While researching for this post I found an article written in 2006 that pretty much covers most of what I was planning to write about the 1971 Topps baseball set. You can find the short article here. Since the article was written over 4 years ago for the card grading company PSA, I feel obligated to add a few comments. First…I think the article does a decent job of discussing the scarcity issues that all baseball card collectors of vintage cards have to deal with when trying to complete an entire set, i.e. the last series of cards issued by Topps in 1971 are the hardest to find. And this is pretty much true for all Topps baseball card sets issued between 1952-1973. Second…as I have mentioned in previous posts I still have a lot of “kid” in me when it comes to collecting baseball cards. By that I mean that I am perfectly happy collecting cards that are not in great condition, and as an adult, I try not to dwell too much on the monetary value of baseball cards. I still like the “feel” of a baseball card in my grubby little hand, and, holding a slabbed card graded by PSA (or any other grading company) just doesn’t “feel” right to me. If I can’t feel comfortable handing an un-slabbed card to a kid to look at, then it just ceases to be a fun hobby, in my opinion. Since I am primarily a set collector of cards that were manufactured anywhere from 40-100+ years ago I have no choice but to collect lesser conditioned cards. My pockets are not as deep as others thus that is a compromise that I am happy to have to deal with. Don’t get me wrong, if I had the choice of a near mint looking card vs. a fair looking card, I would always choose the better looking card. But unfortunately in real life the difference between those 2 cards can be in the thousands of dollars in this hobby : ( Thus, I don’t share the same feelings of those that “have-to-have” a near mint card or set, a slabbed card, or a card that is perfectly centered. However, I will agree that the 1971 Topps cards that are in pristine condition do look very cool since they have a beautiful black border, which seems to be one feature that makes this set very popular. But I believe the 1971 Topps baseball cards look cool regardless of their condition. The black border, the front and back card design, the players and the added action shots make this an appealing set to collect.
During certain years you can tell when Topps put more effort into their card design, and 1971 was one of those years. Just in case you are curious here are a few of my other favorite Topps baseball card set designs; 1952, 1954, 1956, 1957, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1966 and 1967. And Bowman made some great looking baseball cards in the 1950’s. My two favorite Bowman designs are the 1953 color set and the 1955 set (often called the TV set). Topps and Bowman battled for the baseball card bubble gum market in the 1950’s which ultimately contributed to some beautiful card designs by both companies. A lot has been written about the marketing and design battle between Bowman and Topps. A quick Google should render some interesting articles.
So far I’ve written primarily about my experiences as a kid while living in San Francisco between 1965-1971. I’ve written a little bit about the SF Giants, SF 49ers, SF Warriors, Oakland Athletics and Oakland Raiders. But there is one more sport, and experience, I need add to the foray. Hockey! Yes…the Bay Area had a professional hockey team (actually the hockey team played across the bay in Oakland). They were called the California Golden Seals among many other names during a 6-7 year period. They certainly were not the best team in the NHL but it was exciting to see them play none-the-less. However, as it turned out, I was only able to attend one NHL hockey game while my family lived in SF because the game happened to set a record for the most penalty minutes in game (a record that stood for many years) and there were a bunch of bench clearing brawls. My Mom took my Cub Scout troop to this game. To this day I believe she still feels bad about subjecting us little cubbies to such an onslaught of violence. But I must say that I became quite the hockey fan that day 🙂 There is nothing like experiencing the sights and sounds of an NHL hockey game for the first time! Unfortunately, I have been unable to find the game log on the Internet for that remarkable game, but I remember the Seals played the Pittsburgh Penguins that day.
As a point of reference, during the 1970-1971 NHL hockey season the Boston Bruins were the team to be reckoned with, unlike the Seals. In fact, through the first 32 games of the season the top 4 scorers in the NHL were all Bruins (Phil Esposito, Bobby Orr, Ken Hodge and John McKenzie). Further, the Bruins had 6 players in the top 10 scorers bracket (add John Bucyk and Wayne Cashman). Phil Esposito had 30 goals and 34 assists through the first 32 games of the season! This was one of five Boston Bruin teams that would dominate during the early 1970’s. After we moved from SF to Miami in the Fall of 1971, I remember NBC would televise an NHL game-of-the-week on Sunday afternoons. I always thought it was rather strange for NBC to be broadcasting hockey on TV in sunny/hot Miami. But I became a bit of a Bruins fan during that time as they were the team most often televised, and I remember watching Bobby Orr take the puck from behind his own goal and race up the ice, putting on a few moves and taking a shot-on-goal or feeding a another Bruin deep in enemy territory. I believe Orr was one of the first defensemen to start this trend (skating from one end of the ice to the other). All I know is he was very fast, knew how to ice skate and was fun to watch!
A Home Plate Blog 
