By the spring of 1979, I still hadn't completed my 1978 set - the first set I'd ever collected - and was wondering whether I ever would, having never even caught a glimpse of some cards. So, I was unprepared when I walked into the McCrory's store in the Naugatuck Valley Mall in Waterbury, CT and spied a bin full of loose cello packs containing cards that seemed foreign. They certainly weren't from 1978 and it was now 1979, so perhaps these were the mythical 'Next Year's Cards' I'd heard about from friends who had been collecting for more than one year?
Since I knew my dad would let me get a pack, I began rifling through the loose cellos - here was a guy on a completely different team than he was in 1978! Here was some new guy I'd never even heard of! What the heck are these "Prospects" cards and why do they have little black and white pictures? Must be from some other card set - avoid these at all costs!
I finally settled on a pack which, I believe, had Preston Hanna of the Braves on the front, and from which I seem to recall pulling Ed Figueroa, Reggie Cleveland and Dave Bergman as well.
As I had done in 1978 I collected the set throughout the summer, and by the fall was down to perhaps a handful of needed cards, including Barry Foote, Ellis Valentine and Ken Forsch. I don't recall when I completed the set or what the final card I needed was, probably because the event was less melodramatic that its 1978 equivalent.
The 1979 set is far less imaginative in its design than many of its immediate predecessors, and even the one or two which would follow it. An image surrounded by a black-lined frame, with the player's name and position below and the team name in a colored banner at the bottom. For some reason, the other principal use of the surface real estate on the front was taken by a baseball containing the Topps logo - something which had never before appeared on the front of a card.
The backs were printed in green and black against gray, and, in addition to containing the usual biographical and performance information, offered kids a baseball trivia question. As backs of the era go it was cleaner and more easy to read than many.
"A" Sheet
"B" Sheet
"C" Sheet
"D" Sheet
"E" Sheet
"F" Sheet
For the second of 4 consecutive years, Topps kept to a 726-card set in 1979 - a number which required the double printing of 66 cards across the 6 sheets which were lettered A-F (each card was marked with its sheet letter near the trademark information on the reverse). So, if you recall having an excess of certain cards this might be the explanation. Those cards which exist in twice the supply as the others are:
19 - Larry Gura
20 - Joe Morgan
31 - Tom House
37 - Joe Kerrigan
50 - Steve Garvey
51 - Ray Fosse
54 - Dell Alston
58 - Bob Randall
59 - John Denny
67 - Jim Mason
68 - Joe Niekro
77 - Dan Briggs
100 - Tom Seaver
104 - Johnny Oates
105 - Rick Camp
107 - Jesus Alou
121 - Checklist 1-121
129 - Marty Pattin
130 - Bob Watson
137 - Larry Wolfe
154 - Jim Gantner
167 - Roger Metzger
179 - Jim Beattie
196 - Steve Kemp
200 - Johnny Bench
241 - Checklist 122-242
243 - Buck Martinez
247 - Tucker Ashford
279 - Jerry Grote
281 - Vic Correll
303 - Lary Sorensen
327 - Art Howe
351 - Wayne Nordhagen
359 - Dan Spillner
378 - Rob Picciolo
405 - Butch Wynegar
406 - Joe Wallis
408 - Charlie Moore
417 - All Time K Record
418 - All Time ERA Record
429 - John Urrea
455 - Bill Lee
416 - Jim Barr
467 - Don Kessinger
468 - Stan Bahnsen
470 - Garry Maddox
483 - Checklist 364-484
496 - Barry Bonnell
511 - Paul Reuschel
516 - Champ Summers
528 - Wayne Gross
538 - Mike Ivie
605 - Rick Monday
633 - Rob Wilfong
642 - Wilbur Howard
645 - George Scott
653 - Warren Brusstar
660 - Ron LeFlore
670 - Jim Hunter
671 - Joe Ferguson
683 - Dan Meyer
684 - Jamie Easterly
686 - Ron Schueler
690 - Buddy Bell
691 - Dock Ellis
700 - Reggie Jackson
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Wax packs contained 12 cards (along with a stick of gum) and sold for 20 cents each. They were packed 36 per box and cases contained 16 boxes each.
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Wax wrappers came in three varieties - one advertising Bazooka Smooth N'Juicy Bubblegum, one offering an uncut sheet of team checklist cards for 1 wrapper + 50 cents, and one offering a Topps Sports Card Locker for 1 wrapper, $4.75 and an additional 75 cents for handling.
The team checklist sheet came tri-folded and was printed on white stock which was thinner (and flimsier) than regular cards. With 27 slots and only 26 team cards, the 27th space was taken by a Sports Card Locker offer on the front and a bubble gum ad on the reverse.
Two of the gum varieties advertised.
The card locker was the same model that was available for several years in the 1970s - it contained plastic tiers for sorting cards by team and included stickers featuring team names.
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So-called 'grocery' packs were available primarily at, well, grocery stores. These were simply 3 wax packs overwrapped together on a cardboard tray. These didn't carry a factory-set price but were likely priced at 60 cents in most places.
Grocery packs were packaged 24 per 'box' and cases contained 2 such boxes.
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The cardboard tray advertised the card locker on the reverse. Curiously, unlike the ads on the wax wrappers, the uncut team card sheets and the rack pack header card (below), these ads did NOT require the 75 cent handling fee.
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Cello packs contained 18 cards (along with a stick of gum) and retailed for 30 cents each. They were packaged 24 per box. Cases contained 15 boxes.
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In '79, Topps experimented with so-called super packs which contained 28 cards and a 3-pack of Smooth N'Juicy bubble gum. They retailed for 49 cents, and while no packaging (boxes, cases) images have yet been found, it seems reasonable to believe they were packed 24 packs per box and 8 boxes per case, as they would be in 1980. The 1979 issue seems to have received limited distribution as a way for Topps to test their appeal. Things must have worked out alright as they were issued widely the next two years. The packs had a cardboard stiffener on the reverse which served as an advertisement for the gum similar to what was on the wax wrappers.
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Rack packs held 39 cards and sold for 59 cents each. Racks were packaged 24 per box and cases contained either 3 (left) or 6 (right) boxes. The header card in each rack pack had an ad for the card locker 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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For just the second time since 1959 and the first since 1966, the 1979 set did not contain any cards highlighting the previous year's post-season. Post-season cards made a brief, awkward comeback in 1981 but then disappeared entirely until the mid-90s.
Out of 726 total cards, the set contained 646 basic player cards, which included 17 cards with special All Star banners (red for the AL and purple for the NL). These included:
American League:
300 - Rod Carew, Twins 1B
265 - Don Money, Brewers 2B
330 - George Brett, Royals 3B
260 - Richie Zisk, Rangers OF
400 - Jim Rice, Red Sox OF
700 - Reggie Jackson, Yankees OF
680 - Carlton Fisk, Red Sox C
340 - Jim Palmer, Orioles P
National League:
50 - Steve Garvey, Dodgers 1B
20 - Joe Morgan, Reds 2B
210 - Larr Bowa, Phillies SS
650 - Pete Rose, Reds 3B
540 - Greg Luzinski, Phillies OF
600 - George Foster, Reds OF
605 - Rick Monday, Dodgers OF
200 - Johnny Bench, Reds C
110 - Vida Blue, Giants P
Each of these players were starters on the 1978 squads, but for some reason Fred Patek's card (525) was not marked even though he started at short for the AL.
For the first time since 1960 (and until 1987) the set did not recognize members of the previous season's All Star Rookie Team with small gold cups or trophies even though Topps kept naming the teams each year between 1979 and 1986. Regardless of no markings, the 1978 Topps All Star Rookie Team as it might have been designated in the 1979 set were:
224 - Dave Revering, A's 1B
24 - Paul Molitor, Brewers 2B
586 - Bob Horner, Braves 3B
116 - Ozzie Smith, Padres SS
543 - Rick Bosetti, Blue Jays OF
588 - Bob Molinaro, White Sox OF
656 - Hosken Powell, Twins OF
169 - Bill Nahorodney, White Sox C
298 - Rich Gale, Royals RHP
681 - John Henry Johnson, A's LHP
Cards 1-8 were 1978 Leage Leader cards and featured images of the AL and NL leaders in a particular statistical category on the front, and a list of the top 10 or so from each league on the back.
Cards 201-206 were 1978 Record Breaker Cards and highlighted six record-breaking performances from the previous season, with newspaper-like descriptions of each on the reverse.
Cards 411-418 depicted the all time record holders, both career and single-season, across 8 statistical categories. The top 10 in each category were listed on the reverse.
26 team checklist cards were scattered throughout the set - each featured a small inset photo of the club's manager on the front and a complete listing of all that team's players included in the set on the reverse (the Cubs' team card again featured player portraits rather than a team photo).
Cards 701-726 featured Prospects cards, one for each club arranged in alphabetical order by city, with the AL going first. The players featured were promising youngsters with little or no previous ML experience.
For reasons which defy explanation, Topps elected to use black and white images for these cards. It was only the second time, and the first time since 1954, that black and white images appeared on card fronts. Yes - the All Time leader cards used B&W, but then so did the Turn Back the Clock cards in '77, the All Time Greats and Bubble Champ in '76 and the Al Time Leaders in '73 as well as some post season cards over the years. But those were are all specialty cards where color shots were probably not even available in some cases, not individual player cards.
What were they thinking??
A full checklist of the 1979 set, including printable formats, can be found at the Trading Card Database HERE.
5 checklist cards marked the set off in increments of 121 - 1-121, 122-242, 243-363, 364-484, 485-605 and 606-726.
When I pulled my first Bump Wills card (if memory serves, from a pack I bought at a drug store in the Maplecroft Plaza in Cheshire, CT), I was taken aback by the the fact that this Texas Ranger was, according to Topps, actually now with Toronto. I don't think it had ever yet occurred to me that a set could contain an "error" card.
Well, an error card it was - probably one of the most well-known variations from that era following the 1974 Washington cards and before the variation lallapalloozas which were Donruss' and Fleer's premiere editions two years hence.
Price guides suggest a slight premium associated with the Blue Jay version (makes sense as it seems likely Topps quickly corrected the error), but many collectors, including myself, recall the Ranger version was far harder to find back in the day.
From a composition standpoint, the 1979 set is notable for its relative lack of airbrushed or painted images. Each previous year used them generously, with there being nearly 60 in 1978 alone. In 1979, there seem to be only 6:
77 - Dan Briggs
102 - Mike Anderson
198 - John Grubb
208 - Clarence Gaston
279 - Jerry Grote
632 - Don Kirkwood
An error which wasn't corrected was card 489 of Larry Cox . The image is actually of Cubs' catcher Dave Rader.
Making his Topps debut is Ozzie Smith (116). Per the price guides, Smith's card has been the most valuable card in the set since at least the mid- to late-'80s.
Also making their first appearances in 1979 are Royals star Willie Wilson (409) and slugger Pedro Guerrero (719).
Hall of Famers Jim Hunter (670) and Lou Brock (665) make their final Topps appearances in 1979, as do Tiger favorite Mickey Stanley (692), 21-year veteran Ron Fairly (580) and former Cub star Don Kessinger (467).
Tragically, Thurman Munson also made his last appearance in the 1979 set.
Munson was killed when his private plane crashed on August 2, 1979, and his death hit many young fans particularly hard. For many of us, it was the first encounter we had with a seemingly invincible celebrity athlete being taken from us.
Some time before his death, I was home during summer vacation when a local bank called to tell us we had won a drawing for 2 tickets to a future Yankee game. As fate would have it, the game was August 3, which turned out to be the first game the team played following his death. My father and I were in the upper deck on the left-field side during all the emotional tributes which occurred.
My dad and I were Red Sox fans, and I can clearly recall him telling me, as we were about to board the bus for the Bronx, that if anyone asked, I was a die-hard Yankee fan.
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In their April, 1979 issue, 'Dynamite' magazine again included small uncut panels of Topps cards.
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Two ad sheets for the 1979 set - one to order wax boxes (l) the other for grocery packs (r).
Each, oddly, uses an illustration of a Red Sox infielder (Doug Griffin?) taken sometime prior to 1975.
