The 1975 Topps countdown, worst to best (No. 640-621)

 

Some of you want me to do this countdown series once a week. I don't think I can do that, I won't be doing that.

Once every other week? Maybe, although I don't want to hold to a schedule. I like being able to go to it when it's appropriate with what's going on in my non-card life. Reminder: none of my posts are scheduled weeks or months in advance. In 95 percent of the cases, I am writing the day of.

But it's clear that '75 Topps needs to be publicized as often as possible. Just today I came across somebody's random ranking of '70s Topps sets -- we're still doing this, I guess. The person put '75 Topps ninth. Yikes, I hope that was a practice list. That's a good way for us not to be on speaking terms.

OK, let's move on to the second bottom 20. I'm ranking them all. Here are cards 640-621:

 

640. Claude Osteen (card 453)

We begin to get into the era of mid-1970s airbrushing with this card. Topps was actively attempting to add team logos onto airbrushed hats at this time but doing so by attempting to paint on a tiny negative with a tiny image. The results were pretty comical in hindsight, but collectors were mostly kids at the time and what did we know? I certainly didn't. Now, it's pretty apparent to me that Osteen's hat was heightened to create more space to draw the loopy logo. ... Somehow I still really liked this card as a kid.

639. Rennie Stennett (card 336)

You can see a lot more of Rennie on a backlit scan than you can in hand where Stennett appears to have disappeared into the shadows. Shadows were an everyday card element in '75 and pretty cool to me at the time, but this does not work.

638. Duffy Dyer (card 538)

Duffy was one of those players' cards we goofed on as kids, although it was the '76 Topps card in particular. Had I seen this one, the goofing would continue. It features the "melting hat" phenomenon, which will appear again.

637. Dave Roberts (card 558)

Still not done with the "looking to the sky" photos that were so prominent in the first episode of the countdown. I did not like this card as a young collector.

636. Bill Parsons (card 613)

Parsons' radioactive hat is apparently so warm that he is sweating. This green color is something out of 1971 Topps airbrushing class, which means we should be beyond it by now.

635. Chris Cannizzaro (card 355)

Chris Cannizzaro would have been 85 today (he died in 2016). This is his final card. He went out with a butterscotch hat and butterscotch uniform. Actual butterscotch. You could smell it and taste it off his uniform. That's what I'm told anyway.

634. Ken Rudolph (card 289)

No hat-heightening with this card, which means the drawn logo looks gigantic. I can feel the artist's frustration attempting to paint tiny intricate lines and crying out "why does this logo have to be so damn complicated?"

633. Mike Wallace (card 401)

Airbrushers' struggles with the Yankees' interlocking N.Y. is well-documented, and it's odd because it's not as complex as the Cardinals logo. But the N.Y. paint jobs produced a HOF airbrushing masterpiece that I've saved for later in the countdown (you all know what it is). I had never heard of Mike Wallace in '75 so he's where he is. Also he might be smuggling a small animal in that hat.

632. Alex Johnson (card 534)

The often-misunderstood Alex Johnson also received the airbrush treatment on the final card of his career. But at least the painted logo is partially hidden.

631. Ken Sanders (card 366)

As a kid I thought Ken Sanders looked like the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard Of Oz movie and I was very bothered by this. Didn't even notice the airbrushing.

630. John Vukovich (card 602)

 

I'm sure you've noticed that it's been almost nothing but head shots this time around. This might be the most nondescript of head shots. The airbrushed Reds logo is almost on-point but it could be the dullest card in the whole set.

 

 

629. Dave Tomlin (card 578)

 

Another butterscotch hat. Tomlin can smell it.

 

 

628. Bill Hands (card 412)

I don't know what Bill Hands is gritting his teeth at, it may be his natural look, judging by his 1976 card. I just know as a kid I thought he was the angriest ballplayer in the world. Maybe there was just too much inside his hat. So heavy.

 

 

 627. Tom Dettore (card 469)

We have reached the Unknown Cubs In Airbrushed Caps portion of the countdown. They're all very similar.

626. Rick Stelmaszek (card 338)

Rick was a next-door neighbor of a long-time blogger. That's how I came to know him as I never pulled this card in '75. He looks like he could bench-press someone.

 

 

625. Oscar Zamora (card 604)

 

Zamora is another Cub that I came to know through Cubs blogging enthusiasm. It looks like the airbrusher got paint on Zamora's forehead.

 

 

 

624. Chuck Dobson (card 635)

That is some diamond-cut action. Unlike some other cases earlier, Dobson's hat looks too small. His autograph is confined to the corner, although there was room to make it bigger.

633. Angels team (card 236)

Another team photo that is a little too far away, although it doesn't look too bad magnified here. The man in the very '70s sport coat kind of saves it.

632. Rookie Pitchers (card 624)

The last of the rookie prospects cards in the set in terms of card number. It arrives immediately after two power-packed prospect cards and pales in comparison. Just a couple of modest MLB careers here in Lavelle and Solomon, although Lavelle was solid reliever.

 

 

631. Sandy Alomar (card 266)

Alomar's smile is propping up this card. But the crop is so close that the card has practically decapitated his image. The signature might be the smallest in the entire set. ... Lot of airbrushed Yankees in this set -- I need to figure out which team has the most.

All right, we've gotten through 40 cards. That was a pretty boring lot. But, you know, we have more than 600 to go.