1976 was another year where Topps used the cartoons on the back to show bits of baseball history, unrelated to the player on the card. At least in '76 they mixed it up more than in '75, with a greater variety of topics. A lot of "firsts" rather than a lot of "mosts". I imagine a lot of kids learned baseball history from the backs of baseball cards. Not sure where, if anything, kids pick up that trivia today.
Here are some of the more fun cartoons in the set, starting off with Sparky Lyle. Which is a good reminder to check out the It's Like Having My Own Card Shop
contest, where the prize pool has gone way beyond the Sparky Lyle rookie card. Also funny to see that there was no issue with not only having Shoeless Joe Jackson on a card, but showing him smoking!
There were several subjects that appeared in more than one cartoon, and the exact same Nick Altrock cartoon was used twice. Weird to see Henry Kissinger mentioned on the back of a baseball card. Kind of hard to believe he's still alive (turned 99 in May).
Cincinnati is a tough name to spell.
I love that fact about Robin Yount being a teammate of Hank Aaron who was playing MLB before Yount was born. With Yount becoming a Hall of Famer in his own right it really takes on extra significance.
ReplyDeleteI like the Aaron/Yount tidbit too.
Delete