Art on the back: 1975

After two years of some of the best cartoons in the company's history, Topps dialed it down in 1975, going back to the old standby of general baseball trivia instead of items specific to the player. The primary artist is clearly the same one who did the 1970 set. A lot of the trivia was around nicknames. So Birdie Tebbetts is a bird, Candy Cummings is eating candy, etc. There were at least two different cartoons about Walter Alston being known as Smoky. And Greasy Neale was, well, greasy:

Here's a cartoon that appears to be an error. What does Dean Look winning a world series game have to do with football?

There's a clue on this cartoon, which mentions that Look was also a pro football referee.

I'd never heard of this guy before, so I looked up Look. He played in three games for the Chicago White Sox in 1961, and one game for the New York Titans (now Jets) in 1962. He then went on to a long career as an NFL referee. Remember Dwight Clark's catch in the 1982 NFC Championship game? That's Look giving the touchdown signal.

So Look never pitched for the Phillies, meaning that card is an even bigger error than it looks. The correct answer should have been Grover Cleveland Alexander, who won Game 1 of the 1915 World Series. The Phillies wouldn't win another World Series game for 65 years, when Bob Walk won Game 1 of the 1980 World Series, the Phillies' first championship.

I thought I found another error is on the back of Don Kessinger's card. I have the whole '75 set and this is the only cartoon in my set without a pink background. Looking online, though, it appears other cards have a pink background. Looks like mine is just a printing error. Still a cool variation.

Here are a few more cartoons I found interesting.

I had no idea that the President of the United States was the individual who would break a tie in a vote for MLB commissioner.