The Baseball Cards Hall of Fame Thread...

[JollyElm]

Three more from the 1970's...

• 1973 Topps #420 Tommie Agee - the art department at Topps took 1/3 of the Mets lineup (Tommie Agee, Ken Boswell and Rusty Staub), dressed in their home uniforms for a day game at Shea Stadium...and turned them into members of the Houston Astros!!! Can you even imagine how the conversation surrounding this card went:
- "Hey, Walter, this guy Agee is on the Astros now. Let's do what we always do and use a standard hatless headshot of him, so no team insignias are shown, and just call it a day. That way me and the wife can get on the road to my in-laws right at 5PM."
- "You know what, Bill? My guys still have hours to kill today, there are all sorts of paint cans gathering dust in the supply room, and we are hungry for a challenge. Let me see if there's another way to approach this. Oh, say hello to Barbara and the kids for me."

• 1974 Topps #575 Steve Garvey - what a wondrously marvelous, psychedelically inviting horizontal shot of the star first bagger. This card seemingly has its origins in the work of Monet. (Side note: Dave Kingman received the same treatment in the set, but it was a less effective effect (Holy redundancy, Batman!) on his vertically oriented card, and the fact that Garvey captured the MVP that season makes his card that much more memorable.)

• 1975 Topps #407 Herb Washington - was there anyone outside of a diehard Oakland A's fan who was happy with the slot occupied in the set by a pinch runner? The back mentions that he holds the world indoor records for both the 50-yard and 60-yard dash, and his only stats are 'Games,' 'Runs,' 'Stolen Bases' and 'Caught Stealing.' Nothing else!! What a bizarrely peculiar baseball card for the ages!!! I call this the 'precursor to Rickey Henderson' card.

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