Baltimore Colts Card History Pt. 8 The Late 70s

The Colts Topps football sets of the late 70s (and into the 80s for that matter) are more or less interchangeable. 23 or 24 players, a team leaders card more often than not, leagues leaders (if the Colts had someone who fit) and a checklist of some sort. The designs changed but the player pics tended to come from the same few photo sessions with sideline shots mixed in. Any helmet was airbrushed to remove the logo.

1977 Topps

There were 24 Colts in the '77 Topps set. All are vertical and included practice field shots, 'blue wall' portraits, sideline shots, etc. The other teams got different colors and some had actual game action photos.

The All Pro selections got a ribbon under the team banner. The Colts had three, George Kunz as seen below plus Roger Carr and John Dutton.

This Bert Jones is one of my favorites of the late 70s. I bet that jacket he's wearing has a 'jumping Colt' logo on it that's been airbrushed out. I'd sell my family to pirates for one of those.

Lydell Mitchell, the busiest man in show business, got a '1000 yarder' award on his card. Mitchell ran the football, caught the football and sold ads for the yearbook.

The checklist had the leaders for the Colts over the previous eight seasons listed on the back. There was no team leader card per se. I was looking at the leading receivers list on that card and saw that in 1973 Glenn Doughty led the Colts with 26 receptions. That seemed oddly low so I checked. Turns out that the Colts completed only 137 passes in the 14 game season. Yes, 137 completions. For the whole team. In 14 games. Seriously? BTW...BR lists Doughty with 25 receptions. Sheesh.

The card backs, in black and tones of red/pink were fairly readable. I like the bulleted list of accomplishments. It reminds me of the old Seasons Highlights element of the back of the 1960 Topps baseball set.

The 'College Corner' idea was new and kind of neat. A fact from each players collegiate career was included.

Toni Linhart led the NFC in scoring and could have won a role in a Monty Python show with that hair.

Topps had a parallel set that was sold in Mexico. The checklist is identical but the cards themselves are done in Spanish. I have one of the Colts from that set, Howard Stevens. I blogged that one here a few months ago. Here is another look at the US and Mexican versions. Much more is in that post I linked. Other than a slightly different (darker) border, probably due to a different quality of cardboard, and some 'bumpy' edges due to the cutting process, the two cards are identical on the front. The Mexican version is the one on the left.

Of course the backs are is different languages. And the fonts/type sizes are not the same.

I love how it says Stevens was acquired from 'Los Santos'!!!

1977 Fleer

Fleer continued with their licensed set of team and game oriented cards. The checklist for these hardly changed from year to year. The Colts had cards #1 and #2 until Fleer decided that all the teams would be listed in alpha order regardless of their conference. The Colts than had cards #3 and #4 behind the Atlanta Falcons.

Super Bowl III card was always #59 and Super Bowl V was always #61. The pictures changed but the sets are pretty much clones of each other. 

Fleer also had stickers and those things are hard to date. I'm not sure if any of the ones I have now or any of the stack I have coming my way are from '77. There were no other national issues (aside from the Topps Mexican set I mentioned), food issues or oddballs that I could find although there were likely several Baltimore area promotional items that elude cataloging. There are a few Colts that appear on 'Sportscaster cards', the humongous set-by-subscription that were distributed from 1977 through 1979 but I don't have any, nor am I particularly interested in them.

The 1977 Colts were the last good Colts squad. Beginning in '78 the team fell under the mismanagement of a drunk, idiot owner and entered a death spiral that resulted in the team leaving after the 1983 season. 

1978 Topps

Topps came up with a very generic, bland design for 1978. The borders were different colors for each team and the photos were the usual mix. This year the Colts got a few action shots although the were not very 'action-ish'.

But leave it to Topps to come up with another great Roger Carr card. In this one he looks like a guy rousted out of bed by a hotel fire alarm and standing across the street with a Red Cross blanket watching the flames shoot out of the Hyatt's 11th floor windows.

Black on green  backs were among the easiest to read of that era. Vitals, stats and a bio again. The 'extra' was a choice nugget of info on the player with a related cartoon inside a helmet.

If you are familiar with the T206 Chief Bender variation cards, one with a tree in the background, one without, then you can appreciate the Colts leader card with two shots of Lydell Mitchell. Identical pictures except for the fact that one has a tree over his shoulder while the other has the background removed so it look like an overcast day in Timonium.

The team checklist is on the reverse of the leaders card.

Lydell, in a shot we will see again, is on the League Receiving Leaders card. There is also an Interception Leaders card with Lyle Blackwood on it.

1978 Fleer

The four Fleer cards got a yellow border. And different pictures on the Super Bowl cards. 

Kelloggs' issued team stickers in 1978 They came in panels of three. I wasn't able to find a Colts sticker by itself so I picked up the three team intact version.

The second year of the Holsom Bread cards saw them expand from a regional issue (Packers and Vikes) to a national set. Lydell Mitchell had a card as a Charger butthe card's place in the checklist reveals it was intended to be a Colts card before he was traded a few weeks before the '78 season started. Obviously this isn't a Colts card but I like little quirks like this.

1979 Topps

Rather than take a chance on a wild and crazy design Topps opted for bland, again. Not ugly, just un-inspired. Two color ribbon, position on a football, There were no Colts with the All Pro designation. That would have been noted on the football. Topps had a Record Breakers subset but again, No Colts.

The pics mirror the past several years with practice field shots, sideline candids, etc.

Again with the brooding Roger Carr.

I always enjoyed watching Joe Washington play. He was a poor man's Barry Sanders.

The purple and yellow backs held no surprises. The usual info and a player tidbit illustrated with a cartoon. Nothing else to say about the backs, it's Topps, it's the late 70s, it's football cards.

The team leader cards again had the team checklist on the back. Joe Washington got a cropped version of his regular card's pic but Roger Carr got one that makes him look like a kid wearing his old man's helmet.  

1979 Fleer

Fleer got a touch more creative in 1979 by randomizing the colors of the card borders. They threw a few horizontal cards into the mix as well. But other than that it is the same  old thing. And Fleer's Team Action cards would always be 'the same old thing". I like them well enough but I sure wouldn't have bought a second pack of these once I saw what they were.

I have a Fleer sticker, supposedly a 1979 version. The backs formed a puzzle. 

The full set of puzzle pieces made up a Super Bowl panorama. This is an image of a full (uncut?) sheet from the net:

If there are any other national of large food issues, etc. I am unable to locate them. I also don't believe that Topps had any inserts but I reserve the right to amend that belief if proven otherwise.

I'll have at least one more post in this series which will cover the remaining sets of Baltimore Colts' mainstream issues, 1980 thru 1983, the last season before the "Mayflower Incident" that ended the franchise in 1984.

I also will post some of the really neat (to me anyway) stuff I've picked up from earlier years that I didn't get a chance to post before. It'll be a 'Stuff I Missed' post.

I like Big Cards and I Cannot Lie

The eighties were an interesting time for collectors, especially demented "I need one of EVERYTHING!" team collectors like I was. It it was Orioles related, I grabbed it up. Dealers and shop owners knew it and they 'put stuff back' for me knowing they had a sure sale once I walked in.

These 5x7 Topps Orioles and Diamond Kings cards were part of a box I pulled out the other day that contained noting but oversized cards. In addition to these Topps and Donruss it held postcards, Perez-Steele art cards, Hall of Fame commemoratives, those postcard foldout thingies that had twelve 'Top Sluggers' that sort of stuff. If there really is a sucker born every minute, I took care of an hour.

If you thought Eddie Murray looked badass on his regular '85 card the giant one just compounds his badassedness. And doesn't it look like Mike Boddicker knows a secret about you and knows that you know he knows it?

Classic Cal follow-through pose.

I was always on the fence about Diamond Kings. I think Dick Perez did better things elsewhere but these were pretty special at the time.

I've always been a sucker for anything Warren Spahn.

Softball style jerseys are garbage. Even for bp.

Brooksie!

Monday Morning Quarterback #52 (Tuesday Edition) Mark Malone 1988 Topps

In this ongoing series of posts I am going to feature cards from my fantasy football player collection, specifically the 117 quarterbacks I've had on my team's roster since 1980. I have one selected card for each player in my All-Time Flyers binder. Through the years I've tried to use as many different card varieties as possible while holding on to my preference which is: a card issued in a year I owned the player showing him in the proper team uni in a vertical format. Card availability and my whims have had a big impact on that standard. 

NFL Info: Coming out of Arizona State Mark Malone was the Steelers' first pick in the 1980 draft. He's one of very few (I'd guess) NFLers that were pursued by the USOC as a decathlete. He watched from the Steelers bench for a couple of years until grabbing the starters job away from Cliff Stoudt in 1984. He held the job, except for some injury time lost, for four seasons and accumulated mostly middling numbers. He did however get the Steelers to the 1984 AFC Title game where they lost to the Dolphins.

Malone was dealt to the Chargers for 1988 and started eight games during his one season there in San Diego. He retired after spending 1989 with the Jets as a reserve. He has been a broadcaster with many different roles since his playing days. He currently works for NBC, Westwood One and a few other outlets.

Fantasy Impact: Malone started a game for me in 1986. My regular starter, Ken O'Brien was coming off a four TD game and yet I, in my infinite fantasy wisdom, sat him for Malone in Week 4. I won that game, and the next four with O'Brien sitting on my bench, but I really can't imagine why I did what I did. I went 11-3 that year and had one of my best seasons but with bonehead moves like that, I have no idea how.

The Card: I happen to like the 1988 Topps design. They obviously had the NFL license after many years in the airbrushed logo desert  and as a result the Steelers' helmet is front and center. The colors mimic the uniform, the picture is decent and the back provides the necessary stats and player data. All in all Id give it a fairly solid thumbs up.

1959 Minnie Minoso

As you know by now Minnie Minoso died Sunday at the age of 90 (or thereabouts). He has this wonderful 1959 Topps card and I posted it in March of 2012 for my '59 Topps blog. He was a pretty amazing guy and if you were not familiar with his story you should be now with all the tributes that have cropped up since the word of his death came out.

Here is part of my blog post for that card.

Minnie Minoso was born 'Saturnino Orestes Armas Miñoso Arrieta' in Havana, Cuba in 1925. That's one name for each decade he played in the majors. Yes, Minoso played big league ball in the 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's. Or at least he made appearances in those decades. The 'playing' he did in 1976 and 1980 with the White Sox was really just PR, a couple of 'cup of coffee' whirls that got headlines when they happened. And add to this time spent in the independent Northern League in the following two decades makes Minoso the only guy to have played professionally in seven decades! (I played intramural softball in four decades at the University of Houston but that's a different discussion.) 
The five (or seven) decade hype kind of overshadows a pretty accomplished major league career put together by Minoso. Following a run as a Negro League player in the late forties Minoso debuted with the Indians in 1949. For the next dozen years, covering two separate tours with both the White Sox and Indians, Minoso led the AL at least once in triples, doubles, hits, stolen bases, total bases and hit-by-pitches. He made seven All Star squads and routinely garnered MVP votes. Three Gold Gloves line his mantel as well. 
His days as a regular player ended with stints with the Cardinals and Senators in the early 60's. But Minoso wasn't through as he played several seasons in Mexico after that. Then came the publicity tours with the Sox and  independent ball. Crazy.

He played in the first game MLB I ever saw in person. He had a single and scored a run to help Billy Pierce beat the Yankees.

I have a couple of other Minoso cards. The '61 is one of my favorites.

I also have this stadium cup from Comiskey Park that had Minoso on one side along with Billy Pierce and Sherm Lollar.

Minnie Minoso was up for election to the Hall of Fame again this past year by the Veterans Committee but his vote total fell short. If you are like me and believe that the Hall of Fame should be more than about numbers you can still have hope that the electors will see it that way as well someday and put him in the Hall.

1966 Baseball Digest

A couple of years back my aunt sent me a box of baseball publications that had belonged to my late uncle. There were a bunch of Sporting News books including Guides and World Series Record books from the fifties and early sixties. There were also some Baseball Digests like this one from March of 1966. I scanned a few pages just for fun. Like many early spring issues of the Baseball Digest back then this one was devoted to the upcoming season's rookies. There were four players on the cover, and they went on to varying degrees of baseball success.

Tommy Helms was NL Rookie of the year in 1966, played 14 seasons in the majors making a couple of All Star squads and winning a pair of Gold Gloves.

Chris Zachary pitched for five different teams over a nine year career as a spot starter and reliever. He had five seasons in Houston where he gained six of his ten career wins.

Gil Downs had some nice numbers in the minors going 39-19 with a low ERA but he never pitched in the bigs.

Manly Johnston??? He was coming off a 1965 season at AAA where he had 91 at bats and hit .224 so the Baseball Digest editors must have seen something others didn't. He played sparingly at the AAA level again in 1966 and was out of baseball.

The inside of the front cover and it's facing page had a total of 12 players' shots including a few who later became big time players in the majors, Keen Holtzman, Bobby Murcer and Lee "The Big Bopper" May.

In addition to a rundown of each teams top prospect the Digest had articles of general baseball interest. Along with The Sporting News, Baseball Digest was a regular read for me. I usually bought The Sporting News at a newsstand but the Digest came via subscription.

These pages contain the Orioles youngsters and a part of the Red Sox' write-up as well. A close look shows that the details for most players included his ethnic heritage. It's a bit disconcerting to see 'Jewish' listed for Mike Epstein. Not that it was a secret or anything but ethnicity is just not something you'd see listed today. Oh, I don't think I needed Baseball Digest to know Ed Barnowski was Polish.

Hey, an ad for Strat-O-Matic. This exact ad appeared in every copy of The Sporting News, Street And Smith, Baseball Digest and any 'pulp' mag like Dell Baseball you cared to open. A year later I bought the game.

A trio of other kids graced the back cover.

Dick Joyce had already pitched in the only five games he'd appear in when this copy hit the stand. He was 0-1 in September of 1965 for the A's and then pitched two more minor league seasons.

Andy Kosco had a couple of seasons in the late 60s in which he was an every day player, one with the Yankees and one with the Dodgers. Those were sandwiched into the middle of a nomadic 9 year career that saw him play for seven clubs.

Jim McGlothlin, who always looked like he belonged on a high school team, made an All Star team with the Angels in 1967 and he won 14 for the NL champion Reds in 1970. He won a total of 67 big league games.

Thumbing through these old books and mags are a perfect way to spend a cold damp dreary Saturday afternoon.

EDIT... Added for Joe Shlabotnik, Meet the Mets! Plus a bonus, the scouting report on Don Sutton. And a title added. Sorry about that.