Friday, October 23, 2009

#8 - Rogelio Moret

Card fact: This is the first "player card" of the set. This is also the second color combination of the set: yellow-light blue. What I thought about this card then: My brother had this card. He was and is a Red Sox fan. Red Sox cards automatically went to him. That was a rule of card collecting in our household (all Dodgers went to me, so I was cool with it). I remember the Moret card he had was the mini card. What I think about this card now: The one disturbing thing to me now is that I had no idea how to pronounce Moret's name then, and I have no idea how to pronounce his name now. First and last name. No clue. Still. I am so glad I didn't pick broadcasting for a career. Other stuff: I don't remember watching Moret pitch when I was a kid. What I do remember is the end of his career, in 1978, when he was found in the locker room in a catatonic state, holding out a shower slipper. I didn't know what "catatonic state" meant. I had to look it up, and when I figured out what it was, it freaked me out. Keep in mind, there was no internet then. So I was probably freaked out 3 weeks after the fact. 

(EDIT: Rogelio Moret died on Dec. 7, 2020 at age 71).

Back facts: The first cartoon of the set! Yay! It says that 100 players named Smith have played in the majors. According to baseball-reference.com, that total has ballooned to 145 players. This card also shows the first example of the green type on the red/pink background, which can be difficult to read, especially the vital statistics area at the top. Other blog stuff: In my first attempt to define one of the designs in the '75 Topps set, I'm going with the "candy-corn" design for the title of the orange-brown combination. That's open for debate or reconsideration, as I have 651 more cards before I put this blog to bed.

3 comments:

Jim said...

The set and the set's colors have always reminded me of Saturday morning cartoons. 75 Topps, Scooby-Doo and Super Friends - so much in common and so many hours of happiness.

Fastforward many years, and this particular color scheme makes me think of printer ink - cyan, magenta, yellow.

night owl said...

Being around newspapers much of my life, I think you're spot on with the printer ink color scheme, Jim. That's perfect!

Flitgun Frankie said...

I actually know someone named Rogelio. He's from Panama. Everyone solves the problem of pronouncing his name by calling him by his last name. Having a red & green color scheme for the backs of the card must have made it tough on kids who were colorblind. I had an uncle who was colorblind and to him red & green looked the same, which I believe is the most common form of color blindness.