skip pitlock - 19

Another horrible card. Who saw this and said, "Wow, this would make a great baseball card!!"

norm miller - 18

Well, that's more like it.  Finally another decent 1971 card.  So this looks like Shea Stadium again. 

I am not a big fan of the tight cropping of action cards that you see so frequently nowadays.  This cropping was more of a rarity in 1971.  For some reason, this does not bother me.  I think it is because most of todays cards are the same.  They are tightly cropped action shots, and that does get boring after a while.

This is the best Norm Miller card.  He looks like a freak in his 1974 card on the Braves.  His 72 and 73 are dull poses.  I do not recall any of his pre-1971 cards.

All in all a good card.

billy sorrell - 17

Billy Sorrell never played a game after 1970.  This is a horrible card. 

ken singleton - 16

Here we have yet another dull pose.  I hate these cards where the bat is coming at you like some freakish missle.  If this card were in 3-D, perhaps it would be interesting.

There are many shots of Shea Stadium in this set and despite the cool looking light tower in the backgroung, this is not a great shot.  There seems to be a guy in the background.  What is he doing?  Maybe having long toss?  Kind of looks like a dance move.

Singleton was a good player and had his best years in Baltimore toward the end of the decade.

Singleton was not in too many great cards over the years.  I believe the 1978 was the best - the 1983 was OK as well.  The 1975 was also good considering it was a head shot.

andy messersmith - 15

In the past, Topps used an interesting numbering convention for their cards.  The major stars would get the really round numbers (100, 200, 300, etc). Other big stars would get the 50's - 50, 150, etc.  Then the minor stars and semi-stars would get 5, 10, 15, etc.

So far, we've seen Thurman Munson at 5 and Claude Osteen at 10.  So at 15 we have Andy Messersmith in a boring posed picture in an empty and cavernous Yankee Stadium.

Not much else to say about this card.  This appears to be pre-game. 

I am having difficulty recalling any good Mesersmith cards.  The 1979 in a Yankees uniform comes to mind.  The cool thing about that card is that it is a Yankees road uniform - a rarity in the Topps baseball card world.  I remember 74, 75 & 76 are all head shots.  1977 too I think. The 1970 was OK - good background of Yankee Stadium in that one as opposed to this.

Another yawn.

dave concepcion - 14

Dave Concepcion was never one of my favorite players.  So a dull shot in Shea Stadium is another dull card in a set that is probably 90% dull.

Concepcion was in a few decent cards (see 1974 and 1976 in particular - 1973 is pretty good too) but this is one of the worst. 

In an earlier post I started questioning myself as to whether I should continue this blog on the '71 set.  Now that I think about it, the '73 set is probably better, but oh well.

A return

I think I may pick this one up as well as my main page.  See you soon!