#600 - Rod Carew

Card fact: This is the very last card I needed to complete the 1975 Topps set.

What I thought about this card then: My brother had it and it was a very cool card. Carew's bat looks at least 70 feet long.

What I think about this card now: Carew wasn't exactly known as a slugger. I associate this pose with sluggers.

Other stuff: Carew was another one of the first baseball superstars that I knew. He seemed to have a lot of fans among my friends, which was a bit odd, because there isn't anybody in my state that knows a thing about the Twins. But I remember his 1976, 1977 and 1978 cards as being very coveted.

Of course, Carew is a Hall of Famer, hit .388 in 1978, was the rookie of the year in 1967, a member of 18 straight All-Star teams, and a member of the 3,000-hit club. He was also the subject of one the first baseball biographies I ever read. I have known the story about him being named after the doctor who delivered him on a train since I was a wee lad.

Carew signed with the Angels as a free agent after a famous falling out with the Twins' notoriously stingy owner Calvin Griffith. After 12 years with the Twins, Carew spent seven more with the Angels.

He later became a hitting coach for the Angels and the Brewers.

Back facts: When I was a kid I thought that George Torporcer was kneeling on the ground looking at bugs. He needed his glasses to get a good look at the bugs! That's how little boys think.

Other blog stuff: Normally, I do the set review every 100 cards. But I also need to do the All-Star update with this card. So I'll do the All-Star update here, and do the set review with the next card.

Carew fills the second base spot for the American League:

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


Some of you may be thinking, "only one more All-Star and the teams are complete!" Well, as one commentor already gave away way back 300 cards ago, there will be no more All-Star cards.


Topps did not give Reggie Jackson an All-Star card in the 1975 set even though he was the starting right fielder for the American League in the 1974 All-Star Game. So the one outfield position in the A.L. is forever left blank because of Topps' goof.

#306 - Batting Leaders

Card fact: This card begins the third subset in the 1975 Topps set. It's the league leaders subset. All of the cards have the pink-yellow (marshmallow-peep) borders.

What I thought about this card then: This is one of three leaders cards that I saw when I was 9. I thought the leaders cards were kind of interesting. More interesting than the team cards anyway.

What I think about this card now: I wonder how Topps obtained the photos for the leader cards? Were they just photos taken from the time when it took the photo for the player's card, or did they obtain them some other way?

Other stuff: This subset marked the return of the league leaguers to the regular Topps lineup. Starting in 1961, Topps featured league leaders every year in its base set through 1973. Then, in 1974, the leaders were scrapped for the Aaron retrospective and a group of All-Star duos cards.

Topps would feature league leaders from 1975 through 1984 before booting the series again in 1985. League leaders disappeared from Topps issues for quite awhile after that.

Back facts: Looking at league leaders 35 years later is fascinating. My favorite part is picking out names of players who you wouldn't figure to be in the top 10 of a certain category.

For me on this card, the surprises are Jorge Orta placing third in the American League and Greg Gross third in the National League.

As you can see, Carew and Garr were way ahead of everyone else. This was Garr's first and only batting title, while Carew was working on the fourth of seven in his career.

Other blog stuff: Here is the original card that I pulled back in 1975:

Even as a wee-one, I did a fairly good job of protecting my cards from the elements. There were relatively few with creases. But this is one that managed to fold in on itself.