Vintage equipment: 1973 Topps

There were a couple of cool nicknames on gloves in the '73 set. Tom Hall was six feet tall but just 150 pounds, a body shape that earned him the nickname "Blade", as can be seen on his glove.

Tug McGraw's nickname wasn't "Hammer", but as Shlabotnik Report points out, teammate John Milner's was. Pretty impressive for a rookie in spring training (as Milner was) to already have such a nickname.

There were also a couple of less cool nicknames on gloves in '73 Topps. Bert Blyleven was "Bly" . . .

while John Stromayer was "Stro". These might not even really be nicknames, could just be the equipment manager not wanting to write a long name.

I've shown writing on gloves, hats and bats in this series, but this is the first time I've come across personalized shoes.

Some interesting Johnny Jeter material in this set. He is airbrushed into White Sox colors, as the Padres traded him to the Sox right after the 1972 season. However, despite playing for the Padres in 1971 and 1972 (110 games in '72), Topps seems to have used a photo from 1970, when Jeter wore #25 for the Pirates.

While Jeter's Padres uniform did not make it onto a card in '73 (it did in '72), his bat did! Jeter wore #8 for the Padres, which is the bat in the hands of #32 Jerry Morales.

Tom Grieve wore #4 for the Senators in 1970, spent all of '71 in the minors, and when he returned to the majors with the team, now in Texas, in '72 he wore #6. However, in spring training it appears he wore #55.

Finally, Carl Yastrzemski famously wore #8 for the Red Sox, but here he has bat #7, belonging to Reggie Smith.