Topps could not have picked a worse time to de-emphasize World Series cards. From 1960-75 (oddly skipping 1966), Topps issued a World Series subset that covered every game individually. Imagine how fans must have felt when they ripped open their packs of '76 Topps and found this instead, especially coming off a series for the ages:
I mean, how can you condense such an experience into one tiny card? And that's Carlton Fisk in the upper left, but that sure as hell isn't his Game 6 home run -- he's being greeted at the dugout, not home plate, and if you look closely, the Sox are wearing their road grays with "BOSTON" across the front.
When I was growing up, this was one of smoking guns the baseball card-magazine writers used when they'd write one of their tired regular "Topps isn't as good as it used to be" broadsides, which seemed to alternate every other month with that other perennial favorite of the time, "baseball isn't as good as it used to be."
Anyway, let's give the '75 series some justice and make a worthy World Series subset, starting with Game 1, 40 years ago today. (Each card will be posted on the anniversary of the game in question.) Boston's Luis Tiant pitched a 5-hitter and had a memorable jaunt around the bases in a 6-0 win. All six runs were scored in the seventh in a rally that began with Tiant's single.
I liked both pictures, so I made two cards of No. 23 in action.
Tomorrow, Game 2.
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