The Five Essential Baseball Cards of 1971 Topps

From 1955 to 1973, every Topps set featured Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, and Roberto Clemente. What's more, nearly all of those sets included Mickey Mantle, Ernie Banks, and Frank Robinson, to say nothing of the multiple Hall of Fame rookie cards you'll find throughout. Lost in the shuffle are some truly exceptional—and even Essential—cards of players who never made it to Cooperstown, the Hall of Very Goods, the sentimental favorites, and the "uncommon commons." Consider this Essentials selection a "deep cut" then as the one rule it will follow is no Hall of Famers allowed.

1971 Topps Thurman Munson

This card of the Captain is simply the best card in the set, even including Hall of Famers in the discussion. Heck, it may even be the best card of the entire decade, and that's really saying something! This is pure cardboard gold. And for what it's worth, doesn't Munson belong in the Hall anyway?

1971 Topps Steve Garvey

Take away the gamblers and the alleged juicers, and there are only two eligible 10x All-Stars not in Cooperstown. One is Detroit backstop Bill Freehan, and the other is Steve Garvey. Whatever modern analytics have to say about Garvey's career, nothing changes the fact that while he played he was considered an absolute top-shelf superstar and model of consistency in all the ways thought to matter at the time. That aside, it's hard to think of any player more gracious with fans than the National League Iron Man.

1971 Topps Cookie Rojas

Simply put, this card is for infielders what the Munson card is for catchers: a picture-perfect action shot in an era where such photos were the absolute exception rather than the rule. Plus, Rojas was a terrific player who made five All-Star teams and has busts in both the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame and the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum's Hall of Fame.

1971 Topps Ken McMullen

Journeyman infielder Ken McMullen is probably best known as being one of the three other floating heads on the Pete Rose rookie card, but a case could be made that his most essential cardboard comes from the 1971 set. While a third baseman in "ready position" rarely qualifies as a great action shot, it absolutely does when the backdrop is Yankee Stadium's famous Monument Park. Plus, the card serves as cardboard proof that Monument Park was once entirely on the field of play, as absolutely ridiculous as such a thing sounds today.

1971 Topps Archie Reynolds/Bob Reynolds/Ken Reynolds

What more can be said about the fifth essential card of 1971 Topps, the rookie stars card of Archie Reynolds, Bob Reynolds, and Ken Reynolds, other than, "That's a wrap!"