I've now accumulated enough of the 1969 set that I think it's fair to say that I'll try to tackle the whole thing in time. I just received another batch of commons from my #1 source, and they're fantastic to look at. Loads of clean-cut young men playing ball and getting fired up for the season. Last night I saw a video highlight of none other than Willie Mays hitting his 600th home run during this season. I've read two entire books about the Miracle Mets and the amazin' 1969 season. Four new teams joined the league that year: Montreal Expos, Kansas City Royals, Seattle Pilots and the San Diego Padres.
I've scanned about 10 of the 35 or so new 1969 cards I've received for you here. Oh - and question for you - anyone know why all of the teams have their nicknames on the cards (i.e. "Orioles", "Giants" etc.) - but the Astros' say "Houston"?
I found this: https://baseballhall.org/discover/card-corner/1969-topps-donn-clendenon
ReplyDelete"Topps did this because of a dispute that had started in 1968 between the Astros and the Monsanto Company, which produced Astroturf, the playing surface used at the Houston Astrodome.
The two organizations became engaged in a legal battle over who had the legal rights to the name of “Astroturf.” Preferring to take a cautious approach and hoping to avoid any involvement in the conflict, even tangentially, Topps decided to remove “Astros” from all of its cards. As a matter of fact, Topps had done the same thing with its 1968 Topps set. It was not until 1970 that Topps restored the word “Astros” to its cards, ending the two-year absence."
Love this set. I love how the team name and player name/position take minimal space and yet are still prominent on the card. This leaves a ton of space for the photo. This set is also the first set I collected but I'm still four cards short of completing the set.
ReplyDeleteAs a kid, this is one of the first sets I remember that were "old." I think my mom had a common from this set laying around, which is what have me that POV.
ReplyDeleteThe 1969 set doesn't really set off any alarms for me. I pretty much think of the Reggie Jackson rookie card... then the Pilots... and finally Mantle's final playing days card. Oh... and the Angels batboy card too. The design is okay, but not one of my all-time favorites. Just one of those middle of the pack designs.
ReplyDeleteBy the way... Gladding's glasses are very cool. I've liked that style for a long, long time. They've even become very popular with some of my middle school students this year.
Topps got their issues with Monsanto and the Astros straightened out in mid-1969. As others said, this also affected the 1968 set.
ReplyDeleteAlthough all the 1969 Astros cards say "Houston", in the later '69 series you start to see the return of the cap logo.
CH, although the official set size is 664 cards, there are 2 distinct versions of the Clay Dalrymple and Donn Clendenon cards, making the true set size (IMO) 666.
ReplyDeleteThere are also white vs. yellow lettering variations on some cards, but those are printing errors, and not planned differences like the 2 I mentioned.
Fuji, other cool cards are the Bobby Bonds rookie (especially for you Bay-area guys) and the Bobby Murcer rookie, both with shily trophies.
ReplyDeleteAlso the return of Ted Williams.
shiny trophies
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