Comments on: 1974 Most Valuable Players

By: marbaseball

marbaseball — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 15:34:10 +0000

Those MVP cards from 1975 are what got me interested in the older cards. As mentioned before, it was also fun to learn about the players and memorize who was MVP in which year. Even now, I can name off the MVP’s from 1951-1975, but I have a hard time with the ones before and after that time period.

My favorite set from that time period is 1975 for sentimental reasons (it was the first set I ever came close to completing–a big feat for a 9-year-old).

By: bosox8

bosox8 — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 15:00:16 +0000

My favorite set was 1969, the first year I collected. The lack of a border allowed the card to be nothing but picture (which, I’ll admit made the “BH,NH” cards look even worse *lol* BH,NH = Big head, no hat). What I really liked were the combo cards (such as “Bird Hill Aces” and “A’s Stars”) and the World Series cards were the absolute best. Because of the combo cards, I ended up going backwards to add to my collection as much as I went forward and I collected as many of the combo cards as possible. One of the best was from 1964 that had Mantle, Maris, Kaline and Cash (AL Bombers).

The 1971 set was quite good as well with action pictures showing up as well as cards printed sideways. There were also little tidbits like the Chris SHort card which also showed Pete Rose on second base.

I have to say I thought the 1973 and 1974 sets were a bit dull and I while I liked the color of the 1975 set, I was disappointed in the size (I lived in an area that had the “minis”) and I took a break from collecting. Once I got back into it in 1983, I ended up with both sizes of the 1975 set.

My all-time favorite set? It was a test issue actually from 1967, a set of Red Sox stamps (the NL version was of the Pirates).

By: livnlegend

livnlegend — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 13:04:36 +0000

Remember the Kmart-Topps set that came in a box and pictured the cards of all MVP winners from each league over the previous 20 years? I picked a few of those up back around 1982 figuring I could cash them in later when they went up in value. Of course I’d be hard pressed to even get back the $1 I spent on them to begin with.

However, that set gave me a great glimpse of the Topps cards going back 20 years as well as helping me memorize every MVP from each league during that time period. It helped me learn about guys like Zoilo Versailles and Ken Boyer and as an added bonus there was a Don Drysdale card included that talked about his scoreless inning streak in 58.

I didn’t care for the 1974 set when I was a kid because some of the cards were sideways. It wasn’t until later I grew appreciation for the added possibilities of sideways pictures but back then I didn’t like having to turn the card to study the picture or read the name while sorting.

By: Josh Wilker

Josh Wilker — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 12:27:17 +0000

Scott Long:
Good to hear from you. I have the League MVP card in this 1975 series for 1972, and I’m looking forward to taking a stab at an appreciation of those cards. To me, that ’72 set is like some wild Golden Age I just missed.

sansho1:
“my complete set of Seattle Pilots is a beautiful thing”

That is about the most inarguable claim of aesthetic worth that I’ve ever seen.

By: sansho1

sansho1 — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 12:21:24 +0000

Any of those old sets look good if you’re sifting through a bunch of them. The 1970 set is kind of ugly, but my complete set of Seattle Pilots is a beautiful thing.

By: Scott Long

Scott Long — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 07:09:07 +0000

It is weird that despite being crazy about baseball, I might have seen Burroughs play once a year. It was the days of the game of the week and since the Rangers weren’t good, the only time I can remember seeing him play was during the all-star game. Different time.

I loved the 71 and 72 Topps, but that might have something to do with them being the first cards I ever bought.

Hope you are well.

By: sb1902

sb1902 — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 20:01:42 +0000

For those who are wondering what’s going on with Topps today:

http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/topps-launches-3d-live-baseball-cards-video-cards-on-deck/

You can see they have new 3-D Hologram type cards of the future. I feel like Rip Van Winkle, emerging into a world of cards I no longer recognize. I don’t think I’ve held a card since 1983, where I went to a dealer, laid out money and bought a complete set and never looked at them again.

By: piehead

piehead — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 19:13:47 +0000

thunderfan- Tony Armas hit .218 with 107 RBI in 1983.

By: fjgallagher

fjgallagher — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 19:13:28 +0000

I like to watch television, too.

By: seaver41

seaver41 — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 19:12:41 +0000

there’s a good article at http://tinyurl.com/ctwath that lists some of the lowest batting averages / most rbis in relation to ryan howard’s 2008 season at .246 and 141.