palm trees, shadows, or just try to read the signs in the background.

That is a guy named Mickey throwing in front of a sign for Walt Disney World. Was this intentional? I'm thinking it was, or it is some kind of wonderful, glorious coincidence. M-O-U-ES-EEEEEEE!!!

This is what I was hoping for when I looked through the 1973 cards for this post -- something that I've never noticed before in a set that's been reviewed time and time again by us card bloggers.

For example, you've all known about Jim Breazeale's amazing cat-lady frames on his '73 Topps card. How could you miss them? They are the epitome of the definition of "fabulous."

It's also possible he may have just borrowed the glasses from teammate Sonny Jackson. Upon closer look, though, Jackson's frames may not be as fabulous as Breazeale's. Still, they remain outstanding.

1973 Topps is known for the abundant number of player cameos featured on cards -- one player showing up on another player's card. But what about bat boy cameos?

The bat boy in the background of Boog Powell's card ...

... is also in the background of Don Baylor's card.

While we're on the topic of Don Baylor, is that Don Baylor barreling into second base on Frank Duffy's card?

It's generally consider an Oriole and I detect the No. 5 on the uniform. The non-pitchers to wear a uniform with the No. 5 for the Orioles (I'm assuming a pitcher -- even back then when pitchers were men and batted, too -- wouldn't be rolling into second base), were Baylor, Brooks Robinson and Davey Johnson. I suppose it could be any of them but given Baylor's style, I see him barreling into second more than Robinson or Johnson.

We are now smack in the middle of the cameos portion of this post. There are plenty of examples, from stars to backups to players who didn't even get a card of their own in the '73 set.

The player being retired by Freddie Patek at second base is Ed Spiezio, whose last card is as a Padre in the 1972 Topps set.

Then there are the team switches demonstrated by cameos in '73 Topps.

This is generally considered as Bob Oliver, playing for the Royals, when he slid into Mike Andrews at second base.

It's a bit of a tricky identification because Oliver is not playing for the Royals on his own card.

He is playing for the Angels, who traded with the Royals to get him in May of 1972.

The base-runner segues nicely into the next topic: who makes the most cameos in 1973 Topps?

Bert Campaneris is certainly near the top if the list. He is in the Bob Oliver card.

He is in the Rich Hand card.

He is in the famed George Scott card -- one of the most bizarre cards of all-time (something I pointed out in another early blog post) as both Campaneris and Scott appear to have been cut out of a different photo and pasted into this one.

Add Campaneris' own card and the Game 7 World Series card that declares "Campy Starts Winning Rally" and shows him booking down to first base, and he's one of the most frequent shows in '73 Topps.

One of the most ...

The guy on the right is Tim McCarver, playing for the Phillies, and wondering where that ball went that just took off Willie Davis' head.

I'm pretty certain that's McCarver again next to the ump, since this is also Dodger Stadium (don't let the California Angels designation fool ya) and the '73 Topps set is full of examples of multiple photos from the same game.

There is McCarver again, left in the dust by a sliding Chris Speier at Candlestick Park.

Here is McCarver again, serving as Steve Carlton's personal catcher as he was known to do.

That is Tim McCarver circled in the Phillies' team picture in the 1973 set and by now I think you know where I'm going with this.

Yup. Tim McCarver is in the 1973 set all those times as a Phillie, yet he's a St. Louis Cardinal on his own card (he was traded from the Phillies to the Expos in June of 1972 and then traded from the Expos to the Cardinals in November of 1972).

I believe he is in the 1973 Topps set the most times, thanks to all those cameos (or it could be Johnny Bench, who makes two cameos and is also in World Series and league leader cards).

I thought I'd compile a list of all the cameos in 1973 Topps just so I could say I contributed something to the set after completing it.

This is a list compiled from my own research as well as the research of others, such as off the great 1973 Topps Photography blog operated by my late, great blog friend, Chris before he left us.

I didn't include every single cameo here, only because some are too difficult to determine -- either a number isn't visible or the player is too far away.

But here's what I have:

#11 - cameo: Jim Kaat; player's card: Chris Chambliss
#32 - probably Dave Roberts; Fred Norman
#35 - Tim McCarver; Willie Davis
#38 - Jim Spencer; Mike Epstein
#42 - Bob Oliver; Mike Andrews
#45 - Bill Parsons; Ellie Rodriguez (although probably not Ellie Rodriguez)
#50 - Jerry Grote; Roberto Clemente
#57 - Rafael Robles and Jerry Morales; Derrel Thomas
#72 - Paul Casanova; Ron Reed
#111 - Dave Hamilton and Dwain Anderson; Dave Nelson
#121 - Dave Concepcion; Dave Rader
#129 - possibly Steve Kealey; Terry Forster
#145 - Willie Stargell; Bobby Bonds
#150 - Dave Lemonds; Wilbur Wood
#151 - Greg Luzinski; Wes Parker
#170 - Jerry Moses; Harmon Killebrew
#175 - Tim McCarver; Frank Robinson
#181 - Bob Grich; Jack Brohamer
#213 - Wes Parker; Steve Garvey
#231 - probably Ron Theobald; Bill Parsons
#233 - Johnny Briggs; Ed Kirkpatrick
#236 - possibilities: Tommy Helmes, Roger Metzger, Gary Sutherland; Tito Fuentes
#249 - Dick Bosman; Larry Biittner
#253 - Jack Brohamer; Mark Belanger
#263 - Bert Campaneris; George Scott
#273 - Tim McCarver; Chris Speier
#289 - Bert Campaneris; Bob Oliver
#290 - Bob Watson; Cesar Cedeno
#300 - Tim McCarver; Steve Carlton
#302 - Thurman Munson; Terry Crowley
#307 - Dave Rader and Tito Fuentes; Boots Day
#334 - Ed Spiezio; Freddie Patek
#360 - Gene Tenace, Bill Voss and Marty Martinez; Joe Rudi (although Rudi isn't on the card, Tenace is identified as Rudi)
#370 - Terry Harmon; Willie Stargell
#372 - Dave Concepcion and probably Darrel Chaney's head; Oscar Gamble
#376 - possibly Don Baylor (or Brooks Robinson or Davey Johnson); Frank Duffy
#398 - Bert Campaneris; Rich Hand
#400 - Graig Nettles; Gaylord Perry
#410 - Johnny Bench; Willie McCovey
#420 - Bud Harrelson and Rusty Staub; Tommie Agee
#430 - Cesar Tovar; Vida Blue
#440 - Duke Sims; Glenn Beckert
#447 - Clay Carroll; Joe Hague
#460 - Celerino Sanchez; Bill Freehan
#468 - not sure, possibly Bobby Bonds; Tom Griffin
#507 - Randy Moffitt; Darrel Chaney
#519 - Jack Hiatt; John Edwards
#525 - Johnny Bench; Jim Fregosi
#538 - probably Milt May; Jim Hart
#542 - Fergie Jenkins; Pat Corrales
#550 - Felipe Alou; Dave Johnson
#574 - Cleon Jones; Bob Didier
#627 - Jorge Orta; Luis Alvarado
#656 - Sal Bando; John Ellis

Don't let anybody else tell you another set is better at cameos.

When I started out collecting this set, I figured I could complete it fairly quickly. The sets I had worked on immediately before 1973 were known toughies: 1971 and 1972 Topps.

But '73 Topps proved pretty formidable, too. I was lucky enough to get the cards from a variety of sources -- other bloggers, of course. I remember one blogger, turning away from his Braves fandom, sent me the entire Braves team set from that year. My own daughter bought the first card in the set, which features Ruth, Aaron and Mays.

But the set is now complete. And every '73 topic -- from the hoarded final series checklist, to the tendency of 1973 Topps cards to deteriorate quicker than other sets from around that time (what was in the cardboard that year?), to the famed silhouette position designation, to the wonderful personal cartoons on the backs of the cards, to its status as the last Topps flagship set issued in more than two series, has been examined, re-examined, regurgitated and beaten to death in the most loving manner possible.

It will probably be awhile before I return with another 1973 Topps post (but I'll be back sooner than I think, I have a feeling), but that doesn't mean I've returned to those old days when I couldn't figure out the fuss.

It's well worth the fuss.

And it's not just because you can find Mike Schmidt's rookie card in the set.