1976 Topps Card of the Year (Round 1, Group 8)

• The cards that will move on from group 7 are Rick Manning, Ron Cey, Sal Bando, and Steve Garvey.
• No love for Rusty Staub in the last group --- that card received no votes.
• Here is the eighth and final group for the first round. Please vote for your favorite(s). The top four will move on to the next round

Steve Ontiveros #284

Stolen Base Leaders #197

Tito Fuentes #8

Tom Seaver #600

Ty Cobb Sporting News All Stars #346

Von Joshua #82

Willie Horton #320

World Series Champs #462

1976 Topps #350 - Lefty Grove

AL MVP: 1931

AL All Star: 1933, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939

A Tribute to Lefty Grove, Baseball's Fierce Warrior - Baseball Digest September 1975

Footage of Grove pitching




Lefty Grove pitching mechanics

1976 Topps #349 - Walter Johnson

AL MVP: 1913, 1924

Walter Johnson - Baseball Digest February 1953

Walter Johnson Greatest Pitcher of them All - January 1971 Baseball Digest

SABR Biography

Walter Johnson quotes:

• "I throw as hard as I can when I think I have to throw as hard as I can."
• "The beanball is one of the meanest things on Earth and no decent fellow would use it. The beanball is a potential murderer. If I were a batter and thought the pitcher really tried to bean me, I'd be inclined to wait for him outside the park with a baseball bat."

Footage of Walter Johnson pitching

1976 Topps #348 - Mickey Cochrane

AL MVP: 1928, 1934

AL All Star: 1934, 1935

SABR Biography

Official Site

Mickey Cochrane: The Life of a Baseball Hall of Fame Catcher (Google Books)

1976 Topps #347 - Ted Williams

AL MVP: 1946, 1949

AL All Star: 1940, 1941, 1942, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960

Ted Williams -- Feudal Champion - November 1956 Baseball Digest

When Ted Beat a Full House, but Lost Pot - October 1957 Baseball Digest

Ted Sights Another Crown at 40! - December 1957 Baseball Digest

Ted Williams Goes Back to Where it All Began - March 1978 Baseball Digest

Opposing Pitcher Recalls Ted Williams' Final Homer - March 1993 Baseball Digest

Ted Williams quotes:

• "A man has to have goals - for a day, for a lifetime - and that was mine, to have people say, 'There goes Ted Williams, the greatest hitter who ever lived.'"
• "I hope somebody hits .400 soon. Then people can start pestering that guy with questions about the last guy to hit .400."
• "I've found that you don't need to wear a necktie if you can hit."

Liked to face: Art Ditmar (.500 in 42 AB); Bob Keegan (.475 in 40 AB); Bob Turley (.429 in 42 AB); Jim Bunning (.377 with 8 HR in 61 AB)
Hated to face: Jim Wilson (.143 in 35 AB); Jack Harshman (.156 in 32 AB); Billy Pierce (.217 in 60 AB); Mike Garcia (.233 in 43 AB)

Ted batting





Ted's last at bat

1976 Topps #346 - Ty Cobb

• AL MVP: 1911
• Brains in His Feet - November 1955 Baseball Digest
• Memories of Ty Cobb Fade But Aren't Forgotten - September 1978 Baseball Digest
• Hostile Side of Ty Cobb Still Lingers in Memory - August 1985 Baseball Digest
• SABR Biography
• Ty Cobb quotes:
•  Baseball is a red-blooded sport for red-blooded men. It's no pink tea, and mollycoddles had better stay out. It's a struggle for supremacy, a survival of the fittest.
• Baseball was one-hundred percent of my life.
• 
  The base paths belonged to me, the runner. The rules gave me the right. I always went into a bag full speed, feet first. I had sharp spikes on my shoes. If the baseman stood where he had no business to be and got hurt, that was his fault.
  

Footage of Cobb (Cobb is speaking)

1976 Topps #345 - Babe Ruth

AL MVP: 1923

AL All Star: 1933, 1934
The Day Babe Ruth Broke In - July 1964 Baseball Digest

One-Time Teammate Recalls Babe Ruth - May 1979 Baseball Digest

SABR Biography
Babe Ruth quotes:

• Baseball was, is and always will be to me the best game in the world.
• All ballplayers should quit when it starts to feel as if all the baselines run uphill.

Ruth taking a swing





60th home run in 1927

1976 Topps #344 - Honus Wagner

SABR Biography

Official Site

Honus Wagner: The Life of Baseball's Flying Dutchman (Google Books)

1976 Topps #343 - Pie Traynor

NL All Star: 1933, 1934

Pie Traynor Greatest of the Third Basemen -Baseball Digest June 1972

Official Website

SABR Biography

Pie Traynor in a 1969 interview talking about the Pirates

1976 Topps #342 - Rogers Hornsby

Most Valuable Player: 1925, 1929

Hornsby -- Better Hitter than Ty Cobb - July 1969 Baseball Digest

Website

"I don't want to play golf. When I hit a ball, I want someone else to go chase it."

"People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring."
Rogers Hornsby footage

1976 Topps #341 - Lou Gehrig

• This is my second favorite subset. My favorite one is the MVP subset from 1975 Topps. I'm not going to go through a season-by-season rundown on these players since all of their career stats are on the backs of the cards. For these guys, the cards speak for themselves.
• Most Valuable Player 1927, 1936
• All Star Game 1933, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939
• Yankee Teammates Recall the Greatness of Lou Gehrig - Baseball Digest July 1995
• SABR Biography
• Website
• Lou Gehrig quotes:
• "The ballplayer who loses his head, who can't keep his cool, is worse than no ballplayer at all."
• "The Babe is one fellow, and I'm another and I could never be exactly like him. I don't try, I just go on as I am in my own right."
• "There is no room in baseball for discrimination. It is our national pastime and a game for all."
  

Lou's "Luckiest Man" speech



Lou taking a swing