Dissecting the 1970 Set

Today I'm wrapping up a 5-part series where I look at the players who had multiple positions listed on their cards. We have already seen the 1966, 1967, 1968, and 1969 sets, now here is the 1970 set.

The 1970 Topps set had 720 cards. Team cards (24) returned after a 1-year absence. There are also 24 manager cards, 40 rookie stars cards, 12 league leader cards, a whopping 14 post-season cards (now that we have two LCS series), 20 All-Star cards, and 7 checklists. With all the additional post-season and team cards, there are no multi-player cards in the set. This leaves 579 cards of individual players.

Here is the position breakdown of the 579 player cards.
234 cards for Pitcher
57 cards for Catcher
22 cards for 1st Base
26 cards for 2nd Base
38 cards for Shortstop (38!)
29 cards for 3rd Base
18 cards for Infield
123 cards for Outfield

That's a total of 547 cards. The remaining 32 cards featured players at more than 1 position. Unlike the previous 4 sets, there are hardly any cards with opposite position combinations (for example, we have many 1B-OF, but no OF-1B). Below is a sample of each position:

The 1B-OF combination appears the most (like it always does), but this time there are ELEVEN players: Willie Stargell, Frank Howard, Ken Harrelson, Ron Fairly and Bob Bailey (both on the Expos), Joe Pepitone, Tito Francona, Curt Blefary and Pete Ward (both on the Yankees), Andy Kosco, and Greg Goossen. Jim Stewart is the only player with the INF-OF position.

Joe Torre and John Boccabella are the C-1B players, while only Orlando "Marty" Martinez checks in with C-INF.

Carl Taylor and the Yankees' Frank Fernandez have C-OF on their cards. Mickey Stanley is the only SS-OF (despite not playing very much at shortstop over the 2nd half of 1969).

This is the only position combo that is featured both ways. Dalton Jones and the Pirates' Bob Robertson have the 1B-3B position, and Harmon Killebrew is the lone player with 3B-1B.

Angel Hermoso, Ron Hansen, and Steve Huntz all show 2B-SS, although for some reason Topps is abbreviating "Shortstop" as "S.S." on Hermoso's card. There are 5 players with a 2B-3B combination: Tony Taylor, Jim Lefebvre, Dave Campbell, Wayne Garrett, and the White Sox' Rich Morales.

Rick Renick and Jose Pagan are the 2 players having the 3B-SS position. Graig Nettles is the only 3B-OF player in the set.


Weird stuff 'bout the 1970 set: 

In addition to Angel Hermoso above, Topps also decided they needed periods to abbreviate these two players' positions.

There are only 2 outfielders for the Pirates and 3 for the Cardinals, but the Cubs and Giants each have EIGHT outfielders. (I thought that extravagance was reserved for the Angels!)

With all those outfielders, there was only room for 6 Cubs' pitchers. The White Sox have 7 pitchers, while most teams have 10 or 11.

The Red Sox have FOUR catcher cards!

I also noticed that Topps misspelled Gil Garrido's name as Gill Garrido (on the front only - the back is correct), and was now calling Clay Dalrymple "Clayton".

Joe Torre (#190)

I posted Joe Torre's 1966 card previously, but a baseball lifer like Torre deserves better than the capless, lavender dreck that was the 1966 Braves (and Angels) cards. Here, Joe has a new team AND a new position.

Like his brother before him, Joe began his career with the Milwaukee Braves. Joe was the team's regular catcher for most of his time with the Braves, and was a 5-time all-star.

After the 1968 season, he was traded to the Cardinals for Orlando Cepeda. Torre played mostly 1st and 3rd base for St. Louis, as they had Tim McCarver (and later Ted Simmons) behind the plate. In 1971, Joe led the NL in hits (230), RBI (137), and batting average (.363) and won the MVP award. He also made another 4 all-star teams while with the Cards.

After the 1974 season he was trade to the Mets for pitchers Ray Sadecki and Tommy Moore. Joe played for the Mets for 2 1/2 seasons, then took over as the team's manager in June 1977.

Joe managed the Mets through the 1981 season, then managed his other 2 former teams (Braves from 1982 to 1984, Cardinals from 1990 to 1995).

His greatest success as a manager was with the Yankees. He managed there for 12 years (1996 to 2007), never finishing lower than 2nd place. During his tenure, the Yankees won the division 10 times, the AL pennant 6 times, and the World Series 3 times.

Torre managed the Dodgers from 2008 to 2010, and now works in the league office. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame (as a manager) in 2014.