For those who were there back in the day....
Imagine you were buying packs in the late '60s and early '70s. You've just gone through the bland 1970 year of portraits and head shots, World Series and playoff cards notwithstanding as those almost had to be action photos.
It's now 1971 and you go to the corner store to get your first few packs of the new Topps baseball cards. You sit down on the steps, open the first pack and start slowly thumbing through the cards. Del Unser, Vic Davalillo, Skip Pitlock, the usual fare (though I do love the black borders but the backs are crappy, and where are the year-by-year stats?).
Then suddenly BLAM! There it is. The #5 card of Thurman Munson. Talk about a game changer (both the player and the card)! Talk about making a piece of cardboard come alive! It brought the game itself onto the cardboard!
There are a LOT of good action photos, but in my opinion, this one really set the bar and changed the idea of what could be on a player's card.
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