1976 Topps Card of the Year - Round 1, Group 1

• It's time to choose a card of the year. I chose 64 cards to be included in the voting. About 45 of them were chosen by readers and I chose the other ones to fill out the field.

• We'll do this eight cards at a time. Choose your four favorite cards from each group. The top half of each group will advance to the next round.

• Here are the cards:

#620 Al Oliver

#278 Bernie Carbo

#627 Bill Plummer

#525 Billy Williams

#23 Brian Downing

#230 Carl Yastrzemski

#262 Checklist

#277 Chicago Cubs

• The poll will be open for three days and then the next set of cards will appear for your vote.

1976 Topps Traded - Trades Checklist

• I wonder what a 1976 traded set would look like if it were increased to 132 cards and sold in boxes like in the 1980s. Here is my crack at what the checklist would look like:
• The 44 players on this checklist card would be an obvious start
• Next would be regular cards of the guys on the 4-player "rookie cards" (39 in all - Willie Randolph already got a traded card)
• Rob Dressler - San Francisco Giants
• Ron Guidry - New York Yankees
• Bob McClure - Kansas City Royals
• Pat Zachry - Cincinnati Reds
• Hector Cruz - St. Louis Cardinals
• Jamie Quirk - Kansas City Royals
• Jerry Turner - San Diego Padres
• Joe Wallis - Chicago Cubs
• Don Aase - Boston Red Sox
• Jack Kucek - Chicago White Sox
• Frank LaCorte - Atlanta Braves
• Mike Pazik - Minnesota Twins
• Art DeFillipis - Texas Rangers
• Randy Lerch - Philadelphia Phillies
• Sid Monge - Cleveland Indians
• Steve Barr - Texas Rangers
• Andy Merchant - Boston Red Sox
• Ed Ott - Pittsburgh Pirates
• Royle Stillman - Baltimore Orioles
• Jerry White - Montreal Expos
• Larry Anderson - Milwaukee Brewers
• Ken Crosby - Chicago Cubs
• Mark Littell - Kansas City Royals
• Butch Metzger - San Diego Padres
• Dave McKay - Minnesota Twins
• Jerry Royster - Atlanta Braves
• Roy Staiger - New York Mets
• Steve Grilli - Detroit Tigers
• Craig Mitchell - Oakland A's 
• Jose Sosa - Houston Astros
• George Throop - Kansas City Royals
• Henry Cruz - Los Angeles Dodgers
• Chet Lemon - Chicago White Sox
• Ellis Valentine - Montreal Expos
• Terry Whitfield - New York Yankees
• Santo Alcala - Cincinnati Reds
• Mike Flanagan - Baltimore Orioles
• Joe Pactwa - California Angels 
• Pablo Torrealba - Atlanta Braves
• Then would be players who made their debut sometime in early 1976 but who didn't get a card (13 players):
• Butch Wynegar - Minnesota Twins
• Paul Hartzell - California Angels
• Bob Randall - Minnesota Twins
• Mark Fidrych - Detroit Tigers
• Jason Thompson - Detroit Tigers
• Pete Redfern -  Minnesota Twins
• John Wathan - Kansas City Royals
• Joaquin Andujar - Houston Astros
• Glenn Burke - Los Angeles Dodgers
• Mike Proly - St. Louis Cardinals
• Gil Rondon - Houston Astros
• Joel Youngblood - Cincinnati Reds
• Bruce Sutter - Chicago Cubs

• Here are some guys who were traded/signed sometime between December 1975 and July 1976 (72 players):
• Vic Harris - St. Louis Cardinals
• Mick Kelleher - Chicago Cubs
• Rodney Scott - Montreal Expos
• Roger Freed - Montreal Expos
• Tom Walker - St. Louis Cardinals
• Willie Crawford - St. Louis Cardinals
• Ted Sizemore - Los Angeles Dodgers
• Dick Drago - California Angels
• Roger Nelson - Kansas City Royals
• Ellie Rodriguez - Los Angeles Dodgers
• Bobby Tolan - Philadelphia Phillies
• Reggie Jackson - Baltimore Orioles
• Ken Holtzman - Baltimore Orioles (or New York Yankees if set is printed after June 15)
• Don Baylor - Oakland A's
• Mike Torrez - Oakland A's
• Paul Mitchell - Oakland A's
• Lerrin LaGrow - St. Louis Cardinals
• Cleon Jones - Chicago White Sox
• Don Kessinger - St. Louis Cardinals
• Mike Garman - Chicago Cubs
• Ken McMullen - Oakland A's
• Merv Rettenmund - San Diego Padres
• Roric Harrison - St. Louis Cardinals
• Harry Parker - Cleveland Indians
• Terry  Crowley - Baltimore Orioles
• Danny Frisella - St. Louis Cardinals (or Milwaukee Brewers if printed after June 7)
• Ken Reynolds - San Diego Padres
• Ray Sadecki - Milwaukee Brewers
• Andre Thornton - Montreal Expos
• Larry Biittner - Chicago Cubs
• Steve Renko - Chicago Cubs
• Bill Greif - St. Louis Cardinals
• Carlos May - New York Yankees
• Ken Brett - Chicago White Sox
• Rich Coggins - Chicago White Sox
• Stan Perzanowski - Cleveland Indians
• Fritz Peterson - Texas Rangers
• Von Joshua - Milwaukee Brewers
• Tommy Davis - California Angels
• Bernie Carbo - Milwaukee Brewers
• Bobby Darwin - Boston Red Sox
• Tom Murphy - Boston Red Sox
• Joe Coleman - Chicago Cubs
• Nate Colbert - Oakland A's
• Milt Wilcox - Detroit Tigers
• Gary Sutherland -  Milwaukee Brewers
• Pedro Garcia - Detroit Tigers
• Darrell Evans - San Francisco Giants
• Marty Perez - San Francisco Giants
• Willie Montanez - Atlanta Braves
• Craig Robinson - Atlanta Braves
• Reggie Smith - Los Angeles Dodgers
• Joe Ferguson - St. Louis Cardinals
• Doyle Alexander - New York Yankees
• Ellie Hendricks - New York Yankees
• Grant Jackson - New York Yankees
• Rick Dempsey - Baltimore Orioles
• Tippy Martinez - Baltimore Orioles
• Rudy May - Baltimore Orioles
• Scott McGregor - Baltimore Orioles
• Dave Pagan - Baltimore Orioles
• Joe Lahoud - Texas Rangers
• Blue Moon Odom - Chicago White Sox
• Pete Varney - Atlanta Braves
• Mike Marshall - Atlanta Braves
• Lee Lacy - Los Angeles Dodgers
• Elias Sosa - Los Angeles Dodgers
• Andy Hassler - Kansas City Royals
• Jim Dwyer - New York Mets
• Del Unser - Montreal Expos
• Pepe Mangual - New York Mets
• Earl Williams - Montreal Expos
• It would be interesting to have some "error" cards. Perhaps the guys in the Charlie Finley fire sale can be printed with a notation that the sales were voided by Commissioner Bowie Kuhn (3 players)
• Joe Rudi - Boston Red Sox
• Rollie Fingers - Boston Red Sox
• Vida Blue - New York Yankees
• New managers could get their own cards (4 cards):
• Chuck Tanner - Oakland A's
• Bill Rigney - San Francisco Giants
• Paul Richards - Chicago White Sox
• Norm Sherry - California Angels (if the set is printed after July 23)
• Frank Robinson deserved his own player card (1 card)

• Perhaps we could throw in cards of players who retired after the 1975 season (2 cards):
• Bob Gibson - St. Louis Cardinals
• Harmon Killebrew - Kansas City Royals
• This would be a total of 178 cards. We would have to cut 46 cards to get to 132.
• This would have been an interesting set. Collectors would have gone nuts over a Mark Fidrych rookie card.

1976 Topps #643 - Checklist #529-660

• Here is the last of the checklists. A pretty good All Star team could be formed from this series:
• P: Tom Seaver, Don Sutton, Ron Guidry, J.R. Richard, Sparky Lyle, Tug McGraw
• C: Thurman Munson
• 1B: Keith Hernandez
• 2B: Willie Randolph, Dave Lopes
• SS: Bert Campaneris
• 3B: Bill Madlock 
• OF: Al Oliver, Greg Luzinski, Dwight Evans
• bench: whoever doesn't start at 2B, Darrell Porter, Bill Freehan, George Hendrick, Don Kessenger, Hank Aaron.
• I probably missed a couple of good ones, particularly from the rookie cards.

.

1976 Topps #526 - Checklist #397-528

• Hall of Famers on each checklist cards (excluding highlights, league leaders, managers, and TSN All Time All Stars):
• Checklist #1 (1-132) 6 - Lou Brock, George Brett, Gaylord Perry, Brooks Robinson, Dennis Eckersley, Jim Hunter
• Checklist #2 (133-264) 4 - Dave Winfield, Rich Gossage, Fergie Jenkins, Carl Yastrzemski, Pete Rose is also in this series.
• Checklist #3 (265-396) 7 - Willie Stargell, Johnny Bench, Robin Yount, Tony Perez, Jim Rice, Steve Carlton, Carlton Fisk
• Checklist #4 (397-528) 9 - Rod Carew, Rollie Fingers, Joe Morgan, Phil Niekro, Gary Carter,  Jim Palmer, Mike Schmidt, Reggie Jackson, Billy Williams
• Checklist #5 (529-660) 3 - Don Sutton, Hank Aaron, Tom Seaver
• I didn't check the "4-player rookie cards," but I don't think there were any HOFers on those cards -- please correct me if I'm wrong or if I missed any HOFers on this list.
• Do you remember those ads that used to be in the collector's catalogs for series sets? Larry Fritsch cards (among others) used to advertise these sets and list the highlights in each series. It was fun to figure out which series I would like to have the most. Out of these series in 1976, which one would have been your favorite back in the day?

1976 Topps #392 - Checklist 265-396

Woo hoo -- a checklist! Here are a few questions:

• Did you mark your checklists?
• How did you mark your checklists? Did you fill the whole box or did you put a line or check through each box?
• When sorting your cards, where did the checklists go?

1976 Topps #262 - Checklist 133-264

• Ooh whee - a checklist.

• When I was a kid there were about four of us around the block who collected cards. Jimmy collected mainly cards of teams that were good at the time (A's, Reds, Yankees, Dodgers) and he also liked Pirates cards since he was from the Pittsburgh area. Lupe was a big Reds collector. Brian liked the oddball cards (checklists, team cards, leader cards, etc.). I was the set collector in the group. I always tried to fill up those checklists.
  
• This one isn't checked, which means it isn't one of my "originals." I probably picked up this card as an upgrade for an already really beat-up card. I have another upgrade in a box that I need to get into my notebook.

• Checklists have their place, but I think they should have been unnumbered cards so that more real cards could be put in the set. The way Topps did the team checklists in 1974 was a good way to do it -- team checklists were inserted in packs and weren't very hard to get.

1976 Topps #119 - Checklist 1-132

What's there to say? It's a checklist.

I wonder what it was like to collect baseball cards in series. I started collecting in 1974. By that time, Topps was putting out all of the cards at once instead of in series.

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