The Topps All-Star Baseball Cards Nobody Had
If your first year collecting baseball cards was in the 1970s or 1980s, good chance you learned who the best players were by seeing that coveted Topps "All-Star" emblem or banner on the front of a baseball card. Ditto the Record Breaker banner or All-Star Rookie trophy. Good chance also that as you pieced together your set, the All-Star subsets were among the most exciting to complete along the way.
For a stretch, however, completing the Topps All-Star subset was impossible. By impossible here, the implication isn't that you ran out of money for packs or your friend at school just flat out refused to trade you his Steve Garvey no matter how many cards you offered. No, this was a different kind of impossible. The cards you needed simply didn't exist. Bizarrely, Topps managed to whiff on its All-Star subset four times in the seven years spanning 1975-1981.
1975
Flip through the 1975 Topps set and you'll find only 17 All-Star cards, thanks to the subset including only two American League outfielders: Jeff Burroughs, who started the 1974 All-Star Game in left field, and Bobby Murcer, who started the 1974 All-Star Game in center. For whatever reason, the biggest star of them all, right fielder Reggie Jackson, earned only a standard card that year. Fortunately, the future Mr. October's card needed only the name Reggie Jackson to tell young collectors they'd pulled a good one.
RELATED: The Impossible Baseball Cards of the 1970s
1978
Following two years of getting it right, Topps once again included only 17 All-Stars in its 1978 baseball set. Again it was an American League outfielder who got the slight. While Reggie made the cut, as did Carl Yastrzemski, the American League's third starting outfielder, Richie Zisk, went from left field to left out. Too bad as it would have been Zisk's only Topps All-Star card, something he no doubt would have been proud of.
1979
Topps left collector's short-handed once again in 1979, and again the missing player was from the Junior Circuit. This time, however, he was not an outfielder but instead shortstop Freddie Patek. As with Zisk, this would have been Freddie's only All-Star card had Topps not omitted him.
RELATED: The Five Essential Baseball Cards of 1979 Topps
1981
After going a perfect 18 for 18 in 1980, Topps once again fell a bit short in 1981. As with 1975 and 1978, the missing player was once again an American League outfielder: Ben Oglivie of the Milwaukee Brewers.
Honorable Mention: 1976
Technically, the 1976 Topps set went 18 for 18 with its All-Stars. Still, it may have caused some confusion by pairing the National League All-Star emblem with only two outfielders: Lou Brock and Jim Wynn. In reality, nothing went haywire. It was just that the starting National League right fielder in the 1975 Midsummer Classic was now the everyday third baseman for the Cincinnati Reds.
RELATED: The Five Essential Baseball Cards of 1976 Topps
The result, which made sense to close followers of the sport but puzzled newer collectors, was that the 1976 Topps set ended up with two NL All-Star third basemen (Ron Cey was the other) and two outfielders.
Overall then, collecting the All-Star subsets ranged from confusing to impossible most years between 1975 and 1981. Still, an aspect of the Hobby even more gratifying back then than "collecting them all" was being the first among your friends to notice something quirky or unusual about a Topps set. Seriously. That's what kids did for fun before video games and the internet, and it really was a blast.
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.