1972 Topps Every Chance I Get

I've got a new habit of ordering five 1972 Topps baseball cards - and no more than five - as a way of padding out any CardBarrel and SportLots orders I make. Chipping away at a complete set goal, five cards at a time. I'm not even close. I tend to order from those two sites a combined 3 times a month or so. I like the whole "$30 a Week Habit" mantra, and try to live by it. I order the stuff I came there for, and then, to close out the order: five '72s. Seems to be working for me. In a few years, at this pace, I'll be done.

So let's take a look at the new five that came in this week! I'm pretty excited about this Billy Martin in Action card (#34). I mean, really excited. What other sort of action would Detroit manager Martin be engaging in during the 1971 season? Arguing with an ump, of course. Total legend. In my youth, this was the Billy Martin I knew - of course as manager of the New York Yankees, and later of the A's. Actually I barely remember him as Texas' manager a little before all of that, but I was a wee lad during his Detroit days. Just a nice bit of trolling on the part of the Topps organization here, twenty years before the internet surfaced in anyone's lives. 

And speaking of cool 1972 cards - check out these rogues! That's a pretty good set of heavy hitters on a single card. Was surprised to flip it over and see that Killebrew was the only one with over 100 RBIs (he had 119). 

Also picked up the Oakland A's rookie card - another surprise here; this was right when the A's had started becoming the dominant team in baseball. Naturally one might expect their '72 rookies to be dudes we'd see all over those 3 World Championships, right? Dwaine Anderson got 7 at-bats for the A's in 1972 and hit .000. Chris Floethe never made the majors at all. Rookie Stars!

Rounding out my 5 are the Braves team card and a fella named Steve Mingori on the Indians, a reliever who actually managed a 1.42 ERA in 1971, pitching in 54 games. He continued on through 1979, pitching for the Royals in relief from 1973-79. There you have it!

Some New Topps '72s

Everyone's on pins and needles in 2021 because this'll be the year that Topps Heritage baseball mimics the fabled Topps 1972 design. It's scheduled to come out on March 3rd, 2021, so start digging into those couch folds, folks. Meanwhile, the real 1972 Topps baseball set remains as glorious as ever. I'm making my way through the 787-card set, buying 10 cards or so at a time, and getting several others arriving in trades etc. 

Even when I was a young kid, buying 25-cent packs of 1977 Topps at the 7-11 on La Riviera Drive in Sacramento, CA, the 1972 set looked really "old" to me and from another world. A friend or perhaps his older brother might have a few of these in his collection - and yes, it's true, some kids back then really did put cards in the spokes of their bikes. I've never owned any '72s until last year, when I realized just how rewarding it might be to slowly and carefully accumulate these gems.

I got a few new ones last week, scanned 'em up, and figured I'd drop them on the Card Hemorrhage blog in case you wanted to take a look.

New 1972s From My LCS

Yesterday I nailed 14/787ths of the 1972 Topps set I'm working on completing. It came from a Sunday afternoon visit to Lefty's Card Shop in beautiful Burlingame, California, and a hankering I had to look through their hall of famer binders to see what sort of '72s I could afford. I was able to pull 14 once or future superstars from their binders, and I focused my efforts for the most part on VG+ or even a fair "Fair"-graded cards, such was their affordability when doing so.

I rang up a few true dudes in the process, as you'll see. Here's Joe Morgan, who recently passed away, looking tough in an Astros uniform. Looking at his stats for 1971, Joe was nobody's idea of a future hall of famer, nor had he really been anything particularly special earlier in his Houston career. He hit .256, with 13 homers and 56 RBI. And no, there was no OBP nor BABIP nor WAR on his card in 1972. A few years later he'd be a world champion with the Reds. Twice. 

I'm still working on accumulating a ton of commons and a few big hitters in my quest for all 787 of the 1972 cards. Here's how it's going so far, and here are a few others I was able to add on a rainy afternoon in Burlingame.

11 Random New Arrivals

It's getting to the point now where if a new card arrives at the house, I feel I've got to somehow scan it and talk about it here on the Card Hemorrhage blog, before filing it into its proper place in a box or a binder. That can't be healthy, can it? Validate from within? 

Anyway, here's a random assortment of things that I've picked up in various places the past ten days or so. I've got a real soft spot for these 2020 Onyx prospect cards, and if I can grab a guy like Richard Gallardo who just might be the next Nolan Ryan, and grab him for cheap, then why not, right? I've not heard of Mr. Gallardo, but he's in the Cubs organization, and did not get the call to the big club in 2020, which meant, due to our current global pandemic, he either had to sit the season out entirely or was dispatched to the Cubs' "alternate site", wherever that was. Let's see him in the bigs in 2021, throwing strikes to everyone except the San Francisco Giants.

Jim at Cards As I See Them blog had a mega Free Card Friday the other day, and somehow I got in fast enough to claim a few ringers. Walker Buehler? Why Walker Buehler? Man, I don't know. I like the guy. He's going to do great things for a while in our sport. Anyway, this 2019 Topps Heritage New Age Performers card is fantastic; I've got 2 more Beuhler cards to show you as well.

Also claimed this 1969 Topps Giants card of a Giants backup catcher named Bob Barton from the same Jim/Cards as I See Them Free Card Friday:

...and these two poorly-scanned, crooked 1972 Clay Carrolls to get me that much closer to completing the '72 Topps set (note: I'm not close at all):

...and this 1957 (!) piece of vintage glory. In this case, it's not me scanning the card poorly - the card itself is actually off-center.

I found another Joey Bart card I didn't have for my player collection, too. This one's a mini from the 2020 Topps 206 collection, with now-major league catcher Bart donning the "tools of ignorance" for the 2019 Richmond Flying Squirrels:

Finally, I just got wise to those 1974 Topps "Hank Aaron Special" cards, and I love 'em. There were six of them, and I bought two of them on eBay this past week. Cards on cards! I'll try and grab the other four in the near future and give 'em a poor scan on the blog once I do.

A Few '72s - Because We Love '72s

Not sure if I'm ultimately going to go all-in on 1972 Topps and get the full set, but I really enjoy the look of these things. It was retro the day it was released, though I'm not sure that was the intention. I've already collected the entire 1972 Topps San Francisco Giants team, but there's a part of me that wants to pour it on with this set and go all the way.

It may be that I'm into this era because I was barely sentient when it was occuring. I turned 4 as the 1971 season was coming to a close. I missed Vida Blue's historic year, and Mickey Lolich's 25-14 record. I missed the Pirates beating the Orioles in the World Series. That said, when I did get really into baseball in 1977, I bought some used "preview magazines" from this era, and read them cover to cover. Guys who were totally out of baseball by the time I learned about them - Harmon Killebrew, Frank Howard, 1971 NL MVP Joe Torre - were absolutely still raking in '71. I was fascinated with these relics from another era then, and I'm still moderately fascinated now.

So here are a small handful of the 1972 Topps cards I have purchased or acquired, with many more to go. All picked up at Lefty's Sports Cards in Burlingame, CA - my local card shop. May it please open again soon.