[zeprock]

Working my way up through the years brings me to 1974 for today's post. I was in high school at this time starting my sophomore year near the end of the season. This was the year that Topps put an end to their releasing cards in series making all 660 cards in the set available in packs from day one. Here are nine cards from my collection, all from 1974.

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1974 Topps #1 Hank Aaron 715 (Topps anticipated the inevitable with this card as Aaron had yet to become the Home Run King at the time of this card's design and printing. After enduring a long off season of hate mail and death threats, he broke the Babe's record on April 8th.)
1974 Topps #20 Nolan Ryan
1974 Topps #80 Tom Seaver

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1974 Topps #130 Reggie Jackson
1974 Topps #250B Willie McCovey WASH (Topps anticipated again and this one backfired. Most people thought the Washington Nationals would be inaugurated in 1974 as it looked for sure that the Padres were moving there to take the place of the Senators who had left to become the Texas Rangers just a couple of years prior. At the last minute McDonald's co-founder, Ray Kroc stepped in and bought the team for $12 million, $3.2 million more than George Steinbrenner had paid for the Yankees just the year before. Kroc kept the team in San Diego and Topps backpeddled and re-released all of the Padres cards with their correct city and name on them but many had already gotten out. So, long before Harper and Strasburg were born, here is a card of Hall of Famer Willie McCovey as a Washington National.)
1974 Topps #252 Dave Parker RC (Rookie card of "The Cobra".)

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1974 Topps #283 Mike Schmidt
1974 Topps #300 Pete Rose
1974 Topps #456 Dave Winfield RC