Best of 1979 Topps

[Beatles Guy]

The first year I ever opened a pack of cards, oh the memories. Love this set.

[PM770]

I love the 1979 design. Liked it as a kid, love it as an adult.

1) George Brett - This might be my favorite card from my youth. Easily top 5. He's ready for action, I love it. And of course, the most important part, the All-Star designation.

2) Bump Wills (Ranger variation) - The first error/variation card I became aware of. I remember my friends and I getting the Bump Wills card with the Blue Jays team and still in a Rangers uni and also looking at the box scores and seeing he was still with the Rangers. Then later in the summer at the toy store as I was going through the racks and what is this?!?!? Bump Wills with the Rangers?!?!? They changed it?!?!? I thought that was so cool that they corrected it

3) Freddie Patek - He got cheated out of the All-Star designation. That year my friends and I went crazy looking at all the AL SS trying to find who the All-Star was. Burleson? No Dent? No Yount? Smalley? Still no. I'm not sure that we ever realized they just didn't have one. How disappointing. Poor Freddie Patek.

4) Jim Palmer - Another quasi-action shot. Ready for action and an All-Star

5) Jim Rice - I really liked Rice when I was a kid. That 3-year stretch from 1977-1979 he was the biggest slugger in the game. Of course, another All-Star card.

[pepis]

Originally Posted by PM770

I love the 1979 design. Liked it as a kid, love it as an adult.

1) George Brett - This might be my favorite card from my youth. Easily top 5. He's ready for action, I love it. And of course, the most important part, the All-Star designation.

2) Bump Wills (Ranger variation) - The first error/variation card I became aware of. I remember my friends and I getting the Bump Wills card with the Blue Jays team and still in a Rangers uni and also looking at the box scores and seeing he was still with the Rangers. Then later in the summer at the toy store as I was going through the racks and what is this?!?!? Bump Wills with the Rangers?!?!? They changed it?!?!? I thought that was so cool that they corrected it

3) Freddie Patek - He got cheated out of the All-Star designation. That year my friends and I went crazy looking at all the AL SS trying to find who the All-Star was. Burleson? No Dent? No Yount? Smalley? Still no. I'm not sure that we ever realized they just didn't have one. How disappointing. Poor Freddie Patek.

4) Jim Palmer - Another quasi-action shot. Ready for action and an All-Star

5) Jim Rice - I really liked Rice when I was a kid. That 3-year stretch from 1977-1979 he was the biggest slugger in the game. Of course, another All-Star card.

Paul,
Judging by your post, i feel like me you are an american league fan!
is that true?

[PM770]

I am a Cleveland Indians fan, so I do watch a lot more AL games than NL games. But truth be told, I prefer No-DH.

[campyfan39]

Here is my tops 5:

1. Winfield: Great old school uniform and helmet and beard.
2. Palmer: Classic card
3. Carew: Great looking card
4. Schmidt: Classic look
5. Ozzie Smith rc

here are ones not previously pictured:

[ALR-bishop]

[brewing]

Very low voting for this set, 5 total votes.

I'll close the voting prior to starting the Best of 1970. Can we get some more votes before then?

Jim Palmer 3
Bump Wills 2
Rod Carew 2

[Samsdaddy]

Brent, I will add to this list.

Jim Palmer by far is my favorite card in this set. Classic. When he pitched against my White Sox I knew we were going to lose.

Rod Carew, George Brett, J.R. Richard and Carlton Fisk round out my top five.

I don't think there was a better pure hitter in baseball during the 1970's than Rod Carew.

[brewing]

The winner is



2nd place

[Harliduck]

Originally Posted by Beatles Guy

The first year I ever opened a pack of cards, oh the memories. Love this set.

Me too...in my first pack ever I pulled a 79 Reggie Jackson...still one of my favorite cards. My younger brother pulled a Rick Honeycutt, who was a Mariner...that was pretty exciting. We were hooked...

[brewing]

Any additions or comments on quarantine edition of Best of 1979 Topps?

[nolemmings]

Putting myself back in the day for a moment, I really liked the Molitor, Murray and Welch cards for non-action, and the Guidry, Carlton and Mickey Rivers for action.

[rats60]

Willie Stargell
George Brett
Pete Rose
Jerry Koosman
Alan Trammell

[Cliff Bowman]

I wish I could do my alternate version Worst of 1979 Topps, but rules are rules. 79 was an absolute banner year for print freaks making it out of the factories and into packs and vending boxes. Shoddy quality control.

[mrmopar]

When I posted on the 80T thread, I didn't notice it was almost a decade old! It was less exciting to be adding to a very old thread, so this reply is less enthusiastic.

79 Rose is probably my favorite card image for that year. As noted, any of the AS badged cards are extra special and no all rookie trophies to compete with other cards makes picking the cards a bit easier too for me. My favorites will almost always be action shots too, although sometimes a portrait catches my eye. The 79 Reggie with the AS banner, for example. The Record Breaker cards were cool, with those red, white and blue name banners, too bad they were all lame posed shots. An action shot RB would have been top 5 for sure. The all-time record breakers were awesome as a kid, but the design isn't all that great. I remember seeing these old photos and wanting to learn more about the older players though.

I will say Carew and Brett are both great cards worthy of top 5, earning spots 2 & 3. I like most of Carew's mid-late 70s cards though.

Rounding out top 5 for me are Fisk and Cliff Johnson. Johnson works with the minimum vote per player rule, but Fisk had some epic 70s cards and this one is only so so compared to his 74 and 77 cards.

Several great pitching action cards would get honorable mention, like Reuschel, W. Wood, Kaat, T. John, Carlton, Messersmith, Wise, Goaassage, B Forsch, B. Lee, Borbon, M Keough to name several. Dan Driessen and Willie Montanez have nice fielding action shots that are somewhat unique.