Tuesday, February 22, 2011

#460 - '74 N.L. Championships


Card fact: That is Pittsburgh's Frank Taveras in the photo. I'm reasonably sure the other guy is Steve Garvey, but it's kind of hard to tell.

What I thought about this card then: You have no idea how awesome I thought this card was in 1975. Think of it: I loved action cards, because they were so rare then. I loved moment-in-time cards (I still do). I loved cards of Dodgers doing well. Add it all together and this quite possibly was the card that I was most impressed with in the entire set.

What I think about this card now: The dust rising from second base is terrific.

Other stuff: If that is indeed Garvey, then this is a play from the third inning of Game 1 of the 1974 N.L. Championship Series. Garvey hit a one-out double off of Jerry Reuss at Three Rivers Stadium. He was stranded there, but the Dodgers won the game 3-0.


Back facts: The Dodgers were almost as impressive with their pitching in this series as the A's were in their championship series. Don Sutton threw a four-hit shutout in Game 1, then allowed just three hits in Game 4. Andy Messersmith did pretty good in Game 2, too. Only a blow-up by Doug Rau in Game 3 mucked things up.

Other blog stuff: If you're a team collector, would you put this card in your binder if you rooted for the Dodgers or Pirates? Right now, this card is in my team binder, but I don't know if it would be if the Pirates were my favorite team.

4 comments:

steelehere said...

Awesome card. I have one in my Dodger binder and one in my Garvey binder.

Fleerfan said...

I would put the card in my collection if I were a Pirates collector. I've got the '74 AL Championships card in my Orioles collection since its got Brooks Robinson on the front and mentions the Orioles. Just like Steelehere, I've actually got it in the Orioles binder and another in my Brooks Robinson collection.

Play at the Plate said...

Great shot. That's a great "moment in time" photo. The border colors are great too. With the Pirates uni and all the dust, the orange-brown is perfect.

Charlie said...

I concur. The dust cloud is awesome, especially for the era when posed carss were the norm.