1976 Topps Card of the Year (Round 1, Group 8)

• The cards that will move on from group 7 are Rick Manning, Ron Cey, Sal Bando, and Steve Garvey.
• No love for Rusty Staub in the last group --- that card received no votes.
• Here is the eighth and final group for the first round. Please vote for your favorite(s). The top four will move on to the next round

Steve Ontiveros #284

Stolen Base Leaders #197

Tito Fuentes #8

Tom Seaver #600

Ty Cobb Sporting News All Stars #346

Von Joshua #82

Willie Horton #320

World Series Champs #462

1976 Topps #205 - Major League Leading Firemen-1975

• What is a fireman? That's what we wondered when we got these cards. Most of the time these pitchers weren't really considered to be stars (at least not like the other leaders). Now everyone knows who the better stoppers are.
• Rich Gossage led the AL in saves three times (1975, 1978, 1980). He won only one Rolaids Relief Man of the Year award (1978), but he was the best reliever of his time.
• Al Hrabosky had his best season in 1975. He was 13-3 with a league-leading 22 saves and a 1.66 ERA. Al finished 3rd in NL Cy Young Award voting and 8th in MVP voting.

1976 Topps #204 - AL Strikeout Leaders

• It's strange seeing an AL strikeout leaders card from the 1970s without Nolan Ryan on it. In 1975 he didn't pitch after August 24. Ryan struck out "only" 186 batters and started only 28 games.

• 1975 was the only season Frank Tanana would lead the AL in strikeouts. He struck out 261 batters in '76 but Ryan returned to form and retook the strikeout crown. After 1977 Tanana wasn't as much of a strikeout pitcher.

• Bert Blyleven led the AL in strikeouts once -- 1985. It's interesting that his only strikeout crown occurred so late in his career. Bert struck out 200 or more batters eight times in his career. He struck out 3701 batters in his career (5th all-time).

• Gaylord Perry struck out 200 or more batters eight times, but never led his league in strikeouts. Perry struck out 3534 batters in his career (8th all-time).

1976 Topps #203 - NL Strikeout Leaders

• Tom Seaver led the NL in strikeouts five times. He set a record by striking out over 200 batters nine years in a row (1968-1976). Tom fell four strikeouts short of extending that streak in 1977. He struck out 3640 batters in his career (6th all-time).

• John Montefusco had his biggest strikeout season (215) in 1975. He never again struck out over 200 batters in a season.

• Andy Messersmith had three seasons of striking out 200 or more batters (1969, 1974, and 1975). Andy never led the league in strikeouts, but struck out 6 or more batters per nine innings in all but three of his 12 seasons.

1976 Topps #202 - AL ERA Leaders

• The race for the AL ERA championship in 1975 wasn't much of a race. Mr. Palmer had an ERA almost 1/2 run lower than his closest competition. Palmer won his second (and last) ERA title in '75. He bounced back from an off-year in 1974 (7-12, 3.27) to post a 22-9 record with a 2.09 ERA. He also led the AL in shutouts with 10. Jim won his third AL Cy Young award in 1975.

• Jim Hunter won the AL ERA title in 1974. The 1975 season, his first with the New York Yankees, was the last one in which he would win over 20 games. Jim completed 30 of his 39 starts in 1975!

• Dennis Eckersley came as close as he ever would to winning an ERA title in 1975. In his rookie season, Eckersley was 13-7 with a 2.60 ERA in 36 games (24 starts). Eckersley didn't receive any consideration for AL Rookie of the Year in '75 -- Fred Lynn got 23.5 out of the 24 available points (Jim Rice got the other 0.5 points).

1976 Topps #201 - NL ERA Leaders

• Randy Jones had the first of two straight huge pitching seasons in 1975. He led the NL in ERA and went from 8-22 in 1974 to 20-12 in 1975. He had a better year in 1976 and was the NL Cy Young Award winner, but arm troubles derailed a promising career.

• Andy Messersmith also had a great season in 1975 (20-6, 2.59). He was 19-14 in 1976, then signed a big contract with the Atlanta Braves (he was one of the first free agents). Andy had a pretty good year in 1977 then kind of fell off the face of the earth. "I wasn't prepared for the pressure that came down [after the Seitz ruling and his Braves deal]. I didn't know anything about it. I came out as the dirty dog. That was a real hard thing for me. I just wasn't ready for it."---Andy Messersmith, to the New York Times, after his career ended.

• Tom Seaver led the NL in ERA three times (1970, 1971, 1973). He had only one season with an ERA over 3.00 (1974, 3.20) from his rookie season in 1967 through the 1978 season.
  

1976 Topps #199 - NL Victory Leaders

• This card has seen better days. This must be one of my original cards that I got out of a pack in '76.

• I wonder if this would be successful as a subset -- make a card of each team's all-time top three in each major category (homers, RBI, victories, etc.). Do one of the categories each season (this year homers, next year RBI, etc.). I think it would be fun from a baseball history standpoint and it'd be a fun subset to collect.

• Tom Seaver led the NL in victories three times and won over 20 games five times. He won three NL Cy Young awards (1969, 1973, and 1975).

• Randy Jones led the NL in victories in 1976 and won 20 or more games twice (1975 and 1976). He won the NL Cy Young award in 1976.

• Andy Messersmith led the NL in victories once (1974). He won 20 or more games twice (1971 with the Angels and 1974).
  

1976 Topps #198 - AL Stolen Base Leaders

• Mickey Rivers dominated the stolen base race in 1975. He was 30 SBs ahead of Claudell Washington. It was the only season in which "Mick the Quick" would lead the league in stolen bases. Rivers stole 267 bases in his career--for some reason I thought he stole more.

• Claudell Washington stole 312 bases in his career. He had a lifetime success rate of 70%.

• Amos Otis led the AL in stolen bases in 1971 and stole 341 bases in his career.

1976 Topps #197 - NL Stolen Base Leaders

• I love the stolen base. Games go on longer when speedsters get on base, but it's more exciting to me than to sit back and wait for the long ball.

• Dave Lopes led the NL in stolen bases in 1975 and 1976. He was a great percentage base stealer--his lifetime success percentage was 83% and he stole 557 bases in his career.

• Joe Morgan never led the league in stolen bases, but he stole 40 or more bases every year from 1969-1977. Morgan's lifetime success rate was 81% and he stole 689 bases in his career.

• Lou Brock was the greatest base stealer of all time until Rickey Henderson came along. As evidenced on the back of this card, Brock led the NL in stolen bases every year except one from 1966-1974. He was second in 1964, 1965, and 1970. He also led the NL in caught stealing seven times. Brock had 938 career stolen bases and a lifetime 75% success rate.
  

1976 Topps #196 - AL RBI Leaders

• All three of these guys had great years in 1975. You know you had a good season when you appear on multiple league leader cards in the following year.

• The 1975 season was the second (and last) season in which George Scott would have over 100 RBI.

• John Mayberry led the AL in RBI twice (1972 and 1975) and those were the only two years in which he would have over 100 RBI. He was second in MVP voting in 1975.

• Fred Lynn also had over 100 RBI twice (1975 and 1979). Fred was the AL Rookie of the Year and MVP in 1975. The 1975 season was the first of nine straight AL All Star seasons for Lynn.

1976 Topps #195 - NL RBI Leaders

• 1975 was the only season in which Greg Luzinski would lead the NL in RBI. He knocked in over 100 runs three times in the NL and once for the Chicago White Sox in the AL.

• Johnny Bench led the NL three times in RBI (1970, 1972, 1974). He knocked in over 100 runs six times in his career.

• Tony Perez never led the league in RBI, but he did knock in over 100 runs seven times in his career.

1976 Topps #194 - AL Home Run Leaders

• This is the second of four AL HR leader cards on which Reggie Jackson would be the featured guy. He was on at least one more HR leader card (1972) for being in the top three in HR in 1971.
  
• Mr. Ruth shows up on the back of this card many times. There are a lot of great names on this list!

1976 Topps #193 - NL Home Run Leaders

• Mike Schmidt was on a lot of these HR leader cards. This was his third league leader card. Mr. Schmidt led the NL in home runs eight times between 1974 and 1986.

• Ralph Kiner had quite a run in the late 40s and early 50s. Ted Kluzewski (1954) was the only non-HOFer to lead the NL in home runs from 1946-1975.
  
  

1976 Topps #192 - AL Batting Leaders

Another batting race that wasn't very close. Mr. Carew won his 6th batting title by 28 points over Rookie of the Year Fred Lynn. It's interesting to see how large of a gap some players have between their first title and their last title. Mr. Cobb's first title was in 1907 and his last one was in 1919. Mr. Williams had his first title in 1941 and his last title in 1958 -- that's quite a gap!

1976 Topps #191 - NL Batting Leaders

• The 1976 Topps league leader cards are probably my favorite ones from the 1970s. The top two or three players in each category are presented well, and the backs show the leaders from each season since 1901. It's cool to see the dominance of some players in a category. Rogers Hornsby really had a great run in the early 1920s. There are a lot of great names on this card (Musial, Wagner, Mays, Aaron, Clemente, Hornsby, Rose, just to name a few).

• The race for the 1975 NL batting title really wasn't much of a race. Bill Madlock won it by 22 points. Ted Simmons had a nice year though---it isn't very often that a catcher finishes second in a league batting race.