no# - New York Mets Checklist

This team checklist on the back of the Mets has 25 players, if I counted correctly.  I wonder if that was the projected Opening Day roster as Topps saw it when the cards went to print.  If I have it right, not all teams have 25 cards in this set.  And yet again, there are only 12 autographs on the front.  I wonder why, and will continue to wonder why. 

Checking out the list of names, I'm struck by the various visions of baseball I get.  Yogi Berra...well, many images come to mind, and they are stretched out over a great length of baseball history.  I never realized that Daniel Joseph had the nickname of "Rusty."  Or maybe that would be vice versa.  Tug McGraw threw his glove up in the air in celebration of the Phillies 1980 Series victory.  Felix Milan is a trivia answer as the player who went 4-for-4 with four singles just prior to Joe Torre's all-time MLB record for grounding into four double plays in a single game.  Ray Sadecki was the bust trade for Orlando Cepeda.  Tom Seaver, Hall of Famer with several teams.  I just love how baseball is a huge mosaic with tiles placed all over.  Names, places and times change, while some stay the same.

This Mets team was good enough to win the pennant the previous fall, and nearly pulled off another "Miracle Mets" victory.  Or maybe they were just good enough to win a weak NL East, surprise the Big Red Machine, and nearly topple the dynastified A's.  Is "dynastified" a word?  Also notice that I did not check any of the boxes on this checklist.  I don't know why, but maybe I received it late in my collecting game.

no# - St Louis Cardinals Checklist

Several things strike me as I look at the front of this card.  One, check out the names in the autographs: Robert Gibson, Louis Brock, Joseph Torre and Kenneth Reitz.  Are these autographs or signatures?  Two, the penmanship back in the 70's was quite different than today.  Reggie Smith, Lou Brock, Ted Sizemore and Tommy Agee are good examples of 3rd grade cursive being put to good use with pride.  Like we see with Reggie Smith's Hancock, there are both readability and flair.  Most of today's autographs, although not really examples of bad ability, are attempts to give a signature way of signing without legibility.  How it looks is what matters.  Autographs of a generation earlier than these 70's have even more flair and craftsmanship, the pen being a sculpturing tool as well.  What's in a name anyway?  I like Jose Cruz's accent on the "e" and McCarver's underlining of the "c."  Three, there are only 12 autographs.  I think there were only 12 for the Orioles card I posted earlier in this set.  I wonder why so few?

I wrote in yesterday's Cardinals team photo that this team didn't click with me as a kid.  In reviewing the names on the back of this checklist, they're all very well known to me.  They just have the least "teamy" feel.  Must have been the astro-turf and average record for a decade.

Cartoon: None, and maybe that's a good thing.

Ballpark background: None

no # - Baltimore Orioles Checklist

The team checklists in the 1974 Topps set didn't have card numbers.  I've decided to post each one following the team's team photo card.  Autographs that Topps was able to secure are shown on the front, while the team checklist is showed on the back.  These cards were both issued as part of the set, and available by mail if you wrote to Topps.  The mail order sets came in sheets of cards and left the buyer to cut the cards out if they desired.  I got these checklist cards both ways.  If I remember correctly, I didn't do such a good job of cutting my own sheets, and probably discarded those cards because they were too imperfect.

One thing that was pointed out on another blog (I forget where, and I wish I could remember) is that there were two differing sets of these checklist cards.  Notice the bottom "printed" line of the card.  Some cards had one star before the copyright, and some had two.  Looking through my checklist cards, I have some with one and some with two.  Anybody know the story behind this?

This card shows that I took liberty to use the checklist for my own record keeping.  I updated it several times as there are both pencil and pen in checking the boxes.  A few boxes are blank, indicating that these cards were acquired late in my collecting of these cards.  I may have even bought some of these from card shops in the 80's.

Notice Powell's signature.  Boog is in quotes.  John "Boog" Powell.  I wonder where he got such a nickname?  Maybe we'll find out later on in the set.  And a handwriting expert might be able to shed some light on the reverse slant of Brooks Robinson and Paul Blair's autographs.