1978 Topps Image Inventory

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Help comes from the strangest places sometimes - I just found this episode of This Week in Baseball from 1977 on YouTube. at 8:38 they begin showing highlights of Cleveland at Detroit, and from watching this it seems clear to me now that both the Indians image of Bibby and the Blue Jays image of Staggs were taken at Tiger Stadium. I had ruled out Tiger Stadium because the images I had suggested it had a blue color scheme in '77 but this proves otherwise.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kofzhRQJLLY

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1978 Topps California Angels

There are 32 Angel images in the set, including the Easler, Verhoeven and Kirkwood paint jobs and excluding the Brett, Bostock and Nolan paint jobs.

The team photo was taken at Anaheim Stadium on either 8/25 - an off day when Gary Nolan (top row, far left) was acquired, and the club had a road game the 26th in Detroit.

I cannot place the small black and white image of Dave Garcia - his hat seems to have either an F or P on it, and a review of his minor league history doesn't reveal any club he played for which would have used either letter to signify its city or its name. He even played H.S. ball in East St. Louis, so that's out as well. Any help would be appreciated.

A number of images were taken in Oakland either 4/11-4/14 or 7/26-7/28: Ryan, Bonds, Miller, Etchebarren, Barlow, LaRoche, Hampton, Hartzell, Garcia, Jackson as well as the Ryan Record Breaker and the Ryan and Tanana league leaders. Barlow and LaRoche would have been take during the July series as they were not with the club in April.

Several pics were taken in Yankee Stadium either 5/3 or 8/12-8/14 - Humphrey, Chalk, Tanana, Bosley, Flores and Remy. Bosley and Flores would have had to have been taken in August because they weren't with the club yet in May.

A few were taken in Palm Springs Stadium in Palm Springs in the Spring of 1977: Baylor, Ross, Guerrero, Moore, Solaita, Mulliniks, Rudi, Easler, Kirkwood and Verhoeven (Verhoeven isn't conclusive but it's a reasonable guess).

Bobby Grich is tough - he was obviously photographed in the spring, but it wasn't in Palm Springs. There are no mountains in the background, he appears to be wearing his road light grays and, in any event, the grounds are too wide open and expansive according to any image of the field I've seen.

I have looked at images of all the other spring parks in the Cactus League from 1977 and have not been able to find a single clue as to where this image may have been captured.

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1978 Topps Chicago White Sox

There are 29 White Sox images, once you add the paint jobs of Brohamer, Zisk, Gamble and Ken Brett, and eliminate the paint jobs of Hughes, Kirkwood, Schueler, Verhoeven, Cruz, Blomberg, Moore and Nahorodny.

The team photo was taken in Comiskey Park (the natural background has been removed) during homestands 4/29 to 5/1 or 5/13-5/22 - After the departure of Silvio Martinez and before the arrival of Ken Kravec.

The black and white image of Bob Lemon was taken at some point during his career with the Indians, 1946-1958.

Several images were captured in Yankee Stadium, during either 5/27-5/29 or 8/15-8/16: LaGrow, Lemon (both), Stillman, Knapp, Downing, Barrios, Gamble and Zisk (Knapp's was taken during May, before his demotion to Iowa where he stayed until September).

Three were taken in Oakland during either 4/22-4/24 or 9/5-9/7: Essian, Spencer and Carroll (Carroll was snapped in September, as he was just acquired from St. Louis at the end of August).

Two images were taken in Comiskey - Kessinger and Renko, with the latter taken sometime after his arrival from the Cubs on 8/18.

Finally, a number were taken at Payne Park in Sarasota in the Spring - Orta, Stone, Bannister, Nordhagen, Hamilton, Kravec, Bell, Soderholm, Garr, Johnson, Wood, Brett and Brohamer.

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1978 Topps Kansas City Royals

The set contains 31 Royal images, not counting the paint job of Jerry Terrell.

The team photo was taken at Royal's Stadium either 6/3-6/7, 6/17-6/23, 7/6-7/10 or 7/13-7/15. This would have been during homestands after Tom Hall was DFA and before Joe Lahoud was promoted from Omaha.

The small image of Whitey Herzog was taken at some point during his time with the Kansas City A's, 1958-1960.

The following images were snapped in Oakland during one of the Royals' 2 trips there, either 6/24-6/26 or 9/26-9/28: Porter, Brett, Bird, Leonard, Herzog, Littell, Gura and the Leonard League Leader picture.

Marty Pattin was also taken in Oakland, but because the only game he appeared in in Oakland that year was 6/26, we know that this action shop was captured during the 6 innings he threw in the second game of a double header before being relieved by Larry Gura. Pattin got the W to go to 1-2.

A number of images were taken in Yankee Stadium, either 6/13-6/16, 7/24 or 8/29: Cowens, Hassler, Colborn, LaCock, Patek, Poquette, Lahoud, McRae, Otis, Mayberry and Mingori.

Several of these images (i.e. Colborn) don't make it 100% clear that the location was The Bronx, but they are similar enough in look and feel to others clearly taken there (i.e. Mayberry) to reasonably conclude they were as well. Hassler's image was captured either 6/14 or 7/24, Mingori's either 6/13 or 8/29 and Lahoud's either 7/24 or 8/29 as he only joined the club in July.

A number of images were taken in the spring of 1977, but not at the Royals' training site at Terry Park in Ft. Myers.

Several images (Martinez, White, Splittorff, etc.) clearly appear to have been taken at the White Sox' facility, Payne Park in Sarasota, probably on the day of a game. The other spring shots (Hurdle, Washington, Patek LL, Busby, Wathan and Zdeb) were likely taken there as well (the use of KC's away blues is also a hint).

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The 1978 Topps Minnesota Twins

There are 34 Twins images in the set, counting the Schueler, Hisle, Gomez, Hughes, Bostock and Terrell paint jobs, and excluding that of Bombo Rivera.

The team photo was taken in Metropolitan stadium between 4/26 and 5/1, after the arrival of Jeff Holly and Davis May, but before the acquisition of Dave Johnson and the departure of Jim Hughes.

The small black and white image of Gene Mauch is from his playing days with the Red Sox, 1956-57.

Images taken in Oakland, either 4/9-4/10 or 7/15-7/17, include: Tom Johnson, Carrithers, Redfern, Thormodsgard, Hisle LL, Cubbage, Goltz, Randall, Gorinski, Smalley, Wynegar, Carew, Mauch, Hisle, Hughes and Terrell.

Chiles, Ford, Kusick and Wynegar (4 cards that I really thought looked cool in 1978 and which still look cool today) were snapped on the 15th, the only night game they played in Oakland that season. Zahn's could have been taken on the 15th or the 17th, but I think it was probably the former. He started that evening, and the image looks like it was taken as the sun was setting. His appearance on the 17th was in relief on a day game.

Gomez was also taken in Oakland, during the July series as he hadn't been called up yet in April.

Borgmann, Dave Johnson and Schueler were taken in Yankee Stadium either 6/10-6/12 or 8/24-8/25.

Several images were taken at Tinker Field in Orlando during the spring of 1977 - Norwood, Perlozzo, Burgmeier, Adams, Goltz LL and Carew LL.

Bulling and Bostock present a challenge - each was taken in the spring, Bulling is wearing his road jersey and Bostock was as well, given other Twins in the background wearing theirs. From the limited details in the photos neither seems to look like Tinker Field, so I am going to put "Unknown Spring Stadium" as a place holder for each.

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The 1978 Topps Oakland A's

There are 30 A's images in the set, not counting the Steve Dunning paint job but including Paul Mitchell's.

The team photo was taken in the first half of September, given presence of Lintz, Keough and Mallory and of George Medich, who went to the Mariners on 9/14.

The small black and white image of Bobby Winkles was taken during his time with the Tulsa Oilers from 1956-58.

The following images were captured in Oakland at some time during the 1977 season: Page, Torrealba, Langford, Newman, Sanguillen and Alexander.

Others were taken in Oakland during some specific time range depending upon when they were with the club: Tabb (before 6/30 or after 8/5), Bair (before 4/27 or after 6/19), Winkles (after 6/10), Jorgensen (after 5/22), Tyrone (after 5/14), Crawford (after 6/15), Perez (after 4/27) and Mitchell (6/24-6/29 or 7/27-8/4).

Scott, Armas, Picciolo and Williams were photographed in Yankee Stadium either 5/5-5/8 or 8/10-8/11).

Joe Coleman was photographed in Yankee Stadium as well, but by looking at his pitching record from 1977, we can tell his imaged was captured on May 7 during his 3 innings in relief of Langford.

A number of images were recorded at Hohokam Stadium in North Mesa, AZ during the spring: Lacey, North, Hosley, Norris, Blue, McCatty, Keough, Mitchell and Gross.

A few years back, this interesting image popped up online (can't recall the source) showing Gross's image being taken by, I believe, Doug McWilliams.

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The 1978 Topps Seattle Mariners

There are 27 Mariner images in the set, excluding the Mitchell, Hale, Pasley and Todd paint jobs, and including those of Broberg, Larry Cox and Roy Thomas.

The team photo was taken in front of the Kingdome sometime between 7/3 and 7/7, after the arrival of Julio Cruz but before the departure of Dave Pagan.

The small image of Darrell Johnson shows him as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals in 1960.

A few images were taken in Oakland between 5/19-5/22 or 7/11-7/13: Johnson, Collins, Braun, House and Cruz. The latter two were taken in July after they joined the club.

Larry Milbourne was snapped in Yankee Stadium during either 4/29-5/1 or 8/30-8/31.

Quite a few were taken at Diablo Stadium in Tempe, AZ during the club's first spring training session in 1977: Abbott, Meyer, Montague, Reynolds, Pole, Romo, Baez, Stinson, Stanton, Stein, Jutze, Wheelock, Bernhardt, Burke, Thomas, Broberg and Cox.

Ruppert Jones and Carlos Lopez were impossible to conclusively identify. I went through images of every American League ballpark, and the one that seems to most closely match is Tiger Stadium, where the team played 5/27-5/29 and again 8/15-8/16. I am not remotely certain of this, though. Any insights would be appreciated.

Finally, for the longest time I had thought Ray Fosse's Brewers card was a paint job over his Seattle uniform, but after a lot of thought, I now think it was taken when he was with Cleveland, and so I am going back up to the Indians' post and placing him there.