The Five Essential Baseball Cards of 1972 Topps

The 1972 Topps set was an absolute beast! It's 787-card checklist was not only the largest to date for Topps but remained the standard-bearer for a decade until passed at 792 by the company's 1982 offering. With a checklist that included top-shelf Hall of Famers Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente, not to mention Texas Rangers legend Ted Williams, any Five Essentials list is bound to leave out some absolutely marvelous cardboard. Fortunately for collectors, they can always add more than five to their collections or even "Collect Them All!"

1972 Topps Roberto Clemente

RELATED: The Five Essential Baseball Cards of Roberto Clemente

The recent "Five Essential Baseball Cards of Roberto Clemente" article said it best:

If any baseball card ever doubled as a poem, you're looking at it right here. Though the 1972 Topps set included a first-of-its-kind "In Action" subset, this base card of Clemente may well be the greatest of all action shots in the set. That the final day of the calendar year would mark the end of Clemente's life adds even deeper significance to this 1972 card and its sadly foreboding tombstone design.
Collectibles on SI

If you only have one 1972 Topps card in your entire collection, make sure it's a "Great One!"

1972 Topps Billy Martin

It's rare for a manager card to crack any Essentials list, but this is, for better or worse, is something of a cult classic for reasons that become evident when looking closely at the brash skipper's left hand. Since Martin was neither the first baseball card subject nor the last to flip off the photographer (if not the kids of America), you might wonder if Essentials status is still something of a stretch. Let's just say a little "bird" told us to include it.

1972 Topps Red Sox Rookie Stars

Despite a roster of 787, the 1972 Topps set includes only a single Hall of Fame rookie card: this "triple" featuring Mike Garman, Cecil Cooper, and (last but not least) Carlton Fisk. Cooper, of course was no slouch. After all, he batted .352 in 1980, not to mention that everywhere he ever lived was Cooper's town. As for Fisk, he was the season's Rookie of the Year (leading the league in triples, believe it or not!) and of course attained Red Sox legend just three years later with one of the most dramatic World Series home runs of all time.

1972 Topps Traded Joe Morgan

RELATED: The Five Essential Baseball Cards of 1971 Topps

Tucked away in the set's final series are seven "Traded" cards, featuring a who's who of 1970s stars, included among them three Hall of Famers: Steve Carlton, Frank Robinson, and Joe Morgan. Of the Hall of Famers, Morgan gets the nod simply because his eight campaigns with Cincinnati included back-to-back Most Valuable Player awards, back-to-back World Championships those same years, and a gaudy stat line that included more than 100 runs, 110 walks, and 50 steals a season.

1972 Topps Billy Cowan

With apologies to Aaron, Mays, Ryan, Seaver, and so many other greats of the game, Billy Cowan gets the nod here in the five-hole. Let's face it, those other players have great cards in dozens if not hundreds of sets, but this Cowan is truly unique to the hallowed (or is that Haloed?) 1972 release.