First set completion of the year

 

I wrapped up my first completed set of 2025 on Saturday.

 

The final two cards for the 1970 Fleer World Series set, illustrated by Robert "Bob" Laughlin, arrived to finish off the 66-card set, which dedicates a card for every World Series from 1903-1969.

 

I have been collecting the 1970 and 1971 World Series sets equally over the years, but I really ramped up on the 1970 version the past year for a few reasons:

 

1. I was closer to finishing it than I am for 1971.

2. The 1970 version seems a little quirkier without the "official MLB logo" that appears on the '71 set.

3. Many of the '71 drawings appeared in the 1980 Fleer stickers World Series set, so 1970 drawings were less familiar to me and therefore more desirable.

 

These two WS series are easy to mix up for those not well-versed with them, which is why they are often called "blue backs" (1970) and "black backs" (1971) after the colors used on the back.

 

But I've written about these sets many, many times through the years, and I wrote a magazine article in Beckett about Mr. Laughlin almost four years ago.

 

 

I was too young for the 1970 and 1971 sets (and the rare 1967 black-and-white set), but those Fleer sticker versions in 1980 really appealed to me and sparked my curiosity about the Laughlin sets throughout the 1970s.

Since I don't have a lot more to say about the set, I picked out a few of my favorites to maybe explain more about why I enjoy these so much. No order to these, just some at random (I could pick any of the cards in the set as favorites).

 

1947: Laughlin did not often use a player likeness with his cards -- legal issues prevented that -- but they periodically popped up such as on this 1947 World Series card that celebrates Al Gionfriddo's famous running catch.

Note that this card is off-center. Many of the cards that I have are. I'm sure I could scout for well-centered versions, but it just doesn't seem necessary with this set. Off-center cards were a way of life at the time and it adds to the whimsy of the set.

1969: This was the third-to-last card I needed for the set -- 1939 and 1948 were the final cards. It seems like anything having to do with the 1969 World Series is harder to get. The card shows my favorite aspect of Laughlin's art, mixing ideas "Cinderella" and "the Mets' win" into a charming illustration of Cinderella Met riding a baseball coach (not a pumpkin) while ordering around Orioles portraying horses.

 

 

1953: Laughlin often ignored who the winner of the World Series was, which is admittedly different (I find myself irked when a Dodgers World Series win is not recognized in the set to focus on some other Series moment). But I do like avoiding rehashing the same old story line -- save that for TV sports accounts. Carl Erskine played for the losing team in '53 but he did set a notable World Series record, and only Laughlin could realize that there are exactly 14 letters in "New York Yankees".

1943: This card is a strange one. It features Cardinals pitcher Mort Cooper, who pitched the Cardinals' only World Series win that year against the Yankees, who claimed the Series. It was notable because Cooper learned his father had died shortly before pitching Game 2. It's easy to forget that these kind of dramatic stories happened back then and not just during the heavy media coverage days of the 1980s-present. As for the "Cooper battery," I'm assuming "Cooper" was a name for batteries at one point? As usual Google's surrender to AI makes it impossible to find info like this.

 

1919: When collecting this set, I assumed this would be the toughest card to get, but it wasn't. Showing baseball as a battered player is great, complete with cartoon ailments. And he's wearing black sox.

1960: I wasn't around for this World Series but it seems like a very modern World Series, the kind we'd see today. It had to be wild back then. "Bucs get clobbered -- and win!" is a terrific caption.

1928: Naturally, I love the dark background cards -- there's another one in 1971 that I like a lot. I admit I'm stumped by what the bats are supposed to represent.

1944: Laughlin's cards teach you things that you never knew, another one of the great aspects of these cards. The two teams in the 1944 World Series combined to strike out 92 times at the plate. We've blown past that mark in the present. The Dodgers and Rays combined to strike out 131 times in 2020. The Yankees and Diamondbacks combined to strike out 133 times in 2001.

 

This card image is one of the ones that is repeated in the 1980 Fleer stickers set, which means I saw it long before getting this actual card. Here is a comparison:

 

 

A few differences.

 

OK. That's enough, but for those who feel deprived of seeing all of the card images, I got you:

 

 

Finishing this set arrived at the same time that I received some overdue pages, which helped me create a separate binder for the Laughlin World Series sets!

 

I am very happy about this. The Laughlin sets used to sit in a vintage binder that was a mish-mash of sets. I was able to remove these and give them their very own place to live.

The next step obviously is to complete the 1971 set, which is 13 cards away from completion (there are some Dodgers-themed cards that require me to collect two of each card).

Here you can see the 1971 set following the 1970 set. I'll probably move the first few '71s so they start off their own page.

Also the 1980 Fleer stickers are in this binder and that set is complete.

It feels very nice to have a set complete four days into the new year. I want 2025 to be as successful as 2024 was for completing sets. I don't know if that's possible but this completion has me feeling good about it!