Thursday 15 January 2009

1981 Topps

Finished putting the the 1981 Topps set into a binder- it appears to be the only complete set I own with no missing cards. I just posted a sample of how the project is looking. This set is probably the one I remember the best from my childhood, most likely due to those distinctive hats in the lower left corners emblazoned with the team name and player position. I always thought it was kind of funny that everyone had the same shaped hat except the Pittsburgh Pirates with those hideous "cake" hats that Topps even duplicated on the cards. I can't imagine making it to the big leagues and then having to wear those hats.

In retrospect, the 1981 Topps set is probably the worst set of the 1975-1984 era. Almost all of the photos are of the fairly bland head shot variety with only rare action shots. Compare these to the 1983 Topps set where every card features the player in action and the 1981 set really starts to look mundane and boring. I don't really get all that excited about rookie cards, but the 1981 set also stands out as the set with the fewest rookies by far. The 26 "Future Stars" are almost all pointless, except for Tony Pena and a few others.






2 comments:

  1. That's not a very old group of cards (27-28 years) of world class athletes that just got finished making it to the World Series and, of the 22 cards you show, 3 of them are already dead (Ken Brett, Dan Quisenberry and Darrell Porter). I liked the Royals back then and somehow when I see their cards from the 80's I think about how it sucked for them to lose Dick Howser and Quiz.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I liked this royals and hopefully the project will be great.

    ReplyDelete