More and more around the interwebs we’ve been seeing the first crop of 2010 Topps popping up. To be honest, despite my proclamations that 2010 is The Year of Vintage, seeing all those new cards has given me an awful itch to crack some packs. Nothing big deal, mind you. Just a couple of packs to take the edge off. Maybe a blaster at most. It’s no big deal. I can handle it.

Of course it seems as if my local Target just happens to be the only Target on the planet that doesn’t have the new Topps cards in stock yet. Both this past weekend and the one before that, I swung by thinking that I’d grab a couple of packs only to be turned away, empty handed.

Not one to take no for an answer when it comes to cards, I instead took my money and headed on down to the local card shop to see if the 6 for $5 vintage box would take some of the sting out of getting skunked on the 2010 Topps. Over the course of 2 trips, I ended up plunking down the equivalent of the price of 2 blasters plus tax, or $45. At 6 cards per $5 that works out to 54 cards, all of which are from between 1957 and 1979.

Rather than blow out all my scores in one post, I will break the haul into “packs” if you will. This is what I got in “Pack 1”.

1960 Topps #298 George Witt

You know what I will never understand? Let’s say you’re the owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates. You’ve spent the last few years bouncing around the standings, spending most of the time in the cellar. You need to come up with some plan to jump start your team. So what do you do? See that bad-ass pirate logo in the lower left hand corner of this card? How about ditching that bad-ass pirate logo for THIS. Whoever was in charge of making that decision should be made to walk the plank or whatever other disiplinary measures they use within the Pirates organization. Seriously, I’m by no means a Pirates fan, but I think that might be my favorite sports logo ever. It took me until just this morning to realize that that pirate has a pair of crossed bats on his hat in lieu of crossbones. Genius.

1978 Topps #72 Andre Dawson

Here we have recent Hall of Fame inductee and proud owner of one of the coolest nicknames in baseball, Andre “The Hawk” Dawson in his Topps sophomore card, complete with the Topps All-Star Rookie trophy. Hawk is looking awfully cool on this card, like he’s either going to knock in the go ahead run off of your closer, or he’s going to cut you. It don’t matter much to him which one. Interesting side observation – I would’ve thought circa 1978 Expos uniforms would be much uglier. That’s actually a pretty sharp looking jersey. By the way, does anyone know what the hell this is about?

It’s on the back of this Dawson card and there’s something like it on the back of every other ’78 Topps cards I own. I mean, it’s obviously some kind of game, but what’s the deal with it? Does anyone out there remember ever using their cards to play this game? Did Topps issue instructions, or were you just supposed to figure it out? I find it weird and a little disappointing that I just noticed this now.

1973 Topps #62 Home Run Leaders

I always love getting League Leader cards. Although I do like the two separate cards, one for each league format, there’s something even simpler about having one card that has the top guy from both leagues. This one is pretty cool in the same way that any card with Johnny Bench on it is cool. Althoug there’s something weird going on with his teeth, like they’re filed to points or something. That, taken with the slightly demented look on his face, gives him a very disconcerting aura in this photo. Like he wants to bite you. Dick Allen on the other hand has no such dental or image troubles. Just one even row of really white teeth and a look that says “Yeah, I just hit 37 Homers. That’s cool. Anyone seen my Barry White record?”

1970 Topps #181 Sparky Anderson

Heres a nice card for the old manager collection. I wonder if anyone else specifically collects manager cards. I wonder how I got obsessed with manager cards. I wonder what’s going on with Sparky’s eyebrows. He looks like a Vulcan. This was his first year as a big league manager. He ended up with a 102-60 record and won the N.L. Pennant that year. Not bad for a rookie. It doesn’t seem like he did any managing in 1969, but in 1968 he managed the AA Asheville Tourists. I couldn’t find any pictures of their uniforms, but I’m assuming that’s what Sparky’s wearing in this picture. I got to say, a black cap with no logo looks pretty damn cool. If I ever started my own Major League team, I’d consider it. I’d call the team the Bad Asses.

1975 Topps #100 Willie Stargell

Willie Stargell must be a big fan of Teddy Roosevelt, because he doesn’t seem to be saying much. I was interested to learn from the back of this card that his full name is Wilver Dornel Stargell. That’s one heck of a moniker. Willie would go on to hit .295 in 1975 along with 22 homers and 90 RBI’s, which I guess is a bit of a down year for him. Also, as I was looking over his stats, I was a little taken aback at how similar they are to Carlos Delgados numbers.

1971 Topps Scratchoffs Hank Aaron

I already showed off a bunch of other cards that I had gotten out of this 6 for $5 box, one of which was a 1971 Scratchoff Lou Piniella. Just to illustrate how awesome that box is, I overlooked this Hank Aaron because I never made it past the first row of cards the first time. I actually only made it about 60% through the first row before I realized I already had about $50 worth of cards in my hand and should probably put some back. Unlike the Sweet Lou, Hammerin’ Hank is scratched off already. This is what the inside looks like.

I guess the idea is that you have one card and you buddy has another card. After figuring out who’s the home team and who’s the away team, you start scratching until you get 3 outs, then your buddy goes until he gets 3 outs and so on until you’re done with all 9 innings. I don’t think you need to scratch them off in any particular order, although I wonder what happens if you scratch off Double Play when you don;t have anyone on base. Also, it claims “Rules are the same as baseball” but what about judgement calls? Like say you scratch off a double, so now you have a guy on second with no outs. Then you scratch a single. Does the guy score from second? Or what about if you then scratch ground out? Does the runner advance? I bet these cards were the source of a lot of scraps at the playground back in the day. By the way, in case you haven’t seen it, Wicked Ortega found a crap-load of these things in an air conditioning duct. Pretty sweet.

Well, that’s it for my first 6-for-5 “pack”. Stay tuned for some more.

Tags: 1960 Topps, 1970 Topps, 1971 Topps Scratch-Offs, 1973 Topps, 1975 Topps, 1978 Topps, Andre Dawson, Dick Allen, George Witt, Hank Aaron, Johnny Bench, Sparky Anderson, Willie Stargell
Filed Under: Bargin Bin Baseball Cards by slangon
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