The other day I was putting my card house in order, and started to organize the 1976 SSPC cards I'd acquired to date. I'd been a little confused about the backs of some of them - how they were in "landscape mode" - but then my organization
really took a turn when I realized I had two different #8 cards - one with Frank Robinson as the Angels' player/manager (and with his 1974 stats on the back), and another of the Cleveland Indians' Larvelle Blanks, which references his 1975 season in "portrait mode" on the back - as do the majority of the SSPC cards I have.
So I reckoned as one does that something was up here. I went to my two most reliable blog sources for classic card-collecting what-not, The Shlabotnick Report and Night Owl Cards, and their respective archives both helped a little if not explicitly. It was the Trading Card Database that gave me the good word on these things. These are the "1975 SSPC 42" - a 42-card set, mostly of then-stars and quite a few future hall of famers. It's one of several smaller sets that SSPC put out with a large color photograph of the player on the front, and given the general uncertainty about the date origin of the much-larger 630-card 1976 SSPC set - the one we most commonly refer to as "the SSPCs" - I'd just figured that the cards I had from the 42-card '75 set and those I had from the larger set were one and the same. Now I know better.
Here's what the back of a 1975 SSPC 42 looks like. This is Tommy Davis' card - #7 in the 42-card set. The fact that they used the players' god-given full names is maddening, so you have to think a little bit about who "Herman Thomas Davis Jr." might actually be. Oh - right - Tommy Davis. I know him. Here's the back of Carl Yastrzemski's card:
The good thing, I guess, is that collecting a full set of 42 cards is going to be quite a bit easier than grabbing the 630 I need to complete the 1976 SSPC set. I'm up for the task, wallet permitting. Here are the fronts of the other four I have so far, besides Tommy Davis.
Wasn't familiar with this "42" set. Now I want one to add to my 1976 SSPC set binder.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I can recall, these were available in mail order set form (around 2-3.00) as an introduction to the SSPC brand a year before the 630 card set was available. There were also small Met and Yankee team sets put out too. Always liked them!
ReplyDeleteYaz looks creepy in that photo!
ReplyDeleteThe "42s" are a much smaller set but they seem to be a lot harder to find than the '76 SSPCs. Off the top of my head I think the Frank Robinson is the only one I own - he just looks so strange in an Angels uniform.
ReplyDeleteYeah,, I'm not sure if I have ANY of the 42 cards. ... I do have some of the Mets/Yankees from the other smaller set.
ReplyDelete