Card of the Moment #35
June 24th, 2010 by slangon
1968 Topps #165 Tony Oliva
I’ve always sort of moaned and groaned about how I don’t like the 1968 Topps Base Set and all that. I must say however, as much as it might not be one of my favorites from all the vintage sets, I’d much rather look at it than some of the sets from the last 20 years or so. One thing it certainly has going for it is that you’re never going to mistake it for any other set. I’m not sure what exactly it is about it that irks me so much. Actually, strike that. I know exactly what I don’t like about it. It’s totally that weird background texture that drives me batty. What I’m not sure of is why exactly it bothers me so much. What the hell is that even supposed to be, a super close-up of an Ace Bandage or something?
While I’m on the subject of things that irk me, I have a bone to pick with Mr. Oliva as well. Actually, I guess it’s more a bone to pick with whoever worked at Topps in the early 60’s and was in charge of deciding what player went on what cards. I have no problem whatsoever with Tony. He was a fine player and I’m sure a fine man.
As most folks who read this blog know, my main collecting goal is to get all the Mets team sets from all the Topps base sets. Obviously, tracking down the cards from the earlier sets is quite a bit harder than the later sets and I’m fine with that. It’s just a fact of collecting life. What annoys me is that somebody somewhere made the decision to stick Eddie Kranepool on the same Rookie Stars card as Oliva. Like most Mets fans, Ed Kranepool holds a special place in my heart so I would be really excited to have his rookie card aside from the fact that I need it to complete my ’63 team set. I just get mad every time I think of having to shell out $10-15 bucks for it though, just because Tony Oliva also happens to be on it. I very much doubt that that card would sell for that high if it was Ed and 3 other guys no one really cares about.
Well, enough of my whining.
Tony Oliva played in the majors for 15 seasons, all with the Minnesota Twins. I don’t know about you, but I always love to see a player spend his whole career with the same team. I know back then, before the advent of free agency, a lot of it had to do with the player not having any choice thanks to the dread reserve clause. I am the type of fan though that gets very attached to the individual players on my team and when a guy that I like ends up getting traded or leaving to become a free agent it bums me out. Because of that, even though I’m not a Twins fan, it makes me happy to see that Tony Oliva, who judging from his stats must’ve been very much loved in Minnesota, stayed with that team his entire career.
I would like to point out that the particular color combination of the back of this card makes it probably one of the most legible card backs I can think of. Let’s face it, when you’re squeezing that much statistical information onto a 2.5″ x 3.5″ piece of cardboard, the results can test the best of eyesight. Printing that information in dark colored ink on a dark grey cardboard background does not help matters. The black ink on a
I also want to point out that I’m very much a fan of the vertical card back. Topps utilized that design in their sets from 1953, 1967, 1968, 1973 and 1975. I will admit that the biggest reason I like the vertical format is that it makes it easier when you flip the card over to read the back. Yes, pure laziness, I know. I will further concede that the main drawback to this orientation for a card back is that baseball stat lines are much more suited for horizontal layouts. Yes, I do realize that I just made a million times better argument for horizontal backs than vertical ones. I just like them, dammit.
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