Remembering 1978 Topps Baseball Cards: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
As the 1978 Topps set approaches the half century mark, collectors mainly remember it for a single card, it's Eddie Murray rookie. No doubt the Steady Eddie is one of the decade's greatest card but to reduce the entire 726-card set to a single rookie would be to forget just how great (and how terrible!) some of the other 725 cards were. So with that in mind, here's a walk down memory lane with a focus on the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Awful Airbrushes
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Topps and horrid 1970s airbrush jobs more or less went hand in hand, but even among the hundreds of cards to undergo a repaint the 1978 Topps Greg Minton stands head, shoulders, and glasses above the rest, not that the Dave Kingman and Mike Paxton from the same set are far behind.
Reggie!
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Reggie Jackson capped off the 1977 season with the most transcendent World Series performance of all-time. As such, he floated into the 1978 season less a ballplayer than a baseball god. Kudos to Topps for cooking up an absolutely card for the occasion.
Phantom All-Star
What was it with Topps and phantom AL All-Star cards? The chaos began in 1975 when Topps omitted the All-Star icon from its Reggie Jackson card, resumed in 1978 with Richie Zisk, and kept right on going in 1979 (Fred Patek) and 1981 (Ben Ogilvie). Luckily, kids back then devoured every detail on the card back, which meant they were fully aware of Richie's All-Star status, missing emblem or not.
STRIKE UT!
When kids pulled the Tony Armas card in 1978 they had no idea the Venezuelan slugger would someday lead the American League in home runs. What they also didn't know was what to do when they drew his card in the Play Ball game popularized by the card backs of the 1978 set. Okay, so more than likely Topps meant STRIKE OUT and managed to drop a letter. Still, with the Cold War in full effect, the denizens of Salt Lake City can thank their lucky stars Leonid Brezhnev didn't pull the card from a pack and take the STRIKE UT instruction literally.
Fashion Show
While the Reggie Jackson is an all-time great baseball card, don't sleep on the set's other tremendous Jackson card. (No disrespect to Jesse and Ron!) Look no further than the 1978 Topps Grant Jackson for the absolute zenith of baseball card fashion, bar none. Then again, how couldn't dude's card be money? He was named for a fifty and a twenty and he played for the Bucs!
Jason A. Schwartz is a collectibles expert whose work can be found regularly at SABR Baseball Cards, Hobby News Daily, and 1939Bruins.com. His collection of Hank Aaron baseball cards and memorabilia is currently on exhibit at the Atlanta History Center, and his collectibles-themed artwork is on display at the Honus Wagner Museum and PNC Park.