i just love 1978 topps baseball cards so much i could puke my brains out!

a friend of mine's kid said that a while back.  actually, he was said 'toys' and not '1978 topps baseball cards', so i guess it is my sentiment that is reflected in the title of this post.  i have mentioned many times on this blog that 1978 was the first year i collected (although 1977 topps was the first pack i opened) and the 1978 garvey is my favorite card ever.  what's more, i love getting a 1978 topps card signed.

when i started doing ttm a couple of years ago, i focused on the 1978 dodgers, but also sought other dodgers who were in the 1978 set on other teams like jerry reuss and jeff torborg and derrel thomas and a host of others as well as former and current dodgers in general.  then i started sending requests to pretty much any player from the 1978 set.  to date, i would guess i have about 175 cards signed from the 1978 set.

here are some non-dodger successes, including some hall of famers like jim rice

who signed for free even though i sent $10. gaylord perry, on the other hand

does not sign for free, so that card cost me his $25 fee.  it's a classic 1970's card, complete with chain link fence.

there are also some great names from the mid-70's, including one that burned out quickly, royals pitcher steve busby

busby won 22 games in 1974 and another 18 in 1975 and pitched a couple of no-no's.  he missed the entire 1977 season, so getting a card in the '78 set was a testament to his previous success.  unfortunately, he pitched in only 40 more games in his career.

then there is busby's teammate 'the hassler', andy hassler

and the 'spaceman' bill lee

not to mention a wide-lapeled steve renko

and a doubly-sure jerry augustine

the 1978 set seemed to have a bunch of catchers in it.  maybe i feel that way because the dodgers team set included three - steve yeager, johnny oates and jerry grote.  that's two more than we get in today's sets. 

anyway, here's another hall of famer, gary carter

carter doesn't sign for free either, and i chose to pay for his 1978 card instead of his 1992 issue that shows him as a dodger.  i'll save that one for another day.  maybe.

here's rick cerone, minus the afro.

i am jealous of the variety of poses and shots used in the set for teams like the blue jays, expos, giants, rangers and other teams as the dodger team is pretty much exclusively portrait shots or posed spring training photos.

speaking of the rangers, here's jim sundberg, another catcher

i like the pitcher in the foreground (i'll pretend it's bert blyleven) and the guy in the stands with the horizontally striped shirt.  it complements sundberg's chest protector.

another catcher, ed herrmann

he won't be the last astros catcher we see here today.

bob montgomery is another backup backstop in the set

i'll break up the catcher monotony and get to a college teammate of bob welch, bob owchinko

owchinko did not get a cool photo like the giants' ed halicki

seriously, why did candlestick get so much play in the 1978 set?  even goose gossage's card features a photo from the giants' crappy stadium.

here's another one - infielder rob andrews.

another stadium that saw a lot of use in the set is yankee stadium.  like on the augustine and montgomery cards above, as well as bump wills' card

i just realized that i neglected to send copies of his 1979 variations to be signed.

here's one of those expos cards that i am jealous of, del unser

followed by wayne garrett who has a more dodger-like card

although he has the 1976 olympics patch.  use old photos much topps?

here's another expo with an old photo, hall of fame manager dick williams

unfortunately, the old photo is of him from his athletics days, not his days as a boy of summer.  i am waiting on a 1953 topps auto from the man who coined the term 'mawdicker' as an alternative to the mf word that was sure to get him ejected from games.  hopefully that one will show up in my mailbox soon.

now on to the announcer part of the post - mike krukow

and his home run challenged partner duane kuiper

they are the giants' broadcast team, in case you didn't know.  i am not much of a fan, although i think krukow is from the central coast so he's got that going for him.

here's the other astros catcher i was referring to earlier - alan ashby

although he wasn't an astro until later in his career.  i sent him a 1984 donruss to keep the '78 topps card company, and he signed that one as well.

see?  now he's an astro.

finally, we have chris speier.

the duke snider fan signed his 1978 card (with a lurking stan bahnsen) and also signed his 1983 topps card (with a lurking derrel thomas)

it all comes back to the dodgers.

i am stockpiling more 1978 topps autographed goodness even as i type this.  i am surprised i am able to keep by brains down.