There were no cartoons on the backs of 1971 Topps. Instead, Topps experimented with black-and-white head shots of each player. I guess the experiment was considered a failure, as photos of the player were not seen on the backs of Topps cards for another 22 years. (Perhaps it was considered too expensive to pay for twice as many photos?)
So, cartoons were back in '72, but were given very little real estate, just a bit of the top right corner. The subjects were random baseball trivia, usually not related to the player on the card. The combination of the small space for the drawing and the repetitive subjects make this set a far cry from the great cartoons of '69 and '70 (and '73).
There were several topics that were repeated on multiple cards. The "monkey suit" was particularly noticeable, as it appeared on two backs just five cards apart.
Occasionally the cartoon was about the player on the card, which made for a weird circumstance for Tug McGraw's card. I can understand why they thought the real reason for his "Tug" nickname was inappropriate for a card, but why bother making a cartoon for a made-up reason? Or was this "tugged on his toys" story more widespread in '72?
Here are a few more interesting cartoons I found as I squinted at the backs of my '72s.
Never heard the term "monkey suit" until this post. I guess I need to look at the back of my 72's more often.
ReplyDeleteYeah, these were a far cry from some of those previous years.
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