Pecking Away at 1975 SSPC

Completion of the 630-card 1975 SSPC set - a set I hadn't even heard about a year ago - is now something that's within reach. I mean, nah, I'm not even halfway there yet, but I'm almost halfway there. It's a pretty achievable set if you use CardBarrel and SportLots and are cool with paying 30 cents to a buck a card. I'll get there someday; this past week I picked up another 60 or so, including a few of these fellas.

I love this set because they're so DIY and yet so nice at the same time; great full-color photos (always posed), and a ton of information on the back. Check out the Pirates' Richie Hebner here. Just a pinch between the cheek & the gum, right Richie? There are no stat lines for any of the players, but a full paragraph of information that often contains some opinion; Hebner, for instance, "had an off year in '75", which he definitely did, hitting .246 with only 15 HR and 57 RBI. (At the time, those were the three numbers we most cared about. RBIs! Seriously!). I can't remember if Hebner ever got good again, and I'm too lazy to look it up.

Now this swashbuckling Pirate got good again for sure. Willie Stargell! Pops. Loved Pops. Everybody loved pops. I still remember the end of the 1979 World Series and "We Are Family" playing in the stadium. That's how old I am.

A couple of my recent SSPC cards cost as much as - gasp! - three dollars, owing to the fact that superstars are on 'em. Here's Rod Carew and Tom Seaver, respectively. 

Apologies for the crooked Carew scan, but that ridiculous photo is all him. Here's the Boston Red Sox' Carlton Fisk, who went to the World Series that year and who hit a home run you may have seen:

And then finally, I picked this dude to show you, because he's the only 1975 SSPC card I have - I think - where there's zero indication which team he's on. He's Ed Goodson of the Los Angeles Dodgers - a team who by the way won the 2020 World Series a mere twenty minutes before I typed this blog post. Goodson was a utility guy. I have him on a couple of early 70s SF Giants cards. He's card #588 in a series of #630. He has curly 1970s locks. And here's his SSPC card.