Night Owl Cards

    This is it. The final episode of the 1975 Topps worst-to-best countdown. This series lasted a little longer than I had intended. Those who wanted me to finish it within a week back when I started in April of last year probably gave up a long time ago. I had planned to wrap it up by September or early October of this year all along. Per usual, life had to butt in. But we're here. Let's just say this is my gift to you before everyone turns off the internet for a day (I know I will).   These are the 20 best cards in the '75 Topps set in my lowly opinion. Actually these are the 21 best cards. I must have skipped a number somewhere, possibly repeated a card. I just know I haven't had time to comb through all that to uncover the error. So there will be two No. 20's to start the finale. I don't think anyone will mind. If you do, you need more help than the guy counting down a 49-year-old set.   Let's get into it:  20. Boog Powell (card 625) A classic straight f...

  I would be remiss if I didn't mention on a post devoted completely to cards issued in 1975 that we recently lost two key members of the 1975 baseball postseason. Both Pete Rose and Luis Tiant were critical parts of the two teams that reached the 1975 World Series. Both wily veterans by the '75 series, their abilities were trumpeted all over the playoff telecasts that year. At least that's what I have learned. I've mentioned several times that the 1975 postseason is my first memory of baseball on TV. But I only remember glimpses of the ALCS and the World Series, specifically Game 6. There's nothing I could cite specifically except I do remember Luis Tiant on the mound doing his thing.     In the first few years of my baseball viewing, Tiant was a popular topic in our discussions as kids, with Red Sox fanhood dominating my family. When Tiant, his skills declining by this point, ended up on the Yankees in 1979, it was truly the end of an era. Except for his Yankee Fr...

  After a hiatus lasting months, I grabbed my first 1975 Topps buyback since the Great Splurge during April, May and June. I was a bit burned out and the prices set on these things weren't helping. I wanted to see if prices went down. That doesn't appear to be the case yet, but a single card isn't going to hurt me, so now the Greg Luzinski buyback is mine. This is the 518th card in my buyback quest to get all 660 cards from 1975 Topps in buyback form. I'm still at 78% of the set -- 78.3% to be exact -- but I have a feeling those buybacks will be languishing awhile so I've got plenty of time to get back to this. I'm also doing other '75 Topps things, like for instance just the other day, I finally acquired a well-center Dick Allen card. My All-Star Allen has been off-center for as long as I've been collecting the set. It's wild to see it without a too-thin left side. Very happy with that. All right, let's get to the countdown now. This is the thir...