Worth comparing

 

A couple of different things I've read or observed lately, on top of currently collecting the 1979 Topps football set made me compare '79 Topps football and '79 Topps baseball in my head.

The main thought was: "why do I like '79 football so much and am so blah about '79 baseball?"

 

There are a few reasons I can come up with off the top of my head:

 

1. I was immediately unimpressed with 1979 baseball when I bought my first packs. It was my fifth year of buying baseball cards and I was also a brand-new teenager. I was ready to criticize the status quo. I do like '79 Topps, but I can see its issues pretty clearly and saw them then.

 

2. 1979 football is just the second year I bought packs of football cards (1977 was the first). You tend to have affection for the first couple of years of buying cards. Unlike the fifth year.

 

3. 1979 football is heavy on colorful design elements, while the '79 baseball set is relatively reserved for a '70s set. As a child collector in the '70s I adore bright, colorful designs and dominant borders. '79 football has that but baseball does not.

 

4. Sure, the football set is still heavy on helmet-less players, head shots and guys on the sidelines (plus no logos), but the baseball set is full of hazy photos and I did notice it then but even more as I completed it about 12 years ago. 

I traditionally rank the '79 baseball set second-to-last in a list of '70s Topps sets. 1970 is still at the bottom even after just completing it and warming to it more. The '79 football set is probably second or third on the '70s football list for me, and I fully acknowledge there is nostalgia affecting the rankings.

But at least you can compare '70s Topps sets across the sports. You can't do that for the '50s or '60s (hardly any basketball sets), nor the '80s (Topps stopped releasing basketball and hockey), nor the '90s (Topps used the same designs across sets and also there was a lot of chaos as companies switched up brands, dropping some but mostly adding others).

So let's compare! Before I do it though, please know that I adore the look of almost all '70s sets, and that's what I'm comparing here -- the look, nothing else.

1970

 

The clear winner for me is 1970-71 hockey. I like the different color backgrounds and the starlight effect that graces each card. As for the others, the tall boy treatment (Topps did this a lot with the NBA then) doesn't do it for me, 1970 baseball can't get out from under its drab reputation that I formed as young boy and the NFL design looks much more early '60s than '70s.

1971

 

Glorious. I've written about this year in Topps cards before. Four tremendous designs. Really nothing has been created on this level consistently across all four sports since. Each design is great fun. The 1971 baseball set is not as colorful as the other three but stands out in its own way. It's impossible for me to pick against '71 baseball, but as far as eye-catching design and cards standing out, I will vote for the NBA because it's spectacular. Also bonus points to the NFL for giving red borders for the AFC and blue for the NFC as it should be. And, a hat-tip to NHL for using the team logo, which continued to pop up in '70s Topps hockey designs through the rest of the decade.

 

1972

 

Another outstandingly colorful design year. Kids really had it good collecting cards at this time. The baseball and basketball sets are the great ones here and I don't know if I can pick between the two of them. How do I not say '72 baseball isn't the best at catching kids' eyes? But look at that basketball design! Two-tone greatness! The football design is up there in colorfulness but not in execution. Most of the player names/positions are tough to read. The hockey I don't find appealing at all. We did burlap in the '60s already.

1973

A noticeable pulling back on the colorful designs in '73. Much simpler. To me the football design is classic, almost the template for what a football set should look like based on growing up at that time (I think the same for '72 baseball, which must be wild for collectors who didn't grow up at that time but you had to be there). I might give the nod to basketball though, it's both clean and fun. Hockey seems dated and has a photos-on-colored-construction paper look that doesn't appeal to me.

1974

1974 features the first baseball cards I ever owned, but I sort of adore the NBA cards in that "I have seen cards from this set maybe 4 times, what were they doing?" kind of way. It reminds me of the 1969 Topps baseball all-stars with the backgrounds. Is that actually Clyde Lee in the background or just random shots? The NFL and NHL designs contain recognizable elements of each sport, maybe too obvious for me (but at least they weren't trotting it out in the '80s like Donruss). I know baseball is kind of dull next to these others, but I like it best.

1975

 

 

Ground zero for "First cards I ever saw and/or collected" for baseball, football and hockey. '75-'76 Topps hockey remains the only hockey packs I bought until the early 1990s and by packs, I mean "pack". I may not have been won over by the hockey stick the year before but I absolutely love the position puck. The baseball design is wildly different than the other sets and I love it for that and will always select it. Meanwhile, the NBA set has a quiet cool to it. I really should've been an NBA fan in the '70s.

 

1976

NFL is an easy favorite for me. That crazy-colored team football is everything and could be the one design element I'd show first when someone asked what sports card design was about in the '70s. The '76 baseball set is much like the '79 baseball but just a little more interesting (and with better photos). More tall-boy treatment for the NBA. Hockey has an action vibe but I know there are still a host of posed shots in the set.

1977

 

Lots of pennants in 1977. I was really rounding into my collecting form this year and baseball was certainly my main drug, but I collected football, too, and this remains my all-time favorite football set. It's totally related to the colorfulness of the design, as well as the colorfulness of some of the teams then. See: Buccaneers, Broncos and Patriots. The hockey set-up resembles a bizarro version of the baseball design.

1978

Toss-up. A lot of sideways writing in 1978, which I usually don't enjoy. I bought some NBA cards this year (a pack or two), so I still have a soft spot for this design, but it's kind of crowded. NHL, meanwhile, shoved everything into one corner. NFL is too plain. Going with baseball by default but I know when I saw it for the first time I didn't appreciate its appeal.

1979

And, here we are with 1979. My favorite is NFL, but if I was being objective, I'd pick the NHL It's an instantly recognizable look, even without the Gretzky rookie, and does not suffer from every card being the same color border like some other sets with non-white borders.

If I had unlimited cash and a much more narrow collecting focus than I do, I'd try to complete all of these 70s sets. Just about everything about this decade's cards makes sense to me, and I cannot say that about any other decade.

But once '79 football is done, we'll see if I try to collect any other non-baseball set. I know '76 football is calling me but I am not going to listen for as long as I can.