Return of the 6 for $5 Bin

Return of the 6 for $5 Bin
February 5th, 2010 by slangon

Here we go with “Pack 2”.

1974 Topps #2 Hank Aaron Special 1954-1957

This is the first of the Hank Aaron Specials that Topps put out in ’74, to commemorate his breaking of Babe Ruth’s career home run record. There was a total of 5 of them, each depicting 4 of his Topps cards through the years. This is the second of these that I’ve gotten from the 6-for-5 bin. Once again, it seems that Topps couldn’t bother to take additional photos of Hank, this time reusing the same picture on his first 3 cards. Also, on that ’56, that’s not even Hank in the action shot. That’s Willie Mays. What’s up with that, Topps?

1969 Topps #420 Ron Santo All-Star

I was watching something on the MLB Network sometime last week about the ’69 season. They spent a good portion of it taking about how the Cubs were really making a run of it and everyone thought this was finally going to be the Cubs year. Of course, we all know how that worked out for them. Anyway, they talked about how during that season, Santo had this custom where after every home win, he would run off the field, jumping up and clicking his heels. Silly, yes, but I love hearing weird little stories like that.

1968 Topps Game #33 Jim Fregosi

I’ve been piling up a bunch of these odd ball inserts from the 60’s and 70’s over the last month or so, which is cool with me. With any of these game type card, or even the 1978 Topps set that I was talking about yesterday, I wonder if the player gets bummed when Topps sticks his card with something bad, such as a ground out. Is Topps trying to comment on that players abilities?

1973 Topps #330 Rod Carew

I’m not 100% sure if I’m ready to declare this officially, but I think that the 1973 Topps set might be my favorite of all the ’70’s releases. I like the plainness of it as compared to the ’72 and ’75 designs. It also seems a little more thought out that many of the later ’70’s sets. I do like the ’70 and ’71 sets, but what really separates this from those sets for me is the little position guy in the bottom right. It just seems like a fun little detail. Interestingly, 1953 is defiantly my favorite set from the ’50’s and 1963 is without a doubt my favorite set from the ’60’s. I might go so far as to say 1983 is my favorite ’80’s set. I’m not sure what to make of that.

1960 Topps #321 Ron Fairly All-Star Rookie

The 6-for-5 bin seems to be pretty chock full of 1960 cards, most of which are of pretty no-name guys. Ron Fairly I do seems to have some recollection of, but I can’t really place why I know his name. Either way, I really like the ’60 set, particularly these All-Star Rookie cards.

1960 Topps #21 Chicago Bears Team Card

I don’t know if I mentioned this when I wrote about the 6-for-5 bin in the past, but it’s not just baseball cards. They also have football and basketball and possibly hockey. Until now, I hadn’t really delved into the other sports. I was able to find this little gem in the football section, as well as a few other goodies which I’ll get to at another time. One of the aspects of my collection that I really wanted to add to this year was old manager and team cards, and I see no reason why I can’t expand that to include other sports. I’ve really been having a hard time lately trying to figure out what exactly it is that I love so much about team cards (and manager cards for that matter). Maybe it’s because it’s like getting 48 cards in one. Maybe it’s the democratic aspect of all the superstars and all the bench warmers and all the trainers and all the coaches and all the waterboys being presented as equals, as just one part of a larger entity. Or maybe it’s just fun to try and recognize any of those tiny little men. Men with names like Vic Zucco and Zeke Bratkowski. I also like the logo with the bear apparently asleep on top of the football.