1971 Topps San Francisco Giants Progress

I guess I'm simultaneously trying to collect the 1971 San Francisco Giants Topps team set while also trying to collect the entire Topps '71 set as well. Let's just say the former is nearly at hand, while the latter is a long ways off. All I really need from the '71 Giants set is the Mays card and one from someone named Bob Heise, and then this Juan Marichal Scratch-Off and then I'm good to go.

This was a stacked Giants team that finally won their division after 9 years since their previous postseason appearance; it would be another 16 years before they'd get into the playoffs again (losing to the Cardinals in the NLCS in 1987). Not just the 4 hall of famers Mays, McCovey, Marichal and Gaylord Perry, but a phenomenal breakout year from Bobby Bonds, then tagged to be "the next Mays" (one could argue it would be his son Barry instead).

I would have loved to have seen this team play at windy Candlestick Park that season. You can watch the Pirates beat them in the 1971 NLCS here. Alas, I was 3 that year, but when I became a Giants diehard a good 5-6 years later, I schooled myself with the memory of our most recent team in the playoffs, and hoped for more soon. That I had to wait until my junior year of college made it all the more sweet, I guess.

Here are some of those '71 NLDS champs, immortalized by Topps at the start of the season.

 

 

 

 

The Dashed Promise of the 1972 Giants

One of the first team sets I completed was that of the 1972 San Francisco Giants. Mostly, it's because I love the retro look of these cards, with the marquee letters, the stars etc. When you look at the names that the Giants assembled for that team - who'd just come off winning the division in 1971 - it's incredibly impressive. Like this guy, to your left. Sure, he may have been 40 years old, but he was Willie Mays, right?

They also had McCovey. Marichal. Bobby Bonds! Jim Ray Hart! Dave Kingman! Garry Matthews! New superstar acquisition Sam McDowell, whom the Giants excitedly traded pitching ace Gaylord Perry to Cleveland for. Looking good for '72.

Well, the wheels totally fell off that year for the Giants, despite this abundance. They went 69-86, and finished in 5th place, ahead of the lowly Padres. McCovey hit .213. McDowell was mostly a bust, while Perry went on to win the Cy Young for the Indians. Mays was traded for chump change in early May to the Mets. Marichal went 6-16. Let's just say it wasn't a good year, and it ushered in a pretty brutal stretch for San Francisco until 1978, which was the first full year of baseball that I was old enough to pay attention to.

In the meantime, we have the cards! All of 'em. It's a great set that won't set you back all that much, if you're interested in accumulating it. Here are a few of the guys who made Spring 1972 look so hopeful.