1976 Kellogg's #55 - Pete Rose

* Another one of the "cards to get" for us in the mid 70s. This one definitely wouldn't have been put in the trade or flip piles.

* What did he do to deserve a 1976 Kellogg's card?

    * As the back of the card says, Pete bounced back from an off year (by his standards) to bat over .300 again.

    * World Series MVP in 1975.

    * Moved to third base partway through the 1975 season so that Sparky could put George Foster in the lineup and complete the Big Red Machine.

* 1976 Highlights:

    * Led the NL with 130 runs scored, 42 doubles, and 215 hits.

    * 4th in MVP voting

    * Started at 3B for the NL in the All Star Game and went 2 for 3 with a triple and a run scored.

    * Only batted .188 in the World Series, but got his second ring.

 .

Happy Birthday Pete

Here is a public service announcement from 1976. It's hard to believe Mr. Rose is 70 today.

1976 Topps Card of the Year - Finals

• I added the results of the two polls together and the Oscar Gamble traded card beat out Johnny Bench by three votes. It kinda bums me out since the 1976 Bench is one of my favorites of all time.
• The finals will be between Pete Rose and Oscar Gamble Traded. Please vote for your favorite! :)

Pete Rose #240

Oscar Gamble Traded #74

1976 Topps Card of the Year - Semi-Finals

• Johnny Bench and the Oscar Gamble Traded card advance to the semi-finals

• The first semi-final round pits Pete Rose against the Kurt Bevacqua Bubble Blowing Champion card. Please pick your favorite. The top vote-getter will advance to the finals.

Pete Rose #240

Kurt Bevacqua Bubble-Blowing Champion #564

1976 Topps Card of the Year (Round 4) - the final eight!

• We're down to the final eight cards. Steve Garvey, Johnny Bench, Oscar Gamble Traded, and Carl Yastrzemski advanced from round 3 group 2.

• Please vote for your favorite card from round 4, group 1. The top two vote-getters will advance to the semi-finals. Some really cool cards are going to be voted off in this round (especially in the other bracket)

Dave Parker #185

Pete Rose #240

Kurt Bevacqua Bubble Blowing Champion #564

World Series Champions #462

1976 Topps Card of the Year - on to round 3!

• Dave Parker, Pete Rose, Tito Fuentes, and World Series Champs advanced to round 3.
• We're down to 16 cards. We'll do two groups of eight. The top four cards from each group will advance to round 4.
• Here are the competitors in the first group:

Dave Parker #185

Pete Rose #240

Tito Fuentes #8

World Series Champs #462

Mike Schmidt #480

Rick Manning #275

Luis Tiant #130

Kurt Bevacqua Bubble Blowing #564

1976 Topps Card of the Year (Round 2, Group 4)

• Mike Schmidt, Rick Manning, Luis Tiant, and the Kurt Bevacqua Bubble Blowing card all advanced to the next round.
• Here is the last group for round 2. Please vote for your favorite(s). The top four from this group will advance to round 3.

Dave Concepcion #48

Pete Rose #240

Hank Aaron #550

Willie Horton #320

Manny Sanguillen #220

Tito Fuentes #8

World Series Champs #462

Dave Parker #185

1976 Topps Card of the Year (Round 1, Group 6)

• The top four vote-getters for group 5 were Kurt Bevacqua Bubble Blowing, Lou Brock, Luis Tiant, and Manny Sanguillen. These four cards will advance to the next round.
• Here are the competitors in group 6 of round 1. Please vote for your four favorite cards from this group.

Mike Schmidt #480

Oscar Gamble #74

Oscar Gamble #74T

Pete Mackanin #287

Pete Rose #240

Ray Fosse #554

Reggie Smith #215

Rick Auerbach #622

1976 Topps #240 - Pete Rose

• I'm not even going to try to do a synopsis of Pete's career. It would take many, many paragraphs and I wouldn't be able to do it justice anyway.

• Pete Rose was my favorite player when I was growing up. I liked his aggressive style. Pete's love for the game showed through every time he played. I was too young for Pete's weaknesses to register in my mind. I just saw what he did on the field.

• When I was growing up there were posters, cards, and magazine clippings of various ballplayers on my bedroom wall. A good number of them were of Pete. I got mad at the Reds and stopped rooting for them when Pete left after the 1978 season. I did the same thing when the Phillies benched Pete for a game in the 1983 World Series and let Pete leave after the series was over.

• When the gambling scandal hit, my first reaction was, "it can't be true." I didn't think Pete would be that stupid. I didn't think he would sacrifice the thing he loved the most just for some instant gratification from betting. I learned a lot about how much pride and addiction can bring people down. A while before his banishment from baseball (I forget exactly when) I had an inkling that something bad would happen. He was due to come to Phoenix for a card/autograph show. I bought a ball and a case and was in line ready to have Pete sign. A guy came out and said that Pete missed his flight and wouldn't be there. Our admission fees were refunded but I was still disappointed. That was the last time that I even considered going to an autograph show and paying for an autograph.

• Does Pete Rose belong in the Hall of Fame? If the Hall is a museum of baseball history, then Pete should be in there somehow. His banishment should be noted on his plaque. Future baseball fans should be able to see both the triumphs and tragedies of Pete's life and career. Should he be allowed to work as a manager or a coach? No way.
• Liked to face: Don Sutton (.339 in 177 AB); Juan Marichal (.341 in 123 AB); Larry Dierker (.343 in 102 AB); Ron Reed (.376 in 101 AB)
• Hated to face: Jerry Reuss (.244 in 119 AB); Bob Forsch (.198 in 101 AB); Don Wilson (.234 in 107 AB); Randy Jones (.183 in 93 AB)

6 in 30 -- My Memories of 1974 Topps

My first year of collecting was 1974. I was seven years old and really didn't know what I was doing. I'm sure I was hoodwinked a few times in trades with the neighborhood kids. I figured for this "6 cards in 30 seconds" activity I would pick the six cards from this set that are the most memorable for me.

In my first pack of 1974 Topps I got one of the Hank Aaron Special cards. This is probably the one I got, but I'm not entirely sure. It was cool to see what the older cards looked like and I learned some historical things by reading the back of the card. I don't know how many hours I spent reading the backs of cards and memorizing stats. When I first got the card I wasn't sure who Hank Aaron was, but I learned all about him when he broke the HR record early in the season. I remember seeing it on TV at the house down the street. After that I figured that anyone who got the first six cards in the set had to be a great player. Topps should do a subset of "special" cards when a veteran is at the end of his career. They did one in 1985 when Pete Rose was about to break the hit record. More of these subsets would be cool.

The team checklist cards were a good way to keep track of team sets. It was nice to have a separate team checklist card instead of marking up a team photo card. These were inserted in each pack, so they weren't scarce. It would be nice if Topps would start doing this again.

This is an example of the great action shots that were in this set. I didn't notice it much at the time, but the '74 set is probably one of the better sets for action photos in the 70s and 80s. The horizontal orientation is also cool. There were several horizontal cards in this set, but Topps didn't overdo it. This was the last year Topps did horizontal cards for quite a while.

Here's another good action shot of my favorite player of the time. Pete really messed up later in life, but he was a lot of fun to watch back in the 70s. It looks like he's going to war in this picture.

You're probably thinking, "What the heck is he doing here?" This card is memorable because the one copy of the card that I had for quite a while (until I bought a mint set years later) had the right corner torn off of it. My neighbor Jimmy and I were flipping cards on the family room floor of his house and his little sister came crawling over. She was crying and screaming like little ones often do. She picked up my Brent Strom card and stuck it in her mouth. It didn't take long for the top right corner to disappear. I still have that card somewhere, but I can't find it at the moment.

I preferred the Cubs and White Sox team cards during this era. I could actually see who was who in these pictures. It was a mystery why Topps did team cards in which the players were virtually unrecognizable. Now it's fun to scan a team card from that era, enlarge it, and see how many players I recognize on the photo.

The 1974 set design is kind of bland, but I think it's an underrated set.