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Thursday, April 14, 2011

Transmogrified into being: A Couple of '78s

Let's do another one of these. Two for one special!

1978 Topps John Scott


I love 1978 Topps cards but I have a paltry amount of them compared to, say, the 1976 and 1979 set which I like less. Acquiring this card here is probably one of the reasons I initially decided to eventually have cards delivered. Up until then most of my trades were for Lemmers.

Condition on this card is really good. The top left corner is slightly dinged, the bottom left corner is slightly touched. The other two are sharp. Up-Down centering is about 65-35. Just enough off to notice but not enough to really matter. Gloss is good, no creases or wrinkles. No smoke or musty smell. This is a very nice looking 33 year old card.


The back unfortunately is miscut. It's cut right on the the blue border line. There may be a microscopic sliver of orange between the blue and the edge of the card, but I can't see it. John knocked a double for the Jays, so that makes up for it. PSA don't like it but I don't care.


I got the John Scott I needed for my set plus a bonus Ron Fairly in exchange for a '76 Leron Lee card. Was this the card I taunted Night Owl with? I can't remember, I taunt Night Owl too frequently to keep track. Ron Fairly I didn't need though, so it got flipped:


I traded it for me! Ok, not really me. But a Brave. With my name. That I already have piles of but who cares. I had to save the Braves from the sinking Transmogrifier.

1978 Topps Dave Campbell


This one isn't nearly as crisp at the Scott card, but it's perfectly acceptable for a '78. Left corners are dinged, right corners are touched. Left edge is a little rough. There's either a slight wrinkle or a flaw in the cardboard just to the right of Dave's cap. 65-35 centering again with the top border getting short shrift this time. Perfectly acceptable. PSA -2. Who grades '78 Topps anyway?


Dave was the Braves' top bullpen artist in 1977! Baseball-Reference even says he's the closer. Dave walked his batter, though. It makes me slightly sad when pitchers give up walks and hits in the '78 Topps game. They should be getting K's and outs. Of course then the shrewd player would just chuck all the pitcher cards I suppose. Of course if you're going to cheat at '78 baseball, you'd probably just get a stack of Home Run cards and be done with it. On the flip side, if you were to try to play a game using only the players from one team, this would be a boost for the Bravos. That's an idea actually...

I pulled out my 1978 team set and determined that the Braves lineup ended up with five singles, one double and ten assorted outs. Six for sixteen is a robust .375 average, but the slugging is a bit anemic at .438. However, five bases on balls gives them a .524 on base percentage! That's some serious moneyball right there. That would rank fifth in the NL in 1977. Of course you've got no power there at all. The Braves would have to dink everyone to death. I'll bet the Yankees got plenty of home runs on their cards. DAMN YANKEES!!!

1 comment:

night owl said...

I mentioned the very idea of going through the '78 cards and seeing which team added up to the most runs, using the game on the back, in this post:

http://nightowlcards.blogspot.com/2011/04/card-back-countdown-8-1978-topps.html

I even mentioned that the stupid Yankees would probably end up having the most runs. (In the game I played, two Yankees cards had home runs).