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The Top 20 Players of the Topps Era
When I sold off my Topps sets, I had always intended to go back and buy an example from every Topps set. However, the project would have always started with a 1952 Topps Mantle and that never happened. So, I am lookung to revisit this project on a budget.
The run would include the top 20 players and one card from each year from 1954-1974 (excluding 1971). I am excluding 1951-1953 due to cost and asthetics. I am also going to exclude rookie cards. I want to avoid head shots and pick cards that are an astheticly pleasing example of the set. First is a list of the top 20 players. This is my initial list: Willie Mays Ted Williams Stan Musial Roberto Clemente Sandy Koufax Henry Aaron Mickey Mantle Mike Schmidt Johnny Bench Yogi Berra Frank Robinson Bob Gibson Joe Morgan Tom Seaver Jackie Robinson Carl Yastrzemski Eddie Mathews Ernie Banks Warren Spahn Al Kaline Next would be cards to fill in the years. I want my set to start with a 1954 Topps Yogi Berra and end with a 1974 Topps Mike Schmidt. The only other cards that I am set on are a 1956 Topps Clemente and 1965 Topps Mantle as I already have those cards. I realize that I am locking myself into Jackie Robinson for 1955 unless I don't include him, then I would go with Ted Williams. I already have both those cards. I also have Willie Mays cards from 1966-1970, so I will probably choose one of those years. Finally, I am excluding 1971 Topps since I have a raw set and I will be buying graded cards PSA 6-7 to fill in this run. I am not interested in buying a duplicate. Thoughts? Is there anyone you would choose and who would you replace? Are there any cards that you think are musts for this run? |
Great idea and nice list!
If I had to be picky I'd consider (perhaps you already did) one of these: Willie McCovey, Billy Williams, Jim Palmer, Whitey Ford or Bob Feller over Ernie Banks or Sandy Koufax. But probably splitting hairs. ETA: Likely can't add Feller due to 1956 already being taken by Clemente |
For Seaver I like 1968 (or 1974 but that is reserved for Schmidt).
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I'd sub Nolan Ryan for Eddie Matthews, and maybe Rose for Banks.
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To add a bit of coolness to it, maybe try to fit in as many (HOFer) MVP-year cards as you can. All sorts of avenues to go down in that manner.
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We all know WAR as a modern stat, but you can find the all-time career list here:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/l...R_career.shtml The top 20 who have cards from your years 1954-1974 are: 5 Willie Mays+ (23) 156.1 7 Henry Aaron+ (23) 143.2 11 Stan Musial+ (22) 128.6 14 Ted Williams+ (19) 121.8 21 Mickey Mantle+ (18) 110.2 22 Tom Seaver+ (20) 109.9 23 Frank Robinson+ (21) 107.3 24 Mike Schmidt+ (18) 106.9 31 Joe Morgan+ (22) 100.6 32 Warren Spahn+ (21) 100.1 33 Carl Yastrzemski+ (23) 96.5 34 Eddie Mathews+ (17) 96 35 Phil Niekro+ (24) 95.9 37 Roberto Clemente+ (18) 94.9 42 Al Kaline+ (22) 92.7 45 Steve Carlton+ (24) 90.2 46 Gaylord Perry+ (22) 90 47 Bob Gibson+ (17) 89.1 50 Robin Roberts+ (19) 86.2 56 Fergie Jenkins+ (19) 84.1 Interesting to see some names that are not all that hot in collecting, e.g., Phil Niekro Gaylord Perry Robin Roberts Fergie Jenkins Others who don't seem to make the cut: Koufax Bench Berra J. Robinson Banks Rose |
Personally I love Jolly's idea. I remember as a kid looking at the 1975 Topps MVP cards from each year and those are still iconic to me. With that said, I couldn't have a list like that without Harmon Killebrew and I would devote 1969 Topps to him...but I am biased...
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I like a lot of your card choices, but there are a few of the head shots that I wouldn't pick. I am thinking about using Jolly's suggestion and there are cards in your list that would work well with that. |
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I also like run prevention for pitchers. Niekro ERA+ 115 Perry ERA + 117 Carlton ERA+ 115 Roberts ERA+ 113 Jenkins ERA+ 115 vs Gibson ERA+ 127 Koufax ERA+ 131 Ford ERA+ 133 WAR also hates catchers, for some reason, and first basemen, understandable. I would take Bench, Berra and Campanella with their 8 combined MVPs over the above 5 pitchers. I would love to fit Campy into the list, but he would fit better in the earlier years. Robinson and Koufax had short careers, so they had less chance to accumulate WAR. Jackie still averaged 6.4 WAR per season over his 10 years. Give him his age 23-27 years instead of being banned because of the color of his skin and he is at 90+. Koufax barely pitched his first two years. He would have been in the minors if not for the rule 5 draft. He also didn't pitch 200 innings until 7th (age 25) season. His last 6 years when he became a full time starter, he accumulated 46.6 WAR, an average of 7.8. If he doesn't retire after his age 30 season, who knows what he could have done. Banks career total was killed by his move to 1b because of a knee injury. In 8 years as a SS + 10 games in 1953, 55.1 WAR, averaging almost 7 per season. His last 10 years as a 1b, 12.6 WAR. So those 3 guys didn't have high career totals, but they had very high peaks. |
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Arrangement rev B:
1954 - Yogi Berra 1955 - Jackie Robinson https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/6a8AA...hIe/s-l140.jpg 1956 - Roberto Clemente https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/HfAAA...74e/s-l140.jpg 1957 - Ted Williams https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/B1gAA...e-N/s-l140.jpg 1958 - Warren Spahn https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/NUAAA...C2S/s-l140.jpg 1959 - Al Kaline https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/GKAAA...Oqw/s-l140.jpg 1960 - Hank Aaron https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/3LIAA...eZi/s-l140.jpg 1961 - Sandy Koufax https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/2RMAA...OBX/s-l140.png 1962 - Stan Musial https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/isIAA...r8Q/s-l140.jpg 1963 - Ernie Banks https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/4MgAA...JXu/s-l140.jpg 1964 - Eddie Mathews https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/pWgAA...fPS/s-l140.jpg 1965 - Mickey Mantle https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/7bUAA...eZo/s-l140.jpg 1966 - Willie Mays https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/2fAAA...yFN/s-l140.jpg 1967 - Frank Robinson https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/GDMAA...LHQ/s-l140.jpg 1968 - Carl Yastrzemski https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/uRUAA...bwg/s-l140.png 1969 - Bob Gibson https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/R04AA...WHl/s-l140.png 1970 - Johnny Bench https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/ajIAA...oaa/s-l140.png 1972 - Joe Morgan https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/oM8AA...MbC/s-l140.png 1973 - Tom Seaver https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/xbwAA...Il9/s-l140.jpg 1974 - Mike Schmidt p.s. I like Seaver's 1974 action shot, but you said Schmidt is a lock at 1974. |
IMO you are a bit light on pitchers. I would put Ryan and Carlton on the list. To make room, I would lose Banks, and Kaline or Yaz. Or better yet just go to 22.
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I'd agree that Nolan Ryan needs to be on the list somewhere. If we are relating all this to Topps, Ryan's RC was likely the most popular card in the entire vintage hobby for about 5 years or so starting close to 1990. I'm sure some would disagree, but it was and is still - certainly up there.
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I know he doesn't quite have the career counting stats, but I'm going to throw some love in Larry Doby's direction. Obviously there are exceptional factors to his case that go beyond statistics that are impossible to really measure. I just think he deserves to be mentioned in the conversation.
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1954 - Ted Williams https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/fsAAA...2/s-l1600.webp The prettiest card in the set so it should be included! 1956 - Yogi Berra https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/yL0AA...S/s-l1600.webp Well it's really tough to find anything but head shots in the 1956 set and if Berra has to be somewhere.... 1957 - Hank Aaron https://ballnine.com/wp-content/uplo...7HANKFRONT.jpg A fabulous shot with that cool shoulder patch! 1960 - Roberto Clement https://storage.googleapis.com/image...og7pi/1600.jpg It's tough to find a much better shot of any well known player from the 1960 set than Clemente's! :cool: I find it sad, however, that my favourite pitcher from the era, knuckleballer Phil Niekro, and base stealer par excellence Lou Brock aren't on rats60's player list. Methinks he should consider doubling his list so he could have two cards per year. That to me doesn't sound like too many cards. ;) |
Your list looks good, rats60. Of those players, here are some years that are personal favorites of mine:
Bench: The 69 is probably the obvious choice, not going out on a limb there. Yaz: I like the 71, it's a unique look for Yaz. 62 is also nice with the triple bat illusion. Banks: Huge fan of a 67. Great balance on this card and great smile from Ernie. Gibson: The '68 for the historical significance. Nice portrait too. His 71 is cool as well if you demand an action shot... Spahn: I appreciate both the 57 and the 58. Two totally different cards, so if one doesn't strike your fancy; the other one might. |
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Yaz has a gloriously happy 1966 card. The '71 is an awfully close-up headshot, no??
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And dropping the lower boundary a year would enable this card to be added:
https://hosting.photobucket.com/85c5...8fb2eb32d3.jpg Unfortunately the Bob Feller card from 1952 is his Rookie card. ;) |
I am not doing 1951-53 because of cost and most cards are portraits. Paige is 2-3K in PSA 6 and it is still a portrait. There are only 2 HOFers who are not portraits, Newhouser, who isn't good enough for the list, and Mays, who costs ~7k. My idea was to do a fun project and not have to put much into it, so I can have a nice display of Topps designs through the years, with the best players.
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Tell us which players from which year you finally choose!
:) |
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1954 Berra 1955 J Robinson 1956 Clemente 1957 T Williams 1958 Spahn 1959 Kaline 1960 Banks 1961 Aaron 1962 Musial 1963 Koufax 1964 Mathews 1965 Mantle 1966 Mays 1967 F Robinson 1968 Yastrzemski 1969 Gibson 1970 Bench 1972 Morgan 1973 Seaver 1974 Schmidt If I go to 25 I would do 1971 Ryan or Seaver (have both raw) 1973 Seaver or Ryan (have Ryan raw) 1975 Brett (have a PSA 7 & 8) 1976 Carlton 1977 Rose 1978 Reggie Jackson |
This arrangement though would enable you to eliminate the Roberto Clemente and Ernie Banks head shots while adding the best looking card from the 1954 set:
1954 #1 Williams 1955 J Robinson 1956 Berra 1957 Aaron 1958 Spahn 1959 Banks* 1960 Clemente 1961 Koufax 1962 Musial 1963 Kaline * The 1959 Ernie Banks is a particularly great looking card: https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...ince/64992.jpg (Not mine.) ;) |
I thought you were excluding RCs? So how can you have a 75 Brett? Sorry if I missed something.
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Moreover the last thing you want to do is mix slabbed cards with raw cards. You want your 20-25 card run all in one place as a set. ;) |
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