This Week In 1974 Topps: October 8-14, 1973

This series touches on those events of 50 years ago to which would directly or indirectly affect 1974 Topps Baseball.

…Except when it isn’t.  I’m continuing to get into the League Championship Series and the custom cards I made for each game.

Tuesday, October 9th

In game 3 of the ALCS, the A’s beat the Orioles in 11 innings, 2-1.  Starting pitchers Ken Holtzman and Mike Cuellar both went the distance, and the game ended with Bert Campaneris leading off the bottom of the 11th with a walk-off homer. The win put the A’s up 2 games to 1 in the best of five series.

This photo of Ken Holtzman probably isn’t from Game 3… Truth be told, I don’t even know if it’s from 1973.

In game 3 the Mets took an early 6-0 lead and Jerry Koosman went the distance, allowing 2 runs while striking out 9 and walking none.  The Mets would win 9-2 but what might be the best remembered part of the game is the 5th inning brawl that broke out after Pete Rose slid hard into 2nd trying to break up the 3-6-3 double play that Bud Harrelson was turning.  Topps would never show a card with a brawl on it, but I’m not Topps.

This photo is from Game 3 of the NLCS; there is no shortage of images of the fight between the Mets and Reds.

A transaction from 10/9 sent me down a rabbit hole that I thought was worth sharing… On this day in 1973, the San Francisco Giants released pitcher Don McMahon. McMahon still shows up in 1974 Topps as a coach for Giants manager Charlie Fox (that’s his floaty head on the far right).

Going into the 1972 season, McMahon became the Giants pitching coach while also continuing as an active pitcher (and he appeared in 1972 Topps with no mention of his being a coach – the back of his card is filled with his stats from 1957 to 1971).  He retired as a pitcher after the 1972 season and shows up as a coach in 1973 Topps, but he got re-activated in 1973 due to a depleted Giants bullpen.  The transaction from 10/9/73 was intended to be McMahon’s second retirement… but history repeated itself in 1974, McMahon got activated during the season and appeared in 9 games at the age of 44.  This card would be his last Topps appearance, bringing an end to his 17 consecutive years of appearing in a Topps set.

Wednesday, October 10th

In Game 4 of the ALCS the Orioles had been down 4-0 late in the game and facing elimination.  The O’s tied it up in the 7th on an RBI single by Brooks Robinson and a 3-run homer by Andy Etchebarren, and then a Bobby Grich homer in the 8th put them on top to stay.

Concerned about the empty seats behind Brooks Robinson?  Don’t be, the photo’s not from the ALCS.  It got to the point where my search for images came up empty so many times that I just made note of which Orioles played in Game 4 and went looking for 1970s photos of that player in a road uniform.  Cheats galore.

Tony Perez hit a solo homer to tie the Mets/Reds game up 1-1 in the 7th and the game would remained tied until the 12th when Pete Rose hit a homer for what would be the game-winning run.

Again, just Tony Perez at Shea, not an NLCS picture.

Thursday, October 11th
Like in Game 4, the O’s were down a few runs going into the late innings.  Unlike Game 4, they wouldn’t score, the A’s won the game 3-0 and the series 3-2.

As you can tell, this is from the postgame celebration.

Here’s the real Topps card to wrap up the series (mine needs an upgrade).  The card shows Reggie Jackson swinging, which could be from any of a number of moments from the ALCS.

Over in the National League, the Mets broke things open with a 4-run 5th inning, including a 2-run Cleon Jones double, and the Mets would hold on to beat the Reds 7-2 and take the series.

Cleon Jones batting, yet another cheat… and that’s the last cheat, because I’ve finished with the LCS customs.

Here’s the actual Series card, which shows Jerry Koosman pitching in Game 3:

In non-postseason baseball news, the Tigers hired Ralph Houk as their new manager, replacing Joe Schultz who was acting as the interim manager after Billy Martin got fired.  Here’s Houk shown in Yankee Stadium wearing those famous Tigers pinstripes (jk).  He’s also notably shown without coaches, one would guess that the coaching staff had not been determined at this time (a couple of the Tigers coaches from 1973 would follow Martin to Texas).

Saturday, October 13th

In Game 1 of the World Series the A’s would score a couple of unearned runs in the 2nd and not look back, winning the game 2-1.  The card shows Darold Knowles getting the save.  For years I thought it was Rollie Fingers but at some point I looked closer and realized it wasn’t quite right.  I did some research and it does seem to be Knowles.

Sunday, October 7th

In game 2 of the World Series the Mets and A’s were tied at 6 and went into extras.  The Mets scored 4 runs in the 12th, the A’s answered with 1 in the bottom of the 12th and the series was tied at 1 game apiece.

Willie Mays retired after the 1973 World Series, so this was the last Topps card he’d have as an “active” player.  Mays came in to the game in the 9th as a pinch-runner for Rusty Staub, and would also pop out in the 11th.  In the 12th he had an RBI single  – the last hit of his Major League career – advanced on a Cleon Jones single and scored on an error by 2B Mike Andrews.