Cubs Action in the 70's

I read a post this week on the Topps 1974 set (I apologize for forgetting where I read it...blame it on following 200 or so blogs) and the author was talking about the nice action cards in the set.  That got me thinking about the Cubs cards from that era and the action shots they featured.

Topps used game action shots on cards for the first time with the 1971 set.  But not of the cards were of Cubs players.  Instead, they used the boring posed shots, with 25 of the 27 pictures

showing Shea Stadium in the background...very boring. (of the other two, one was at Candlestick and one was a spring shot)

 

 

 

These are the first cards showing Cubs in game action, appropriately enough from the "In Action" subset.  None of the base cards showed any action, just shots mostly taken at spring training in Scottsdale.

Finally, in 1973, we get two base cards featuring Cubs game action.  This was obviously taken Wrigley Field...

...while this monstrosity comes from Oakland.

The blog author's favorite set, the 1974, gives us

 

 

four action cards, and they are all from home games at Wrigley.

The 1975 set actually represents a step backwards with the action, as only

 

two cards show game action.  It looks like both were taken from the same spot, possibly on the same day?

As we move later into the 70s, it seems as it Topps was shying away from the action cards.  The 1976 and 1977 sets didn't have any Cub action.  Action returned very briefly in the 1978 set with this card...

...of Nick's daddy.

As the decade closed, the action cards picked up again, as we equal the decade high of

 

 

 

four cards.

Once the 80's arrived the action cards became more of the norm and by the end of the '80s the posed cards were pretty much a thing of the past.