As I said last time, there were six different series of cards issued by Topps in 1972 and each one consisted of a 24-card subset that had a player's base card followed by an "action" card. Many showed game-action shots, but several featured odd pictures like this one:
This definitely isn't a game-action shot. "Tom Terrific" looks to be responding to somebody walking up to the plate with a bat placed between his legs to signify how large his "Schwartz" is.
One manager even got an "action" card. Appropriately enough, it was "Billy the Kid," explaining his position with an umpire:
Truth be told, I would have liked to see him kicking dirt on the umpire's shoe. I also would have liked to see Earl Weaver get a card as well.
The backs of the "In Action" cards featured highlights as well. In series 1, all 12 of the cards served as previews of features in the upcoming series.
The league leaders were part of series one, on cards 85-96. Each league was represented by its '71 leaders in six separate offensive or pitching categories. Series two featured a recap of the postseason on cards 221-230. There were single cards for each LCS, a card for each of the 1971 World Series games and a recap card celebrating the Pirates' win. I featured them in this entry a year ago. Interestingly, the postseason preview shows a card of a Yankees player; the Yanks hadn't been in the postseason since 1964.
For series three and four, the subsets teased eventually ended up on the backs of the "In Action" cards. Ten cards in series three featured game situations, as well as the "answer" according to the rules of the game. For series four, eleven cards recapped highlights of the 1971 season. These will be shown in detail in a later entry to this blog.
The top mentions childhood photos of star players, which appeared in both series three (cards 341-348) and four (cards 491-498).
Series five and six each show two subsets. Series five teases a subset featuring the winners of several awards, but cards 621-626 ended up showing pictures of the awards themselves. It might be likely that the original plan called for the cards to feature players but weren't ready when the series needed to be printed up. The puzzles of Joe Torre and Carl Yastrzemski were on the backs of the "In Action" cards; each player had six pieces.
The "traded" cards in series six appeared on cards 751-757 and featured Steve Carlton, Joe Morgan, Frank Robinson, Denny McClain, Jim Fregosi, Rick Wise and Jose Cardenal. Interestingly, the series didn't include the player who was traded away for Fregosi: Nolan Ryan. Once again, the puzzle pieces of Tony Oliva and Tom Seaver were on the backs of the "In Action" cards, with each player getting six pieces.
And the Childhood Photo card of Jim Fregosi has a small airbrushed picture of him in a Mets cap.
ReplyDeleteThe "In-Action" of Leo Cardenas has an Angels uniform airbrushed on him.