C.A.: 1976 Topps J.R. Richard

(Farewell to the Olympics I hardly knew. Between the time-zone difference, NBC showing only 5 sports the entire Games, and streaming being the main way to get a full Olympic fix  -- I'm not watching the Olympics on my phone -- I watched less than ever in 40 years. Maybe the Winter Olympics will be better, but I doubt it; we've got another 12-hour time difference! Let's move on to Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 305th in a series):

Just as I was starting to prepare for this post and lead off with my memories of J.R. Richard (RIP), another notable from my teenage years passed away. Goodbye, Markie Post. She was the only reason I watched Night Court (one of my favorite Cheers episodes is when Post makes an appearance as Diane's college friend).

It's tough losing people that I read about and watched so often, not even that long ago it seems. So I'm steering this post in a more pleasant direction.

I thought I would give readers an idea of some of the posts I'm working on for the near future. We bloggers are always paddling furiously under the surface in a quest to keep the content coming. Maybe you'll appreciate a glimpse of the research & development room.

Let's turn over the J.R. Richard card for one of those future posts:

I want to review every major set's best on-card element.

Some will be obvious, some will not, some will be impossible to find. But as an example, I'm showing you the back of 1976 Topps. Some may consider the best element of '76 Topps the little position drawing in the corner. Or they may consider Topps giving greater emphasis to photos in '76, from some of the pictures chosen to the most open view of the picture on the front since the 1970 set.

But I'm not picking either of those. For me, the best element of 1976 Topps is the huge, impossible to miss card number on the back. It's one of the most readable card numbers ever. And unlike, say, 1953 Topps, in which the size of the number threatens to swallow the entire back, the '76 card number sets up in the corner, like all the others, content to be a bit part. But it is definitely appreciated.

So, that's what you're going to get with that series. Some of the elements will be obvious, some will not.

 

Here is a similar topic. I'll try not to overlap with what I just mentioned, but it's going to be impossible in some cases.

I am going to list the Top 5 graphic elements on cards in history and also the Top 5 worst graphic elements in history. I'll probably split that into two posts, best one day and worst another. And, yes, the 1965 pennant will be difficult to beat.

The Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony is coming up next month. (I hope they never move the Baseball Hall ceremony to the evening like the NFL has done -- waiting for a story after all those speeches deep into the night is torture from a job perspective).

I already mentioned that I am going to write another Most Hall of Famers post on the occasion of Simmons, Jeter, Walker, etc., being inducted, selecting some sets in which they appear.

But I'm also going to write another post that may be only of interest to me. It is the 45th anniversary of my first trip to the Baseball Hall of Fame and I am going to recount my top 10 favorite experiences on that trip -- yes, I still remember them.

 

Someone mentioned on Twitter the other day of compiling a list of the worst-performing Rated Rookies for each year.

I never paid much attention to the Rated Rookie -- Donruss, you know -- but I figured I could do that (only for the '80s/early '90s sets, probably) and then I'd have more fun doing the same thing with Topps' rookie cup players.

 

Who had the worst careers of all the rookie cup players? That sounds like fun to me!

 

And just to pop the hype balloon one more time, I'm going to tackle the worst of the Future Stars cards, too. No surprise, Tim Pyznarski was the first one I thought of. There are sure to be some doozies. Topps wasn't the best at picking these.

 

Here's a series for those who think I'm skewing "too negative" with the above posts (you guys are no fun).

This was another Twitter mention and I ran with it.

What are the best collective future stars cards?

This series is going to review all of the future stars/rookie prospects cards through the years (I'm debating whether to include the Fleer cards) and add up all the figures and come up with a list of the ones with the greatest total talent.

I've already gotten started on this and, trust me, there are about a bazillion of these cards in Topps' history (I'm already feeling sorry for kids in the 1960s who collected the final series because it seems like half of those last series were two-, three-, or four-player cards of people those kids would've never heard of).

My guess is I'll be ready for the results of this sometime next month.

 

Finally, another card design topic I'm tossing around -- not sure if it will be a post at this point -- is tentative called "Biggest Cardboard Mysteries." Think Fleer using yellow for all of its cards in 1991. Stuff like that.

 

OK, so there's your peak into what is bubbling under. I have a few other ideas as well.

 

Those of you who expected some remembrances of J.R. Richard, sorry about that. It's all been said by others. My Twitter mention was to clue younger fans into exactly what Richard was all about. He was the Randy Johnson of that time. 6-foot-8 and throwing smoke. Players hated to face him and fans of opposing teams really hated when they saw Richard was going to pitch against their team. He seemed to always demoralize the Dodgers.

 

I remember his All-Star start in 1980 and I remember reading about his stroke (I can tell you exactly where I was standing in the kitchen when I read the news) and the end of his career. The end of a certain Hall of Fame career.

 

RIP, J.R. and RIP, Markie, the Tiffani Amber Thiessen of my teenage years (another comparison for you youngsters).

 

Loved that dress.