It's taken four months, but I am now half way through the 1969 set. There are 664 cards, so #332 Fred Tabot was the last of the first half and #333 Ivan Murrell starts the second half.
So far, the 38 pages of the set have broken down like this:
12 League Leader cards
4 checklists
8 World Series cards
19 team rookie cards
294 player cards
294 players + 38 rookies (two per card) = 332 players so far.
Overall Set Totals (player cards only)
Hall of Famers - 20 out of 332 players - 6%
Hatless - 76 out of 332 players - 22.9%
Airbrush - 75 out of 332 players - 22.6%
Cubs (includes past, present, or future) - 48 out of 332 players - 14%
Here's how lousy the photographs are in this set: If you add the hatless and airbrushed players together, you get 151 out of 332 players, a whopping 45% of the cards!
Other observations....
- There were a lot of players who had their careers extended in 1969 because of expansion. I'll bet you've seen cards of a bunch of players you never (or barely) heard of before.
- Topps was just plain lazy, reusing many pictures and using tons of old ones. There is no excuse for using pictures that are 4-5 years old.
I hope you've enjoyed the first four months of this set review. I'll keep plugging away a couple pages per week and we'll wrap this up some time in January!
I have most of this set but I've never looked at it with a real discerning eye. It definitely gives me a different outlook on the set.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how other Topps sets from the 60s and 70s would stand up to the scrutiny.
I don't have alot of knowledge of sets earlier than 1969, but I know the sets of the '70's were not nearly this bad with old pictures and hatless/airbrushed players. I'm sure expansion in '69 made things difficult for Topps, but that doesn't answer why they used so many old pictures.
ReplyDeleteI've definitely enjoyed these posts, and I'm looking forward to seeing the second half of the set. Anxious to see if Hatless or Airbrush will prevail!
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