Set in review

Every 100 cards, I conducted an update of the 1975 Topps set. From the time I was a kid, there were always elements about the set that I wanted to quantify, and this blog was the perfect opportunity to do that:

Which border color combinations appeared the most? Which appeared the least? How many dudes looked like ladies?

That sort of stuff.

So this is my chance to put all those questions to rest. Here is the final tally for a lot of the categories that I mentioned throughout the blog and a couple others:

1. COLOR COMBINATIONS

In the end, there was a five-way tie for the lead among the color combinations. The green-light green, green-purple, orange-brown, pink-yellow and purple-pink combinations each finished with 55 cards apiece. If we're going by the define-the-design names selected for those combinations, the "lime design," "Incredible Hulk design," "candy corn design," "marshmallow peeps design," and "My Little Pony design" finished at the top of the heap. But here is the full list:

1. Green-light green: 55
2. Green-purple: 55
3. Orange-brown: 55
4. Pink-yellow: 55
5. Purple-pink: 55
6. Yellow-red: 39
7. Brown-orange: 33
8. Green-yellow: 33
9. Light blue-green: 33
10. Orange-yellow: 33
11. Red-orange: 33
12. Yellow-light blue: 33
13. Blue-orange: 22
14. Brown-tan: 22
15. Red-blue: 22
16. Red-yellow: 22
17. Tan-light blue: 22
18: Yellow-green: 22

Of course, I omitted the yellow-red borders of the all-star cards every time I ranked the border combinations. But if I combined the yellow-red All-Star card borders with the other yellow-red cards, then the yellow-red border would be the overall winner with 56 cards total.

2. POWDER BLUE UNIFORMS

There were a whopping 83 players wearing powder blue in this set. I'd be willing to guess that the total was even higher in the 1976 or 1977 Topps set. Maybe even 1978 with the first real appearance of the Blue Jays.

(EDIT: When including rookie prospects, league leaders, etc., the powder-blue uniform total grows to 95. The totals were a bit higher for '76-'78 but not as high as 1983 which has 204. https://nightowlcards.blogspot.com/2018/08/luv-ya-blue.html)

3. LOOKING UP

There are 29 players looking up in this set. I imagine that if you total this category up in 1960s sets, it's a lot bigger.

4. DUDE LOOKS LIKE A LADY

A grand total of 12 players that I thought looked like ladies when I was a kid. Here they all are together:

Buddy Bell, Ted Simmons, Jim Mason, Steve Arlin, Rich Coggins, Fred Beene, Dave LaRoche, Ellie Rodriguez, Ken Sanders, Dick Pole, Dave Roberts and Tom Veryzer.

5. DECEASED

Unfortunately, this is a category that will continue to grow. Right now, there are 64 players in this set that are deceased.

6. CHAW

A disappointing four players in this set are displaying a chaw. I really thought there would have been more. Players had disgusting habits back then.

7. MLB SON

Thirty-two players in this set had at least one child who also played in the majors. This total surprised me. I am aware of the many MLB families in baseball. I just never knew how MUCH of a family sport major league baseball was.

8. ROOKIE CUP

Here is the rookie cup team one more time:

1B - Mike Hargrove
2B - Larry Milbourne
3B - Bill Madlock
SS - Bucky Dent
OF - Bake McBride
OF - Greg Gross
OF - Claudell Washington
C - Barry Foote
P - Frank Tanana


9. ALL-STARS

Here are the All-Star cards one more time:

AL

1B - Dick Allen
2B - Rod Carew
3B - Brooks Robinson
SS - Bert Campaneris
OF - Bobby Murcer
OF - Jeff Burroughs
OF -
C - Carlton Fisk
P - Gaylord Perry

NL

1B - Steve Garvey
2B - Joe Morgan
3B - Ron Cey
SS - Larry Bowa
OF - Hank Aaron
OF - Pete Rose
OF - Jim Wynn
C - Johnny Bench
P - Andy Messersmith


Poor Reggie is still missing.

10. MOST POPULAR FIRST NAME

Jim is the most popular name in the set, appearing 30 times. Dave/David and Tom/Tommy appear 26 times.

11. MINIS

I have 124 cards in the set in mini form. That's 18.8% of the set. I plan to get to work on improving that percentage in the months ahead.

12. AIRBRUSHED

There are 65 cards of players who have been airbrushed into different uniforms. As a kid, I missed probably 60 of those.

13. PLAYER THAT APPEARS THE MOST IN THE SET

Nolan Ryan has four cards in the set. Two highlights, one leader card, and his base card.

14. MOST POPULAR POSTS

The first card in the set -- the Hank Aaron Highlight card -- is far-and-away the most clicked-on post. Here, I'll show you:

That's how close it is.

Now that the other Hank Aaron card has been posted on this blog, I expect the No. 1 Aaron card to have a little competition.


All right, that's the rundown on the set. Hope you enjoyed.

Oh, one other thing:

Other blog stuff: I have a surprise for tomorrow that I think you'll enjoy. Well, mostly I will enjoy it. But I'll let you ride along. You won't want to miss it. It's so good that I'll be posting it on both blogs. So stay tuned.