1978 Topps Image Inventory

[deweyinthehall]

The 1978 Topps Texas Rangers

The 1978 set has 32 Ranger images, excluding the Medich paint job and including those of Darold Knowles and Nelson Briles.

The team photo was taken in Arlington Stadium after July 25, which is when Bevacqua joined the club, and he is shown seated 3rd from left in the bottom row. The other players are too indistinct to make enough further identifications which could help date the image better. If anyone has the key to this photo, please pass it along.

The small black and white image of Billy Hunter was taken while he was with the Indians in 1958.

A number of pics were taken during one of the club's swings through the Bronx, either 5/25 or 8/26-8/28: Wills, Harrah, Devine, Alexander, Hargrove, Campaneris, Ellis, Sundberg and Grieve. Hunter and Bevacqua were taken during the August trip.

Some were taken in Oakland, either 6/27-6/29 or 9/23-9/25: Washington, Beniquez, Fahey, Mason and Henderson. Barker was snapped there in September, and Briles in June.

Several images were taken at Municipal Field in Pompano Beach, FL during spring training: Blyleven, May, Moret, Boggs, Alomar, Perry and Knowles.

Lindblad, though wearing his away uniform, was also snapped at the Rangers' spring home because the sign behind him is the same sign visible on Moret's card.

The rookies, Putnam and Smith, are tough ones. Putnam, wearing his home whites, appears to be completely matted around his head and shoulders. However, since no images are known to have been taken by Topps in Arlington Stadium, it must be concluded his picture was taken in Pompano Beach.

Smith is also in his whites, and for the same reason should also be considered to have been photographed in Florida. Municipal Field did have a section of seats which were green in color, but the image isn't in itself convincing that it was taken there. But, there are those whites. So, I will assume Pompano Beach.

Ellis and Horton are even tougher. With Lopez and Jones from the Mariners, I am placing them in Tiger Stadium, either 5/3 or 8/5-8/7, until better intel becomes available.

[deweyinthehall]

Starting on the National League

The 1978 Topps Chicago Cubs

The set has 29 Cubs images, excluding the Roberts, Kingman, Broberg, Fryman, Cox and Meoli paint jobs, and counting in the Bonham, Todd, Zamora, Schultz and Cardenal paint jobs.

The team "Collage" (if anyone can explain for me why the team did this for a decade or so, I would be in your debt) was assembled between 4/19 and 4/28 - after Mike Gordon was farmed and before Donnie Moore came up.

Herman Franks' black and white was tough, but I think it shows him with Brooklyn in either 1940 or 1941 - 2 stripes are seen on his sleeve cuffs and none of his other MLB uniforms had that particular feature.

The majority of Cubs images were taken in the spring of 1977 at their training facility, Scottsdale Stadium in Scottsdale, AZ: Krukow, Ontiveros, Hernandez, Morales, Franks, Biittner, Burris, Gross, Rosello, Buckner, Kelleher, Wallis, Clines, Paul Reuschel, Mitterwald and Lamp.

A few pictures were taken when the team was in Candlestick that season, either 6/20-6/22 or 8/26-8/28: Rick Reuschel, Trillo, Swisher, Sutter and Murcer. Donnie Moore's photo was taken there during June as he was sent down to Wichita at the end of July and did not return until September.

I am fairly certain that Todd, Zamora, Schultz, Cardenal and Bonham were taken in Scottsdale. Schultz may have been photographed the previous spring as he was sent to St. Louis in late February of 1977.

Another interesting item from when the Topps Vault was a going concern is this Bonham color negative:

[Cliff Bowman]

I have to ask, how are figuring out everyone who is on the team card photos?

[deweyinthehall]

.

[deweyinthehall]

In many cases, you can find the images used on the 1978 team photo cards as stand-alone items, with accompanying keys, on eBay or other sites. These images were taken by the clubs for their own purposes - they weren't Topps products. They were included in yearbooks, on calendars, etc.

In other cases, I was unable to find keys and had to do my best at ID'ing the players by sight. This is why in a couple of cases, the best I can do is say the image was taken after some day in July that a particular player whom I CAN recognize in the photo was acquired. A couple of images (the Cubs collage comes to mind) I was able to completely decipher without any problems - it depends on the quality of the image and the distinctive look of players.

Here's an example of where you can find the keys. It's ironic that Caldwell, to the left of the keg, had just been issued his uniform but hadn't yet been activated was standing next to a smiling and perhaps unaware Barry Cort would probably be told within hours of posing for this image that he was on his way back down to make room on the roster for Caldwell.

[bobw]

Originally Posted by deweyinthehall

The 1978 Topps Texas Rangers

The 1978 set has 32 Ranger images, excluding the Medich paint job and including those of Darold Knowles and Nelson Briles.

The team photo was taken in Arlington Stadium after July 25, which is when Bevacqua joined the club, and he is shown seated 3rd from left in the bottom row. The other players are too indistinct to make enough further identifications which could help date the image better. If anyone has the key to this photo, please pass it along.

The small black and white image of Billy Hunter was taken while he was with the Indians in 1958.

A number of pics were taken during one of the club's swings through the Bronx, either 5/25 or 8/26-8/28: Wills, Harrah, Devine, Alexander, Hargrove, Campaneris, Ellis, Sundberg and Grieve. Hunter and Bevacqua were taken during the August trip.

Some were taken in Oakland, either 6/27-6/29 or 9/23-9/25: Washington, Beniquez, Fahey, Mason and Henderson. Barker was snapped there in September, and Briles in June.

Several images were taken at Municipal Field in Pompano Beach, FL during spring training: Blyleven, May, Moret, Boggs, Alomar, Perry and Knowles.

Lindblad, though wearing his away uniform, was also snapped at the Rangers' spring home because the sign behind him is the same sign visible on Moret's card.

The rookies, Putnam and Smith, are tough ones. Putnam, wearing his home whites, appears to be completely matted around his head and shoulders. However, since no images are known to have been taken by Topps in Arlington Stadium, it must be concluded his picture was taken in Pompano Beach.

Smith is also in his whites, and for the same reason should also be considered to have been photographed in Florida. Municipal Field did have a section of seats which were green in color, but the image isn't in itself convincing that it was taken there. But, there are those whites. So, I will assume Pompano Beach.

Ellis and Horton are even tougher. With Lopez and Jones from the Mariners, I am placing them in Tiger Stadium, either 5/3 or 8/5-8/7, until better intel becomes available.

[deweyinthehall]

Thanks - this is a much clearer image. If I can update the dating I will do so later tonight.

[deweyinthehall]

Wow - this image complicates things a bit.

As best I can tell, these are the players, starting with the back row, l to r:
Blyleven, Fahey, Lindblad, Moret, Umbarger, Barker, Devine, Perry, ?
Mason, Henderson, Grieve, ?, Dock Ellis, Beniquez, Harrah, Hargrove
Ziegler, Miller, Ryan, Corrales, Hunter, Koenig, Hudson, John Ellis, ?
BB, Sundberg, Bevacqua, Wills, Briles, Campaneris, May, BB

This gives us 24 players, 1 below the limit. According to work I did previously, the Rangers never went below the 25 man line on their active roster that year, so someone is missing. I can't account for four guys who should have been there all year - Doyle Alexander, Sandy Alomar, Claudell Washington and Willie Horton (who arrived in April).


I have the Rangers yearbooks from 77 and 78, but I cannot ID the players denoted with ?

So what is clear is that Bevacqua arrived from Tucson on 7/25 when Henderson went to the DL.
Barker went to Tucson on the 29th to accommodate Grieve's return from the DL
Beniquez went to the DL on 7/31 and Keith Smith was brought up, but they passed each other going the other way on August 15.
Kirkpatrick went to Milwaukee and Barker was recalled on 8/20.
Umbarger was purchased from the A's on 8/25, and reportedly sent to Tucson. However, he never pitched for them, and was recalled allegedly on 9/1. So to were a good number of others, yet none are in this image.


Based on all of this, I am tempted to say the image was snapped on or about 8/31.

This would give us 24 players in the image with 2 - Henderson and Umbarger inactive, for a total of 22 active.

We're still missing Alexander, Horton, Washington and Alomar, none of whom, I'm convinced could be the 2 ? players in the image above.

So, while some things have been cleared up, there is still a mystery.

[Cliff Bowman]

On second thought I think it's Darold Knowles between Grieve and Ellis. I originally thought it might be September call up Bobby Cuellar but I noticed you didn't have Knowles in your list. ETA it blows my mind that the 1977 Rangers went 94-68, they sure could have used the Wild Card back then.

[Cliff Bowman]

The player on the back row right is Doyle Alexander, it fooled me too, I guess because he is actually smiling. Everybody in the photo is listed on this WorthPoint listing. https://www.worthpoint.com/worthoped...berg-162821295

[sthoemke]

I must have bought 10,000-15,000 of the 1978's as a kid. (I can still taste the gum)

I think almost every kid on the block had thousands of the cards.

At one point, I had sorted the cards into team sets, and during the junk wax era I unsorted the team sets and put together maybe 10 complete sets.

I've since sold off a couple sets and most of the key cards, but probably still have a monster box of mostly commons.

Did any one play the game on the backs?