1974 Topps Deckle Dating: Willie Horton

The last card in the set, and the series. This was a fun one to research and write.

After many instances of 1972 photos that Topps insisted were 1973, it is funny to me that on the last card in the set, for the first and only time Topps correctly dates a photo to 1972.

On August 8, 1972, the Yankees made news on the field in their big series with the first place Tigers. Horton opened the scoring with an RBI single off of Fritz Peterson, but in a back-and-forth game the Yankees won it, breaking open a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the eighth highlighted by a go-ahead sac fly by rookie sparkplug Celerino Sanchez, and an insurance run via Ron Swoboda's third hit of the day. The win moved the Yankees to just three games back of Detroit.

The Yankees also made news off the field, signing a 30-year lease with the City of New York that called for extensive renovations to Yankee Stadium, renovations which would require the Yankees to play the '74 and '75 seasons at Shea Stadium. In other news, the Madison Square Garden Corporation, owner of the Knicks and Rangers, threatened to move those teams out of New York if they did not get their own deal with the city. And in politics, the Democratic National Committee nominated Sargent Shriver as the new running mate for Presidential candidate George McGovern. Shriver was the committee's seventh choice to replace Thomas Eagleton, McGovern's original running mate, who bowed out after reports that he had received electroshock treatment for depression in the 1960s.

Very similar photos of Horton were used for his 1973 Topps card . . . 

. . . and his 1974 Topps stamp.