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The 1975 Topps countdown, worst to best (No. 660-641)

 
Yup, I'm doing this. I'm still not done writing about 1975 Topps, will never be done writing about it.

But I know everyone else has their limits. I don't plan to publish posts in this series any more than a couple times a month. That means this will drag out a loooooong time but I also know that if I wrote one of these, say, once a week, the interest would plummet immediately. Who knows, maybe people are disinterested now. There are a lot of weird people out there.

However, I am very interested in counting down every single card in the set in order of bestness and worstness. I indeed will rank them all.

The criteria for ranking is based on almost nothing more than my personal preferences. This will be extremely subjective. Even more subjectively, a lot of the ranking will be based on what I liked, and did not like, as a 9-year-old kid collecting the set.

I will give more weight to cards of stars and such, but mostly it will be about what I thought was cool at the time.

All of the cards you see here will be from my own collection unless cited otherwise. Also, please know that even though we're about to see the absolute "worst" of '75 Topps, none of these cards are terrible to me, far from it. I adore them all.

I think that should be apparent by me ranking every single one. So here we go, the bottom 20:


660. Checklist, 397-528 (card 517)

I've been known to wish that numbered checklists would return to sets, but I know that's not realistic or needed in the internet age. This countdown will be somewhat realistic and acknowledge that these checklists have only two rankable traits -- the border colors and the names list. The checklists came in tan/light blue and pink/yellow. I have no issues with either. So this is at the bottom because the list of names is the least interesting.



659. Checklist, 529-660 (card 646)

The final checklist in the set. There are a few fun names here and seeing the final cards in the set on the back is a little interesting.



658. Checklist, 133-264 (card 257)

This checklist shows off the MVP subset, which had to peak some collectors' interest in '75. I know I saw checklist cards in '75 but they were all of the pink-yellow variety.
 


657. Checklist, 265-396 (card 386)

The third checklist in the set shows off the league leader cards and also displays Reggie Jackson, who may have been the No. 1 star at the time, at No. 300.



656. Checklist, 1-132 (card 126)
 
The first checklist in the set is the top-ranked checklist because it's first in the set and also because you get to see all the record cards to lead off the set. Interesting that they were called "record" on the checklist but "highlights" on the actual card.
 
 

655. Cubs team (card 638) 

Controversy! Maybe for some anyway. The lowest-rated team checklist card is the Cubs because they ditched their fun floating heads team cards from earlier years. The team photo is not great, one of the less-clear shots in the entire set. Bonus point though for posing in front of the ivy.
 
 

654. Rookie Pitchers (card 614)

Generally, I didn't like the multi-player rookie cards from this era when I was collecting as a kid. I'm not super-fond of them now, although I prefer them to the Bowman philosophy of giving solo cards to players who never make the majors. Dyar Miller and Vern Ruhle both enjoyed a number of years in MLB. Kucek received just one solo Topps card and Siebert is the rare mid-1970s player that I had never heard of before until looking him up a few years ago.
 


653. Marty Pattin (card 413)

The lowest-ranked individual player card. May seem harsh but this card sets off my OCD in two ways: one, there is much too much empty space above Pattin's head, two the spaced out letters of his name is setting off alarms. As I said in my 1975 Topps blog, it looks like a counterfeit version of a '75 Topps card.



652. Bruce Ellingsen (card 288)

A card no one I knew in 1975 wanted. Was it the pouty stare? Was it the wavy hair? I'm going with the hair. With maybe an exception or two, if you aren't wearing a hat in the '75 set, you aren't going to rank very high. 
 
 

651. Fred Beene (card 181)

We are beginning a run of cards of players looking to the heavens, hiding the team logo on their hats. I didn't like this look as a kid. 1. I was buying these cards to see team affiliations. 2. I had no desire to look up a player's nose.



650. Bob Gallagher (card 406)

I recall seeing this card as a youngster and being put off by his unruly hair and stern look into the distance (a look that might have served him well during his post-career job of high school teacher). 



649. Jim Holt (card 607)
 
The worst '75 case of staring into a player's nostrils. Topps wasn't shy about airbrushing hat logos in 1975 so I don't know why there are so many upturned hats.
 
 

 648. Steve Arlin (card 159)

I can only imagine the fate of this card if we saw it as youngsters. I was always thinking that some player looked like a woman thanks to the long hair of the day, and no doubt I would have thought the same about Arlin, and promptly wanted it out of my collection.



647. Gene Locklear (card 13)

Children are mean and play games with other children in which they try to pawn off certain player's cards onto their unsuspecting friends. Locklear was at the top of the list along with a couple of others. I can't shake that feeling even though Locklear went on to become a respected painter.



646. Danny Frisella (card 343)
 
I've mentioned before how I wasn't too aware of the airbrushing that was going on with cards while collecting in the mid-1970 but I KNEW this wasn't right. Also Frisella was entirely too sweaty.
 
 

 645. Orlando Pena (card 573)

Are you keeping track? That's seven upturned caps in a row. I don't think that's all of them, but it's most of them. This is Pena's final card. He might need a shave.


644. Rookie Outfielders (card 619)

A couple of recognizable players in Ayala and Turner because of the slightest of dents made by the players. Even Smith found a solo card as an airbrushed Mariner. The four combined to produce 18 solo Topps cards, which sounds not so bad I suppose.



643. Jesus Alou (card 253)

It's difficult for me to believe that Topps couldn't get a better photo of Alou, who had more than 200 at-bats in 1974 and was near the end of his long MLB career. I have no idea what he's doing in this photo, he looks like something scary just ran across his feet.



642. Joe Lis (card 86)

The first example of a full airbrushed hat logo in this countdown. I didn't like anything about this card as a kid. All the sweaty hair, the sweat all over his hat (but that could be airbrushing). 



641. Cardinals team (card 246)

I do like team cards of this era but they're not going to perform very well in the countdown because many of the photos are not great. This looks pretty good as a backlit scan but in person it's too distant and the background antiseptic.


OK, that's the first 20. There's nothing there that would help me sell someone on the '75 set, except the wonderful border colors, but it will get better -- eventually.

Comments

bryan was here said…
Bruce Ellingsen was the first '75 Topps card in my collection. I always found it an odd duck. It wasn't until much later that I learned the Indians swapped a then-18yo Pedro Guerrero for him.

Jack Kucek actually lives a few towns over from me.
dayf said…
I always liked the Danny Frisella card because i can tell he's in a Braves uni and the airbrushing makes it look like he got hit by gamma rays
you have my blessing to do one of these posts a week, it would be a good balance to me inflicting everyone with so many Panini cards
PunkRockPaint said…
My life would be better if these kept coming on a consistent basis. Thx. ❤️
John Bateman said…
The Crazy Thing even the worst cards of the set are beautiful.

529-660 - look at those names Perry, Moose, Duffy Brock, Billy Wiliams, John Boccabella, Rich Gossage, Tony Perez, Torre, Jim Wynn, Roof and best of all Skip Pitlock comes before Frank Robinson

Long Live Jack Kucek

Marty Pattin - Real Trees Man, Real Trees.

Bruce Ellingson - Ha, Ha, Ha,

Look up in the Sky - its a bird, a plane oh, its a bird.

Joe Lis only 6 letters in his name - (Ed Ott)

Looking forward to seeing this countdown
Brett Alan said…
OK, I certainly wasn't expecting to read a ranking of checklists today! But, hey, I'm all ready to go through the whole set, so bring it on.
John Bateman said…
Just saw the preview for (2023) 1974 Heritage - They are short printing 100 cards. That means there is going to be Short Prints next year - Nooooooo!
It was kinda weird scrolling through all those guys looking up.
I hadn't paid much attention to the amount of cards that the players are looking up on, well until tonight. I'll probably be noticing every one I see now.
steelehere said…
That Bruce Ellingsen card always reminds of Pedro Guerrero as well.

Interesting to notice how many players on the checklists had children and grandchildren that reached the majors. Scary to think that it won't be long before someone on the set's checklist has a great-grandchild in the majors.
Old Cards said…
Looking forward to your continued posts on the 1975 set because I certainly don't want to be considered weird, but mostly because I like this set. Considering that these are from your personal collection, you showed great restraint as a nine-year-old not to mark on your checklist cards. Well done! The multi-player rookie cards are some of my least favorite cards and have been since they started in 1962.
Nick Vossbrink said…
This is an insane project which I can't even imagine getting organized for (but does suggest an amazing way of paging a set). Gallagher is a guy I PC (alumni reasons) and this card has always struck me as being one of the better nostril shots perhaps because he doesn't look like a deer in the headlights.
night owl said…
@Old Cards ~

These cards from my collection are not the originals I got in '75, they're all upgrades or cards I got completing the set 15-20 years ago. I definitely did mark the checklists I pulled in '75!
1984 Tigers said…
Put a cowboy hat on Pena and he could have been another one of the stiffs John Wayne blew away during one of his many westerns. It's almost like he's ready to say "we don't need no stinking guns!"

I knew Guerrero got traded as a very young prospect to the dodgers but didn't realize it was the Indians that gave away a talent.

I was 11 when this set came out and marked all the (mini) checklists and team cards, growing up in Detroit. Those I had to replace but the bulk of my 75s were the cards I pulled out of packs 48 years ago! First set of any kind that I didn't pitch when the season was over. Absolutely love the questions on the back of each card.

Paul t

Ps keep this as a fun weekly countdown please.
Matt said…
Bonus points for posing in front of the ivy suggests that they would have finished behind a checklist otherwise, right?
Sean said…
Airbrushed sweat?
night owl said…
@Matt ~

No. The gap between No. 655 and No. 656 is vast.
Michael D said…
I'm a big fan of the '75 set. Had a complete one a long time ago that I had to sell to put food on the table. Working on building the set now. I'm just going real slow. I look forward to more posts on the set.
Nick said…
I don't think I've seen the cards from an entire set ranked before, so I'm very much looking forward to the rest of this series!

I've always been disappointed with that '75 Felipe Alou as well. It's hard to screw up a card of any of the Alou Bros. - especially one on the groovy '75 design - but darn if Topps didn't manage to do exactly that. (At the very least, they could've found a photo of him without a huge vein bulging out of the side of his head.)
Fuji said…
This is going to end up being an all-time favorite blog series of mine. Just thinking about how much time and effort went into ranking each card blows me away.

The zoomed in, poorly cropped, and weird angle on the Alou is pretty bad... but at least Topps gave him the green & yellow borders.
Old Cards said…
Thanks for clarifying the checklist matter for me. I'm sure you have written about this and forgive me for being late to the party, but this post just made me realize the small size of this set. The 72 set was almost 800 cards, then the 73 through 77 sets are only 660 cards before they grow back to 700 plus size again. I guess having to do with issuing the cards all at once as opposed to being issued in multiple series had something to do with it. Whatever the reason, the smaller size of the set makes it even more attractive to me because it reminds me of the smaller sets in the 60's, my favorite card era.
I love lists

I love rankings

I love baseball cards

This series is going to be epic.
Jafronius said…
Gotta start somewhere! Looking forward to these posts.