What’s The Deal With Denny Doyle? (A “This Week In 1974 Topps” Mystery)

In researching my “This Week In 1974 Topps” series I’ve been using transactions listed on Baseball Reference to match 1974 Topps cards up with those transactions.  For the most part, it’s been pretty clear cut.  You can see that between one November 9th, 1973 deal and another November 14th deal is where 1974 Topps leaves off and 1974 Topps Traded picks up.

This card of Denny Doyle perplexed me, though.

Denny Doyle played the entire 1973 season for the Phillies. You can tell from the zipper-front jersey and Candlestick Park in the background that this photo was taken while he was wearing a Phillies uniform.  To make him look a little like he’s with the Angels they airbrushed the crown of his cap, and perhaps covered up the “racing stripes” and Phillies logo on the original uniform.

Denny Doyle’s Baseball Reference page says he was traded to the Angels on December 6, 1973, which would’ve been during the 1973 baseball winter meetings that had taken place between December 3rd and 7th, 1973.

So…?

As I mentioned before, the 1974 Topps set seems to have been “put to bed” in early November, and all of the deals which took place in the winter meetings are reflected in 1974 Topps Traded.

…Except, apparently, for Denny Doyle going to the Angels.

Let’s take a step back and look at the roots of the transaction.  On August 14th, 1973 the Angels sent Billy Grabarkewitz to the Phillies for a Player To Be Named Later (or Future Considerations or however else you want to phrase it).

The official transactions say that on December 6th the deal was completed by Doyle going to the Angels and reliever Aurelio Monteagudo and outfielder Chris Coletta going to the Phillies.  I found a New York Times article from just after the winter meetings which listed Doyle to the Angels for Monteagudo and Coletta as one of the transactions from those winter meetings (Coletta, BTW, never appeared on a Major League baseball card).

But if that winter meeting deal was Doyle in exchange for Monteagudo, then why is Monteagudo in 1974 Topps Traded while Doyle is in the regular set?

I got out my copy of the sixth edition of The Baseball Encyclopedia;  This edition has a transactions section in the back.

The Baseball Encyclopedia’s listing of the trade uses just the original August 14th date of the trade, not the player-to-be-named-later portion… and like I said, Doyle had definitely been traded after the season was over.  At the very least his last on-field appearance for the Phils was on September 20th, over a month after the original date.

I did more online searches on Denny Doyle and the Angels.  Everything I found indicated that Doyle was traded either “after the season” or during the winter meetings.

But again, we come back to this question:  If the 1974 Topps set was finalized in November and Doyle was traded in December, then how is Doyle shown with the Angels?

The back of Denny Doyle’s 1974 card is no help, it makes no reference to the deal.  That was far from unusual for that set, though.

At this point fellow hobbyist, published author and professional librarian Matthew J. Prigge offered some help.  He found an article from the Detroit News on October 20, 1973 that read as follows:

In the trade rumor department, the only deal that was officially transacted was Pittsburgh second baseman Dave Cash going to Philadelphia for pitcher Ken Brett and second baseman Denny Doyle.
Doyle is reportedly heading to California, which would make Angel second baseman Sandy Alomar available.

My jaw dropped on that description. Yes, there had been a trade where Dave Cash and Ken Brett were involved, but today it’s listed as a one-for-one involving Cash and Brett.


I couldn’t find any other references to Doyle being involved in that transaction… plus, that one trade would’ve placed Doyle on the Pirates roster, there’s no mention of how he would get to California in such a scenario.

I did more research, and kept coming up against that December 6th date.  Even the fake newspaper article on the back of Monteagudo’s Traded card implied the same:  “The Philadelphia Phillies today completed their deal for infielder Billy Grabarkewitz, acquired from California during the 1973 season, by sending second baseman Denny Doyle to the Angels. In return, the Phillies also received outfielder Chris Coletta and journeyman reliever Aurelio Monteagudo.”

The only explanation I could think of is that Topps had some sort of inside information that Denny Doyle would be an Angel once the Grabarkewitz deal was finalized, and the 1974 Topps card reflected their faith in that inside info.

I finally found one resource which backed up this theory. There’s a Denny Doyle obituary on a website called RIP Baseball and within the obit was this passage:
“The Phillies had claimed veteran infielder Billy Grabarkewitz, who had been hitting .163, from the Angels. At the time, Phillies general manager Paul Owens and Angels general manager Harry Dalton made a handshake deal to trade Doyle after the season. At least, that was how the Philadelphia Inquirer staff described it. The Phillies then traded pitcher Ken Brett to Pittsburgh for second baseman Dave Cash in October, all but guaranteeing Doyle was at the end of his Philadelphia tenure.”

I tried – and failed – to find an online version of the attributed Philly Inquirer article, or any other corroboration of this info.  With my resources all but exhausted I decided that this seems as good an explanation as any for the situation… Topps knew that Owens and Dalton had already agreed that Doyle would be part of the deal, but nothing would be official until other details got sorted out.  I suppose the Cash/Brett deal might have been originally floated as a three-team trade that fell apart in that particular form.

To complete this epilogue, Denny Doyle was the only player involved in this transaction who brought much value to his new team.  Aurelio Monteagudo never pitched in the Majors in 1974 or any season afterwards.  Grabarkewitz batted just .133 for the Phils before being sold to the Cubs in July 1974.  The remaining piece, outfielder Chris Coletta, played his only Major League games in 1972 and played in Triple-A until 1976.

This Month In 1974 Topps: November, 1973

This series touches on those events of 50 years ago to which would directly or indirectly affect 1974 Topps Baseball. Since there wasn’t a lot of activity between the post-World Series trading flurry of October and the beginning of the 1973 Winter Meetings in December, I decided to make this single post about all of the November transactions, most of which would affect the base 1974 Topps set.

November 7, 1973
The Chicago Cubs traded Glenn Beckert and Bobby Fenwick (not in 1974 Topps) to the San Diego Padres for Jerry Morales.


This is a notable update in that the players are shown in the unaltered uniforms of their prior teams. A possibly related fact is that the original versions of both cards were included on the wax boxes.  Also of interest — On the Morales card Topps neglected to change the colored frame around the photo from yellow (Padres) to blue (Cubs).

November 9, 1973
The Cincinnati Reds traded Bobby Tolan and Dave Tomlin to the San Diego Padres for Clay Kirby. This trade would be the last to be reflected in 1974 Topps. FYI, Dave Tomlin’s rookie card came in 1974 Topps.
‘

That’s a pretty decent airbrushing for Kirby.

Why are Tolan and Kirby airbrushed when Beckert and Morales are not?  It could be that the dates on the trades might be off a bit, or maybe the Tolan/Kirby trade was known to Topps before the Beckert/Morales deal.

November 14, 1973
This next transaction comes with a backstory;  On August 31st, the Rangers traded pitcher Mike Paul to the Cubs for a Player To Be Named Later.

On November 14th, the Cubs sent Larry Gura to Texas to complete the trade. This would also be the first transaction which is reflected in the 1974 Topps Traded set.


Baseball Reference lists the trade as November 14 but the back of the traded card lists the transaction as November 15.  Pick a date, any date.

Gura would not pitch for the Texas Rangers during the regular season.  He made 7 appearances for the Triple-A Spokane Indians (the Rangers’ top farm team) and on May 7th he’d be traded to the Yankees for catcher Duke Sims.  Gura would continue to pitch in Triple-A and make his Yankees debut at the end of August, 1974.

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Although there aren’t any more transactions until December, I have plans for the next couple of posts in this series, including a mystery which I’ll investigate in the next post.

This Week In 1974 Topps: October 22 – 31, 1973

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

Monday October 22, 1973
On the day after the World Series ended, A’s manager Dick Williams announces his resignation; The A’s managerial situation will not get resolved for several months and there is no A’s manager card in 1974 Topps.

The California Angels traded Steve Barber, Ken Berry, Art Kusnyer (not in 74T), Clyde Wright and cash to the Milwaukee Brewers for Ollie Brown, Joe Lahoud, Skip Lockwood, Ellie Rodriguez and Gary Ryerson (not in 74T).

Barber would not play for the Brewers; he’d get released at the end of spring training, hook up with the Giants and make 13 relief appearances for them.



Brown was sold to the Astros at the end of spring training, so he never played for the Angels.

Tuesday October 23, 1973
The Boston Red Sox traded Ben Oglivie to the Detroit Tigers for Dick McAuliffe. Oglivie had appeared in 1973 Topps and would appear in 1975 Topps, but not in 1974.

Wednesday October 24, 1973
The Boston Red Sox traded Marty Pattin to the Kansas City Royals for Dick Drago.

Thursday October 25, 1973

The Chicago Cubs traded Fergie Jenkins to the Texas Rangers for Vic Harris and Bill Madlock.

The San Diego Padres traded Mike Caldwell to the San Francisco Giants for Willie McCovey and Bernie Williams (not in 74T).

The San Diego Padres purchased Matty Alou from the St. Louis Cardinals.  Alou is shown in pinstripes because the Cards had purchased him from the Yankees on September 6th.  (I’ve always liked this card for reasons I can’t fully explain)

Friday October 26, 1973
The Boston Red Sox traded Reggie Smith and Ken Tatum (not in 74T) to the St. Louis Cardinals for Bernie Carbo and Rick Wise.

The St. Louis Cardinals traded Tommy Cruz (not in 74T) and cash to the Texas Rangers for Sonny Siebert.

Saturday October 27, 1973
The Los Angeles Dodgers purchased Rick Auerbach from the Milwaukee Brewers.  The Brew Crew had worn pullover jerseys in 1972 and 1973, so this might be an older photo.

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This post, as originally written, went from Monday, October 22nd to Sunday, October 28th.  The week that follows, Monday, October 29th to Sunday, November 4th has only one event of significance happening, so I decided to extend this week by a few days.

Wednesday, October 31, 1973

The Houston Astros traded Jerry Reuss to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Milt May.


Both players are wearing jerseys which are distinctive in their own subtle way. Reuss’ modestly airbrushed Astros jersey has a zipper-front which few 1970s teams had (Phillies were the other one that I can think of).  May’s jersey is a pullover with a crewneck collar that was was used by just the Pirates and Cardinals.  By the end of the decade, all pullover jerseys would have V-neck collars.

This Week In 1974 Topps: October 15 – 21, 1973

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

Monday, October 15th

A’s manager Dick Williams, tired of Charlie Finley’s interference, tells his team he will resign after the World Series.  The A’s will not get a new manager in place in time for Topps, and there is no A’s manager card in 1974 Topps.

Tuesday, October 16th

Game #3 of the World Series started out as a matchup between two future Hall-of-Famers, Tom Seaver and Catfish Hunter.  The Mets scored 2 in the first on a Wayne Garrett leadoff home run followed by two singles and a run-scoring wild pitch.  The A’s would score runs in the 6th and 8th to tie the game and the A’s would win in the 11th when second baseman Ted Kubiak, who came into the game in the 7th, took first base on a walk, moved to second on a passed ball and scored on a Bert Campaneris single.  The A’s were leading the series 2 games to 1.

The photo on the card appears to show Campaneris stealing second in the 8th inning.  At first I thought it might be the second half of the play where Kubiak scored in the 11th as Campy tried to advance to second but was thrown out 8-5-4 to end the inning.  Since the umpire is clearly signalling “safe”, it must be the stolen base.

Wednesday, October 17th

The Mets evened up the series at two games apiece behind Jon Matlack’s pitching and Rusty Staub’s hitting… Staub hit a 3-run homer in the 1st and finished with 4 hits, a walk and 5 RBI.

This card shows A’s catcher Ray Fosse and Rusty Staub.

Thursday, October 18th

Jerry Koosman and Tug McGraw shut down the A’s, the Mets score single runs in the 2nd and 6th innings and win 2-0 to take a 3 games to 2 lead in the series.

This card shows Cleon Jones scoring the first run of the game; he doubled off Vida Blue to lead off the 2nd inning and scored on John Milner’s single. Jerry Grote, #15 for the Mets, was on deck. The catcher is Ray Fosse.

Transactions announced during the World Series have traditionally been frowned upon, but on this day the Philadelphia Phillies traded Ken Brett to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Dave Cash.


[I should upgrade my Ken Brett, but no way am I getting rid of that miscut which shows part of Hank Aaron’s #1 card!]

Saturday, October 20th

A’s beat the Mets 3-1 to force a game 7. The game was another matchup of Tom Seaver and Catfish Hunter with Reggie Jackson hitting two doubles to each drive in a run, and then scored the third A’s run in the bottom of the 8th.  This card shows Reggie.

Sunday, October 21st

In Game 7 the A’s scored 4 runs in the 3rd inning and never looked back, beating the Mets 5-2 to win their second consecutive World Series.

Bert Campaneris hitting his solo home run to put the A’s ahead 1-0?  One of Campy’s two singles?  Campy grounding out?  At any rate, the catcher is Jerry Grote.

This card shows catcher Ray Fosse (#10), reliever Darold Knowles (who got the save) and a third player – Sal Bando maybe? – celebrating the final out.

…and with that the off-season officially begins!

This Week In 1974 Topps: October 1 – 7, 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 stray from that in this post because I got caught up in researching the NL East and such.

Monday, October 1st
The day after the regular season was scheduled to end, the Mets and Cubs had a make-up doubleheader at Wrigley Field while the Pirates hosted a make-up game with the Padres.  The Mets needed one win and their in.  If the Mets were to get swept they would be tied with the Cardinals and possibly also the Pirates, if Pittsburgh won their game.

The Mets won their first game 6-1 to give them their 82nd win and clinch the division with an 82-79 record.  The second game, no longer necessary, was not played. The Pirates lost their game and finished in 3rd behind the Cardinals.

The Mets had been 11.5 games back on August 5th and in last place at the end of August, but nobody in this division would take charge.

The Cardinals had won their last 5 games of the season… “But it was too late” (imagine this said like Ray Stevens in “The Streak” which would hit #1 the following spring).

OK, enough of that.

Astros manager Leo Durocher announced he was retiring.  The Astros named coach Preston Gomez as their manager, as the team had played well for him during stints in the 1973 season where Durocher had been ill.

The Padres and their manager Don Zimmer part ways;  Zimmer would be the third base coach with the Red Sox in 1974 and appeared on Darrell Johnson’s card as a floaty head with an airbrushed Red Sox cap.

Friday, October 5th
With the San Diego Padres proposed move to Washington looking questionable given the looming lawsuits and opposition from some of the other NL owners, it was announced that a new group had stepped up with a $10 million offer and a promise to keep the Padres in San Diego.  This group was not without it’s own controversy and this would not be the final resolution to the Padres ownership crisis.

Saturday, October 6th
Quick note:  I couldn’t resist making customs for each LCS game to complement the single “Playoffs” card Topps used to summarize each series.  I came to regret this decision very much.

In Game 1 of the NLCS Tom Seaver shut the Reds down for 7 innings but gave up solo homers to Pete Rose in the 8th and Johnny Bench in the 9th as the Reds walked it off 2-1.

I had to cheat with this card.  I couldn’t find any usable images from game 1 so this is just a “Johnny Bench batting in Riverfront Stadium” image… I don’t even know that it’s from 1973.  I had a rough time finding images of both 1973 League Championship Series, so this will not be the last cheat.

The Orioles beat the A’s 6-0 in Game 1 of the ALCS.  Jim Palmer would go the distance, allowing no runs, 5 hits and 5 walks while striking out 12.

Sunday, October 7th
In game 2 of the NLCS Jon Matlack pitched a 2-hit shutout with 9 strikeouts as the Mets beat the Reds 5-0 to even up the NLCS at 1 game apiece

The downside of this photo:  it’s a black and white conference on the mound (and I never learned how to colorize photos).  The upside:  it *IS* actually from game 2 of the 1973 NLCS.

The A’s beat the O’s 6-3 to even up the ALCS at 1 game apiece. Sal Bando hit two home runs to drive in 3 while Bert Campaneris would hit a homer and 2 singles, steal two bases, batted in two runs and scored two as well.

This photo appears to show Campaneris stealing second in either the 8th or 9th innings with Bobby Grich focused on the incoming throw. If it’s the 8th, then Campy would score on one of Bando’s homers. If it’s the 9th then he’d be left on base.

This Week In 1974 Topps: September 24 – 30, 1973

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

For this week, I’m going to get a bit off-topic and also have daily tracking of the NL East standings… This doesn’t affect 74T terribly but the race is too much fun to ignore.  Five of the six teams in the division were within spittin’ distance of 1st place at some point in September, with only the Phillies not being a factor.

After the games of Sunday, Sept. 23 the Mets were in first with 6 games remaining, the Pirates 0.5 GB with 9 games to play, the Cardinals 3.0 GB with 6 games, and the Expos and Cubs were 3.5 GB and both had 7 games left.  The Mets had been in last place on August 30th while the Cubs had been the division leader from April 28th to July 22nd.

What happened 50 years ago this week:

Monday, September 24
The New York Yankees claimed Duke Sims off waivers from the Detroit Tigers.  This photo of Sims in Yankee Stadium is possibly the last one taken for 1974 Topps.

Yankees were on the road at the time of the waiver claim, so this photo had to have been taken the last weekend of the regular season as the Yankees were at home against the Tigers.  Many of the photos for Topps sets were taken in New York, so if you wanted to avoid being airbrushed it was good to be acquired by the Yankees or Mets.

The Expos and Pirates split a double-header while the other NL East teams had the day off.  The standings remained the same.

Tuesday, September 25
The Reds beat the Padres and clinched the NL West.

Over in the NL East the Mets beat the Expos, the Pirates lost to the Phils and the Cubs beat the Cards.  The Cubs, I should point out, seemed to have been fading away but a 5-game winning streak the previous week put them back into the chase.

Mets stay in first, the Bucs fall to 1.5 back, the Cubs jumped up to 3rd place 3.5 GB and the Cardinals (4.0 GB) and Expos (4.5 GB) round things out.

Wednesday, September 26
Things tighted up in the NL East again, as the 5th place Expos beat the 1st place Mets, the 4th place Cardinals beat the 3rd place Cubs and the 2nd place Pirates routed the last place Phillies.  The Mets’ lead is down to 0.5 over the Pirates, followed by the Cardinals (3.0 GB), Cubs and Expos (both 3.5 GB)

Thursday, September 27
The Reds suspended outfielder Bobby Tolan after a series of incidents.  He won’t play for the Reds in the postseason and will face the ultimate punishment for his transgressions – he’ll be traded to the woeful Padres come November.

In the NL East the Mets and Expos had the day off, the Phillies beat the Pirates in 13 innings and the Cardinals shut out the Cubs.  The Mets expand their lead slightly over the Pirates (1.0 GB), followed by the Cardinals (2.5 GB), Expos (3.5 GB) and Cubs (4.0 GB)

Friday, September 28
The Mets and Cubs got rained out, the Expos beat the Pirates and the Cards beat the Phillies for their 3rd straight win.  The Mets’ lead grows to 1.5 over the Pirates, followed by the Cardinals (2.0 GB), Expos (3.0 GB) and Cubs (4.0 GB)

Saturday, September 29
Henry Aaron hits career home run #713 on the next-to-last day of the season, putting him one homer behind Babe Ruth.  Aaron would not homer again in 1973.

Topps had probably been thinking that Aaron would break the record in 1973 and had prepared a “New All-Time Home Run King” as card #1 in 1974 Topps.  I would think that Topps left the card as it was because – the good Lord willin’ and the creek don’t rise – Aaron was still likely to break the record before most people saw the card. Even so, it seems a lot of people didn’t like that Topps would tempt fate like that.

The Padres play their final home game of the season, losing to the Dodgers 3-2 in front of 14,846 fans.  At the time it was thought that this could be the final home game the San Diego Padres would ever play, as it was still looking like they’d relocate to Washington DC for the 1974 season (spoiler alert:  This didn’t happen).

NL East Update:  The Mets and Cubs again didn’t play on the next-to-last day of the schedule.  The Expos beat the Pirates – Pittsburgh suffering its 3rd straight loss – and the Cardinals beat the Phillies.  We’ve got the Mets maintaining their lead, the Cardinals jump into 2nd (1.5 GB), the Pirates (2.0 GB) and the Expos (2.5 GB)

Sunday, September 30th
The last scheduled day of the season, although some makeup games would have to be played the following day… more on this in a moment.

After the last game Ralph Houk resigned as Yankees manager, making him the first managerial casualty of the Steinbrenner era (The Boss’ group had bought the team early in 1973).  The Yankees would not resolve this vacancy in time to have a manager in the 1974 Topps set.

also after the last game Eddie Kasko is fired as the Red Sox manager and replaced by Triple-A Pawtucket manager Darrell Johnson.

The photo used for this card could have been from 1968 or 1969 when Johnson was a coach with the Boston Red Sox, but it’s also possible that as the team’s top minor league manager for four years he spent some time with the big club during spring training or after the International League season had ended.

In the NL East the Mets and Cubs split a doubleheader – they have a make-up doubleheader on Monday for the games which had been rained out.  The Pirates beat the Expos (eliminating Montreal) and the Cardinals beat the Phillies.  The Pirates will also play on Monday as they have to make up a July rainout against the Padres.

While the Expos and Cubs have been eliminated, the Cardinals (1.0 GB) and Pirates (1.5 GB) are still in the thick of things.  If, on Monday, the Cubs sweep the Mets then the Mets and Cardinals would be tied with 81-81 records… In addition, if the Pirates beat the Padres then all three teams would be tied for first.

This Week In 1974 Topps: September 17-23, 1973

This is the first in a series of posts which will touch on those events of 50 years ago which Topps would’ve been paying attention to because they would directly or indirectly affect 1974 Topps Baseball.

1974 was the first seasons where Topps issued all of the cards at the same time rather than by series.  In looking back on things, it does very much seem like there’s a fair amount of seat-of-the-pants stuff going on.

By the way, I’ll get into the “Why this?”, “Why now?” and “What did we miss by not starting sooner?” towards the end of the post.

What happened 50 years ago this week:

Tuesday, September 18th 1973
This first event turned out to not really apply to the 1974 Topps angle, but I stuck with it anyway as something of an example of what this series is about.

On this date, Mets pitcher Bob Apodaca made his Major League debut, making him
[pauses while making sure the wording is right]
the last 1974 Topps rookie to make his debut before the set was issued.

Apodaca started the 9th inning with the Mets ahead of the Pirates by two runs.  He walked two batters and then was pulled. One of the runners scored, so Apodaca has an infinite ERA for 1973.

I was thinking like a 21st century collector when I originally did the research on this… Back in the 1970s, having played in the Majors wasn’t a requirement to be in a card set. If I did the research correctly, two of the players on multi-player 1974 rookie cards would make their debut in 1974 (Dave Freisleben and Reggie Sanders), one wouldn’t make it until 1976 (Frank Riccelli) and one would never play in the Majors at all (Dan Vossler, a pitcher in the Twins organization).

Friday, September 21st
The Mets, who had been in last place at the end of August, beat the Pirates 10-2 to jump into first place, a half game ahead of Pittsburgh.  The Mets would remain in first for the rest of the season, but didn’t actually clinch the division until October 1st.

If you’re thinking “Wait a minute, the Mets and Pirates played each other on Tuesday AND on Friday of the same week?” you are not mistaken.  The teams played in Pittsburgh on Monday and Tuesday and then moved to New York to play a three game series from Wednesday to Friday.  The Mets would play host the Cardinals on Saturday and Sunday while the Pirates would move on to Montreal for four against the Expos.  Weird scheduling.

Saturday, September 22nd
The Orioles beat the Brewers 7-1 and the Red Sox lost to the Tigers, meaning that the Orioles would clinch the AL East and ensure that they’d be represented on at least one postseason card in 1974 Topps.

Sunday, September 23rd
The A’s beat the White Sox 10-5 to eliminate the Royals and set up a A’s/O’s matchup in the ALCS.

Here’s our first transaction:  The Mets acquired relief pitcher Bob Miller on waivers from the Tigers.

The red and black collar on this card has bothered me since I was a kid.  I have since developed an idea of what’s up with that.

From the players in the background and the style of Miller’s crew neck it seems pretty clear that the photo was taken when he was with the Pirates.  Indeed, he had attended 1973 spring training with the Pirates, got released, hooked up with the Padres for a while and then was claimed on waivers by the Tigers on June 22.  Since the black and red collar resembles the Tigers road uniforms of the day, my guess is that this photo originally had been airbrushed to show Miller with the Tigers, and then when he was claimed late in the season by the Mets the cap was airbrushed again but nothing was done to the collar.

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Before I get to the epilogue let me catch you up to what had been going on in Major League Baseball leading up to this week in 1973…

At the end of May 1973 it was announced that the San Diego Padres, struggling in their 5th year of existence, had been sold to a banking and supermarket magnate who intended to move the team to Washington DC for the 1974 season.  The move had not yet been approved by the National League owners as of September 1973, but it seemed like a done deal and the prospective owner had been given the authority to sign off on all player transactions.  The team did have 15 years remaining on its stadium lease and the city of San Diego was not going to roll over and let the team leave.  We’ll get into this more in upcoming posts.

Tigers manager Billy Martin had been suspended by the American League at the end of August and soon after was let go by Detroit.  Former Seattle Pilots manager Joe Schultz (if you read Jim Bouton’s “Ball Four”, you know of Joe Schultz) managed the team for the rest of the season but he would not be the Tigers’ manager in 1974.

With Billy Martin unemployed Texas Rangers owner Bob Short jumped at the opportunity.  He fired his manager Whitey Herzog in early September and quickly replaced him with Martin, who would manage the team’s final 23 games of 1973 (but Topps didn’t get a photo of him during that time).

In early September the Pirates, unhappy that the team was two games below .500 and in 2nd place in the mediocre NL East, fired manager Bill Virdon and moved Danny Murtaugh from the front office back into the managerial position.  Murtaugh had last managed the Bucs in 1971, the photo on this card may have come from that season.

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OK, so why 1974 Topps and why now?

Although I’d collected Wacky Packages in 1973 (like any other red-blooded American child of the day), it wasn’t until 1974 that the baseball card bug bit me, and it got me good.  1974 Topps is special to me, as pretty much everyone’s first set is.

2023 is my FIFTIETH YEAR of collecting, and I’m not gonna lie, that freaks me out a little.  Since 1974 Topps got the Heritage treatment this year I had all kinds of plans to commemorate the set, but a lot of them got unfulfilled as the season went along.

This past Sunday night I suddenly got the idea of doing a “This Week” series as a catch-all for many of my ideas and I went ahead and started on the first three weeks just to make sure this was going to work before I actually published the first one.  That’s right, I’ve got two more posts “in the can”!  Wonders never cease.

So the reason for “Why now?” is “Because I only just thought of it and I wanted to get it started before I missed too many things.

I want to make something very clear up front:  This is not a “This Week In Baseball” series.  With the exception of division-clinching and the postseason, very little of what happens on the field would have affected any decisions Topps had made in creating 74T.

Thanks for reading!  I’m enjoying putting this together, let’s you and I see where this goes.