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Somehow (I have no idea how), I came into possession of a 1974 Topps Gail Hopkins card round about 1979 or so, about one year after I started collecting. For a time, that card was my sole 1974 specimen and was all I knew about the set. Then, my friend Dave moved in up the street and let me have some of his doubles (as we called our duplicates) and I then had perhaps 50 or so, including some really odd looking ones with "TRADED" written across the bottom and at least one that said Washington "Nat'l League" for some reason (more on all that below). In the early 80s, I ordered a lot of 50 different from Renata Galasso, and received the sharpest looking 1974s I'd seen to that point. I still didn't have too many by the time my parents took me to Cooperstown in the summer of 1984 and while there I bought another lot of 50 mint 74s from a store in town, so I now had almost 200 or so. I added more and more over the years and finally completed the set sometime during college in the late 80s by acquiring Alan Foster of the Cardinals.
The 1974 set doesn't seem to get a lot of love in the hobby, but it is one of the nicest looking offerings of the decade. It was certainly an improvement over 1973, not least because Topps seemed to have finally figured out how to use good, uncluttered action shots.
A thin, round-cornered border surrounds the player's image, and brightly colored banners above to the left and below to the right proclaim his city and team name respectively. The position appears in a simple black font in the upper right, and the player's name in a similar font in the lower left.
Backs are printed in green and black against gray (which makes for easy readability) and a small cartoon is set off to the right depicting some factoid about the player.
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1974 was the year Topps finally and completely abandoned issuance of cards by series, a system they had used for more than 20 years. All 660 cards were issued across the country all at the same time.
Nevertheless, the make-up of the 5 printing sheets still retained a bit of an adherence to the series tradition.
Above and to the left, the sheet anchored by Dave Rader in the upper left contains 67 cards from what previously would have been considered the 1st series (numbers 1-132) and 65 from the 2nd (133-264). Next to that, the sheet with George Mitterwald in the upper left has 65 from the 1st and 67 from the 2nd. Below the Rader sheet, the Steve Braun sheet contains all 132 cards from the '3rd series' (265-396). To the right, the Joe Lis sheet has 71 cards from the 4th (397-528) and 61 from the 5th (529-660), while the Mike Phillips sheet to the left has 71 from the 5th and 61 from the 4th.
Whatever the arrangement, the sheets each are made up of 132 unique cards, and the set has no over- or short-prints.
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Wax packs had a number of varieties in 1974. First, there were two basic designs - one making it plain that all 660 cards in the set were now available all year long, and the other indicating a team checklist card was included in the pack. Also, packs could be found in a 12-card size selling for 15 cents and in an 8-card size selling for 10. In 1973, packs had sold for 10 cents and contained 10 cards, so Topps was probably trying to see whether people preferred the same price with two fewer cards or the higher price with two more. Packs wrapped in the team checklist wrapper contained 13 and 9 cards, with the checklist truly being a bonus. Both varieties used the same wrappers but boxes had the different prices printed on them. Boxes contained either 24 12-card packs or 36 8-card packs, but because each totaled 288 cards (324 if they were the checklist packs) boxes were the same sizes. Cases in 1973 had included 24 boxes and those from 1975 would contain 16 - we currently lack reliable information on how many boxes 1974 cases contained.
Both wrapper types featured one of 4 different side panels. One drove home the point of all 660 cards being available all year, one advertised "Official Major League T-Shirts" with the team logo of your choice for $1.25 plus a wrapper, one adverted an uncut sheet of the team checklists for 30 cents and a wrapper and one hawked a cardboard Sportscard Locker for $2 and a wrapper.
As if emphasis was needed, some boxes included toppers further driving home the fact that things had changed in 1974 with the elimination of issuance by series.
Sportscard lockers included assembly instructions and stickers with team names from all 4 Topps sports lines.
The uncut team checklist sheet came folded in half like the 1973 version. More on these below.
So-called 'grocery' packs were available primarily at, well, grocery stores. In 1974, they consisted of 3 10 cent wax packs overwrapped together on a cardboard tray. It is not known if any grocery packs containing the larger, 12-card packs were issue. They didn't carry an MSRP but were likely priced at 30 cents in most places.
According to the small ad below, packs came 24 per display tray, and there were 2 display trays per case.
The cardboard tray offered several fun items including an umpire's ball/strike indicator (200 Bazooka gum comics or 5 comics and 40 cents), a 'genuine' whale's tooth good luck charm (300 comics or 10 comics and 60 cents), an 'exploding' battleship target toy (250 comics or 10 comics and 50 cents) and a 'magic' magnet set (150 comics or 5 comics and 50 cents).
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Cello packs contained 18 cards (along with a stick of gum) and retailed for 25 cents each. Boxes likely contained 24 packs, and cases contained perhaps 15 boxes as they would in 1975, but precise data is unavailable.
Rack packs held 42 cards and sold for 39 cents each. Packs came 24 per box and while there is no definite information on case size, we do know that at least 2-box mini cases were available (above).
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Special racks were produced for distribution in Baltimore and Detroit (possibly Oakland as well). In Detroit the header card was a membership card for the Pepsi Detroit Tiger Fan Club - young fans could sign and write in the name of their school on the front, while the back listed the shibboleths of the Fan Club Creed. In Baltimore the header was simply the team logo on front and a list of upcoming home games with special promotions on the reverse.
Dealers and other interested parties could purchase 500-count vending boxes directly from Topps. Vending boxes came in cases of 24 boxes each.
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Out of 660 total cards, the set contains 565 basic player cards, including a unique card #1, a tribute to Hank Aaron, who was expected to break Babe Ruth's all-time home run record early in the 1974 season. Fortunately for Topps he didn't break his leg in spring training. This was Aaron's basic card in the set, and the card's reverse was like other basic card reverses.
For unknown reasons, Topps chose not to mark the cards of the 1973 Topps All Star Rookie team with small gold cups, making 1974 the only year they failed to do so from 1960 through 1978, after which they took a break for a decade.
Had they been marked, the team would have included:
18 - Gary Thomasson, Giants 1B
112 - Dave Lopes, Dodgers 2B
481 - Jerry Terrell, Twins SS
341 - Dan Driessen, Reds 3B
353 - Rich Coggins, Orioles OF
32 - John Grubb, Padres OF
386 - Gary Matthews, Giants OF
131 - Bob Boone, Phillies C
169 - Steve Rogers, Expos RHP
173 - Randy Jones, Padres LHP
Cards 2-6 are "Hank Aaron Specials" and document his career through his Topps baseball cards, 1954-1973, 4 per card. Backs list significant highlights from his career, milestone home runs, etc.
Cards 201-208 document each league's top performer from 1973 across 8 statistical categories. Card backs list the top ten performers from each league in that particularly category.
Cards 470 (AL) and 471 (NL) recap the 1973 LCS. Card backs provide the winning clubs' cumulative series stats.
Card 472-479 summarize the action from the 1973 World Series. Each of the 7 games has its own card with stats from that game on the reverse, and a final card highlights the Athletic' 2nd straight championship and contains each clubs cumulative series offensive stats.
Cards 331-339 depict the starting players from the 1973 All Star Game. For some reason, Dick Allen is presented on the 1B card, but in the actual game he was a reserve, and John Mayberry of the Royals drew the starting assignment for the AL.
The back of card 331 (Catchers) provided the box score from the game, while the backs of the remaining 8 cards contained pieces of a puzzle depicting the game's MVP, Bobby Bonds of the Giants.
24 team photo cards are scattered throughout the set. Each features a team photo on the front and the club's all-time leaders and pennant history on the reverse. The Cubs' car features a collecting of individual player portraits instead of an actual team photo.
The set features 21 manager cards, which feature the manager and 4 coaches on the front, while providing information on their pro playing careers, date/place of burth and current home city on the reverse. The Royals' Jack McKeon and the Twins' Frank Quilici are depicted with only 3 coaches, the Indians' Ken Aspromonte with has 2, and the Tigers' Ralph Houk with none.
The Yankees, A's and Padres don't have manager cards. The Yankees' Bill Virdon, the A's Alvin Dark and the Padres' John McNamara were signed too late to be included in the set
Cards 596-608 each feature four rookies with little to no major league experience that Topps thought showed promise. Each card is categorized by position - rookie pitchers, rookie catchers, etc.
5 checklist cards mark the set off in increments of 132: 1-132, 133-264, 265-396, 397-528 and 529-660.
A full checklist of the 1974 set, including printable formats, can be found at the Trading Card Database HERE.
Hall of Famer Dave Winfield (456) appears for the first time in 1974.
Also debuting are Dave Parker (252), Ken Griffey (598), Bill Madlock (600), Brian Downing (601), Frank White (604) and Frank Tanana (605).
Making their final appearances are Hall of Famers Luis Aparicio (61), Orlando Cepeda (83), Al Lakine (215) and Juan Marichal (330).
Brothers Matty (430) and Felipe Alou (485) also took their bows in 1974.
For the first time ever, Topps made a complete set of cards available for purchase. In 1974, complete sets were sold at Sears stores (possibly also at J.C. Penny's). The boxed set included the Traded cards (see below). It would be the final time a complete set was marketed until 1982.
As they had done in 1973, Topps issued 24 team checklist cards. Unlike in 1973, cards were printed on regular stock, and were plentifully available in packs from the beginning of the year onward.
Card fronts had a collection of facsimile autographs surrounded by a read border and topped by the year and team name over a crossed bat logo set against a green background. Backs were printed in yellow and back against gray and contained a checklist for all the cards from that team contained in the set, including managers, team photos and rookies on 4x rookie cards.
Beginning in 1975, Topps included such checklists as part of the basic set, on the reverse of team photo cards.
The 1974 set featured an 'adjacent' set - not an insert set like in the years before 1972 but not part of the basic set either.
43 players were featured on "Traded" cards - cards looked like basic player cards with the addition of a bold yellow stripe across the bottom with the word "TRADED". Card backs offered, in newspaper fashion, an account of the deal that brought the player to his new team. Cards were number according to the player's number in the basic set following by a "T". A 44th card, providing a checklist for the tradeds, was also issued.
"Traded" cards were available in all packaging formats from the beginning of the year (it was previously thought they were late-season additions).
Traded cards were printed on their own dedicated sheet, 3 complete 44-card sets per sheet.
The 1974 set is known for its variations. The two 'normal' ones are the card of Jesus Alou which was printed with and without his position, and that of the Bob Apodaca rookie card which was printed with his name spelled correctly but also with his name misspelled ApodacO.
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By the fall of 1973, it looked for all the world as if the Padres were going to be sold to D.C. interests who would move the club to Washington for 1974. So certain did this fate seem that Topps infamously decided to jinx it by printing its Padres cards as 'Washington "Nat'l Lea."'.
On January 25th, 1974, McDonalds' mogul Ray Kroc stepped in and purchased the club ensuring they'd remain in San Diego. Topps had already formatted all Padres cards on all 5 printing sheets with the Washington designation, and they began reformatting each back to San Diego. Three of the sheets had already been printed off in high volume so as to make scrapping them economically prohibitive. Padres cards from these sheets (the Rader, Mitterwald and Braun sheets from above) are available in both San Diego and Washington versions with the Washington variety being a bit rarer than the other. \
The other two sheets (Lis and Phillips above) had either not yet hit the presses or had been produced so minimally that destroying them and starting over made sense. No cards from these sheets were issued with the Washington designation.
But WAIT! Someone overlooked the Dave Freisleben rookie card on the Lis sheet, so it WAS released into the wild with a Washington designator. In fact, it was printed, cut and packed out in great quantities before someone realized it. Hurriedly Topps corrected it by replacing Washington with San Diego, and the problem was solved.
But WAIT! In their rush to correct the first mistake, Topps created a second when it was discovered that the font used in San Diego Padres was noticeably larger than the fonts used on the rest of the rookies. Stop the presses! Topps adjusted the font to the correct size, and began running the cards off again.
The odd result of all this is that the Freisleben Washington variation is by far the most common version of the card, with the large print font card coming in second. The correct version of the card, with San Diego Padres in the correct font is actually the rarest of the 3.
As they had done in 1973, a small number of 1974 cards were printed in a horizontal format to allow for wider action shorts (although one wonders what they were thinking with the Santo card).
So-called Fun Packs were issued by Topps late in 1974 and in some other years in the 1970s and 1980s. They contained an assortment of sports and non-sports packs. In 1974 they contained special 2-card packs of 1974 baseball using wrappers previously used for the regular packs that year.
Some interesting observations are captured in this review of the set published the April, 1974 edition of the Ballcard Collector.
This image shows workers at Topps' Duryea, PA plant placing wax and cello packs into boxes.