Billy Williams Rainbow From Topps Rookie of the Year 75th Anniversary

Topps released the Rookie of the Year 75th Anniversary set on December 22.  It was an on-line only release and I completely missed it.  Putting out a new product just three days before Christmas is not a good idea in my humble opinion.  People are a little distracted at that time.  In fact, the 22nd is when that huge blizzard hit the Midwest and beyond.  Not much thought was give to baseball cards.

The set commemorates the 75th anniversary of the Rookie of the Year award.  Since the award is given to one player per league, that means the checklist should have 150 cards and six of them should be Cubs.

Nope.

The set has just 61 (what an odd number for a set of cards) players and only three of them are Cubs.  Ken Hubbs (1962), Jerome Walton (1989) and Geovany Soto (2007) are not in the set.  Cubs making the cut are Kerry Wood, Kris Bryant, and Billy Williams.

I decided to try to get as many versions of the Billy Williams card as I could.  In addition to the base card there are six parallel sets. I found the /75, /50, and /25 versions at very reasonable prices.  Missing are the 1/1. /5, and /10.

 

 

The picture used is from 1968, which is seven seasons after Billy won the Rookie of the Year.  Perhaps there aren't any color shots available from 1961?