14 October 2012

team collector dilemma - 1986 topps pete rose retrospective

we dodger collectors know that pete rose puts quite a speed bump in our quest for the complete 1963 topps team set (a team set that i have now completed, by the way).  that's because rose's rookie card also features dodger rookie ken mcmullen.

the first time i saw a rose/mcmullen rookie card (i suppose i should acknowledge the other two guys - pedro gonzalez of the yankees and al weis of the white sox) was in the early 1980's.  my dad actually had a copy for a while, but wound up trading it for some other dodger vintage stuff.

anyway, after rose surpassed ty cobb's career hit total in 1985, topps dedicated the first few cards of the 1986 set to him, just as they had done in 1974 with hank aaron as he prepared to break babe ruth's home run record.  right there on card number 2 was the mcmullen rookie card.
i suppose topps didn't want to make a special 1963 card for rose since they used the same photo for his 1964 card.  actually, they kept it pure and i appreciate that even though 26 years later i am still wishing they had put someone other than ken mcmullen on the original card.

seriously, though.  i have never considered this card to be a part of the 1986 topps dodger team set.  and i don't think i should start thinking that way now, should i?

5 comments:

The Angels In Order said...

If you ask me, an Angels team set collector, I'd count it as part of the team set since it would have a player from my team on it.

arpsmith said...

That would be a tough one, I would probably not include it in my Giants team set since the card is there to celebrate Rose. However since it is a cheap pick-up, maybe I would just get one and add it to the list.

Jim from Downingtown said...

I consider multi-player rookie cards to be part of the team set, because that's the player's (in this case, McMullen) base card in the set.

(Contrary to what I've seen many others on these blogs do) I don't consider cards such as league leaders, playoff highlights, or checklists (that happen to have the player's head on the card) as part of the team set, because those are NOT the player's base card, but are more accurately "overall league cards".

night owl said...

I draw the line there. I don't include cards of players on other teams that have an action photo with a Dodger in the play either.

Anonymous said...

oh man, you gotta have that card!