1972 Topps In Action: Mets & Dietz-a-palooza

[geosluggo]

The big, audacious 1972 Topps set featured 72 "In Action" cards, which were my favorites as a 7- and 8-year-old kid when the set came out. I particularly remember coveting the Vida Blue In Action card, which showed him gazing skyward at a pop-up. Roberto Clemente was my favorite player and I remember being disappointed at his In Action card, which shows him apparently reacting to a called strike. Now I think it's a pretty cool picture of Clemente.

I completed the 787-card set more than 30 years ago and while I often look at the cards, I've never separated out all the In Action cards and looked at them by themselves until the other day. A couple things jumped out at me:

-- There are 11 New York Mets featured. Seems excessive.

-- There are zero Baltimore Orioles even though the Os were coming off three AL championships and were loaded with stars.

-- At least 28 of the In Action photos were taken at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

-- Giants catcher Dick Dietz appears in at least five In Action cards -- his own, Clarence Gaston, Pete Rose, Ron Santo and Ollie Brown. And Dietz is most likely the catcher in the Joe Pepitone and Billy Williams In Action cards as well. (The Giants catcher in the Clemente card is Russ Gibson.)

-- Somebody at Topps had a thing for mediocre catchers. Tom Haller, Pat Corrales, Curt Blefary and Ed Kirkpatrick were not even starters but were featured on In Action cards.

I'd love to read anyone else's thoughts...