who needs some 73's?

i've been tending to my 1973 topps want list lately - it's now down to 40 cards or so - and i have a bunch of doubles, triples and other assorted quantities for trade.  in fact, i went from zero to four glenn beckert cards thanks to a recent lot purchase.

this may well be one of my very favorite lurker cards, thanks to an appearance by dodgers' catcher duke sims.  sims was a dodger in the 1972 topps set, but by the time his card was issued in 1973, he was in tigers gear.  plus, he was drawn up as a communist on the back! anyway, it's nice to see sims getting some bonus dodger time from topps.
in addition to that lot purchase, i have received some cards in trade, like these four from royals and randoms - ed crosby

john boccabella

danny thompson

and, oh my god! mike kilkenny!

you bastards!  as an aside, i have to say that i stopped watching south park after the first season and the mr hanky episode. i figured that they couldn't top a talking christmas poo.

let's give checklists some love and celebrate a 39-year old unmarked beauty - front

and back

that lot knocked out a few of the star cards i was missing like hammerin' hank

and lefty

with tim mccarver getting in the way.  that is mccarver, right?

speaking of carlton, here's pudge's first solo card

with the rookie cup
and another catcher need - johnny bench

it's great how the giants' players are making no effort to get off their bench to make things easier for johnny bench, who just happened to be 'one of baseball's most eligible bachelors'.

that's in stark contrast to fred norman, who is just 'a bachelor'.

hopefully someone told fred that it works better if you run towards the woman, especially if it's a brunette (in my opinion at least).

i also picked up some cards at a show or two in the last year, like this pat corrales beauty

which still isn't as nice as bo didier's card

even though at first glance i thought they might both feature the same mets player.  upon closer inspection, i think corrales' card features a cub, not a metropolitan.  anyway, what i like most about the dider is how he is looking at the umpire for the call while the mets catcher (jerry grote?) stands in the background.  it's not often that you see a set of lurking shinguards on a card. grote, by the way, is one of the great lurkers in topps history, i think.  i'll have to put together a post sometime.

speaking of on deck circles, here's mel stottlemyre in yankee stadium

standing in the on deck circle while the indians (?) warm up.  there is good composition to this card, with the flag and the classic yankee colors, unlike the graig nettles card

with all of its poorly colored airbrushing.
and, from airbrushing to hair brushing, we have hirsute joe pepitone up next

it's the cartoon on the back that makes that segue work

there are some pretty good cartoons in the set - i like this one on the back of denis menke's card

how fortuitous, seeing as how menke gets to attend 162 games (or was it 154 in 1973) each year.

before we get back to some backs, here's barry lersch in a quintessential 1973 topps photo

you have to get through layers of people to find the subject of the card.  it's one of the reasons i disliked the set as a young collector, but now it's one of the reasons i decided to complete the set about a year ago.

back to some backs - when your name is gogolewski, i suppose your nickname is fairly obvious

the first time i saw gogolewski's card, i said to myself 'i bet his nickname was gogo'.  then i turned the card over, and my hunch was confirmed. true story.
here's the last back i'll show in this post - we get some obscure player trivia as well as a history lesson

i wonder if anyone paid attention to scheinblum's roundtripper that night.  what a story to tell your kids - hey i missed the moon landing, but i did see richie scheinblum hit one out!
speaking of hitting one out, here's card number 1 in the set

henry, willie and the babe.  good thing terry cashman didn't see this card when he was writing his song.  'willie, mickey, and the duke' sounds better.

anyway, let me know if you need some 73's and/or if you can help me out in my completion efforts.