1974 Topps Factory Set

[steve B]

Originally Posted by nolemmings

Thanks Steve. It still seems kind of baffling to me that they couldn't wait 2-3 weeks and see if the Washington thing was really likely to happen, given the lawsuits and conditions that needed to be met.

Has anyone seen a proof of sheet #5? I ask because Denny Doyle, who had been traded December 6, is shown with his new Angels team in the regular set, while Jim Mason, traded the same day, is not, and both are included in the higher numbers (#552 and #618) and Mason is shown with his new Yankee squad on the traded set. The Doyle card is a nondescript shot of him with some minor sort of airbrush job, almost certainly swapped out late from a better photo. I wonder if the proof sheet would show a different pic of Doyle. Also seems they could have corrected Mason in the regular set but chose otherwise. Since all of their "trades" were completed just 5 days after December 6, 1973, it makes you wonder why they couldn't wait another week, although maybe the plan all along was to have a traded set and they needed to fill it with players.

I wouldn't be surprised to see proofs of Doyle both ways.


The one I've always wondered about was one I heard as a kid rumor in 74, which was the first set I really collected, aside from a bit in late 73.

Supposedly there was confusion about who would be the As manager, so the card had a question mark instead of a picture of a manager.

Al Dark was signed on Feb 20, so that shouldn't have been a problem. But there'd been some legal wrangling about Dick Williams being under contract so he couldn't manage the Yankees. (Why that wouldn't have affected the Yankees manager card the same way I have no idea, it was a 5th grade rumor. ) So maybe it's plausible?