1978 Topps Image Inventory

deweyinthehall · #1 03-21-2023, 05:42 PM

The 1978 Topps Cincinnati Reds.

The 1978 set contains 37 images, not counting the Bonham paint job, but including the Fryman, Meoli, Nolan, Eastwick and Bailey paint jobs.

The team photo - surprise! - is actually the 1976 Team photo; a couple standees at the ends of the middle row have been airbrushed out and the fence has been recolored behind the, but those are the 1976 champions - Perez, McEnaney, Youngblood, etc. The photo was taken at Riverfront during a homestand between 7/29, when Sarmiento replaced Rich Hinton on the roster, and before 9/1 when Joe Henderson and Don Werner joined the club. The REAL 1977 Reds Team Photo, shown below, was taken in Riverfront sometime between 7/17 when Sarmiento and Soto were recalled and 9/1 when the call-ups began arriving.

The small black and white image of Sparky Anderson was taken when he was with the Phillies in 1959.

Several images were taken at Candlestick during 5/25-5/26, 8/12-8/14 or 9/16-9/18: Plummer, Borbon, Morgan, Anderson, Armbrister, Knight, Bench and Bailey. Auerbach was taken at Candlestick either in August or September.

Rose RB, Rose, Geronimo and Capilla were taken in Shea, either 6/7-6/8 or 8/9-8/21. Seaver was snapped at Shea, but during the August series for obvious reasons.

The rest were taken in the spring.

I believe Dale Murray was take at Al Lang field, home of the Cardinals and Mets, because the look of the outfield fence matches several images of Cardinals players.

I can say for sure that Fred Norman and Mario Soto were definitely taken at the Reds' spring home, Al Lopez Field in Tampa - you can see portions of the adjacent football stadium in the background.

The rest of the spring photos - Billingham, Griffey, Moskau, Concepcion, 2 Foster RBs, Driessen, Lum, Sarmiento, Foster, Summers, Hume, Werner, Revering, Meoli, Fryman, Eastwick and Nolan - were probably taken in Tampa, but the Murray image suggests some may have been taken in St. Pete - I could not see any other identifying features which would help the determination, so I will assume the probable, they were taken in Tampa, unless other information surfaces.

As promised, here is the REAL 1977 Reds Photo:

deweyinthehall · #2 03-21-2023, 06:23 PM

The 1978 Topps Houston Astros

There are 24 Astro images, not counting the Walton and Zamora paint jobs.

The team photo was taken in the Astrodome, sometime between 8/24 and 8/31, after Bannister came off the DL but before the call-ups arrived.

The small image of Virdon was taken while he was with the Pirates, 56-65.

Several images were taken at Candlestick, during 4/26-4/28, 8/9-8/11, 9/14-9/15: Howe, Cabell, Metzger and Pentz (August or September).

A few were taken in Shea, 6/16-6/19 or 8/22-8/23: Bannister, Watson, Lemongello, Gonzalez and Sperring.

The rest were taken during the spring - Herrmann was definitely taken at the Astros facility, Cocoa Expo Stadium in Cocoa Beach, FL. The rest were likely taken there as well - Ferguson, Cedeno, Forsch, Puhl, Niekro, Sambito, Andujar, Cruz, Richard, McLaughlin, Virdon and Howard.

deweyinthehall · #3 03-22-2023, 05:05 PM

The 1978 Topps Los Angeles Dodgers

There are 30 Dodger images in this set, not counting the Davalillo and Forster paint jobs, counting John Hale, Henry Cruz and Kevin Pasley, and the NLCS card.

The team photo was taken at Dodger Stadium, between 7/21 and 7/28 - after the arrival of Rautzhan but before the departure of Hale.

The small image of Lasorda was taken while he was with Brooklyn in 1954 or 1955.

A number of photos were taken at Candlestick Park during 4/15-4/17, 7/1-7/4 or 9/20-9/21 - Goodson, Rhoden, Cey, Rau, Monday, Smith, John, Lopes, Baker and Sosa. Burke was also snapped at Candlestick, but in either July or September.

Just 2 images are from Shea, 5/13-5/15 or 8/1-8/3- Yeager and Lacy.

The remainder were taken during the spring, almost all certainly at Holman Stadium in Vero Beach: Hough, Hooton, Lasorda, Mota, Sutton, Garvey, Garman, Oates, Martinez and Rautzhan.

Hale, Pasley and Cruz were all very likely also taken at Holman.

Russell was probably taken there as well, but I cannot confirm whether 1) he is wearing his home or away uniform, or 2) if Holman had a yellow strip along the dugout roof.

The image used on the NLCS card, of Davey Lopes batting with Tim McCarver catching, was taken at Veterans' Stadium on October 8 in the deciding game 4 - McCarver was Carlton's personal catcher (of his 39 starts in '77 only 3 were in games Carlton didn't pitch) and sure enough Carlton started game 4 with Tim behind the plate. Lopes batted 3 times against this battery, walking twice and lining out to 2nd once. In the photo, he's made contact and is headed towards first, so this was taken a split second after he hit that liner to lead off the game.

deweyinthehall · #4 03-22-2023, 05:47 PM

The 1978 Topps San Diego Padres

The set contains a total of 26 Padre images, excluding the Scanlon and Gamble paint jobs, but including Doug Rader's.

The team photo was taken in San Diego Stadium sometime during 7/1-7/5 or 7/11-7/28 - After the arrival of Tucker Ashford and before the departure of John D'Acquisto.

The smaller image of Alvin Dark was taken while he was with the Cubs in 1958 or 1959.

Several images were taken at Candlestick during 5/30-6/1, 7/6-7/7 or 9/30-10/2: Hendrick, Owchinko, Turner, Dark, Champion and Davis.

Ivie and Winfield were taken at Shea either 5/11-5/12 or 7/29-7/31.

The remainder were almost certainly taken in the spring at Desert Sun Stadium in Yuma, AZ: Jones, Tomlin, Ashford, Fingers, Fingers LL, Tenace, Shirley, Richards, Griffin, Almon, Spillner, Strom, Rettenmund, Freisleben, Sweet and Rader.

deweyinthehall · #5 03-22-2023, 06:13 PM

The 1978 Topps San Francisco Giants

There are 31 Giant images in the set.

The team photo was taken on 6/22 in Candlestick Park. Johnnie LeMaster had just arrived the previous day, and Lynn McGlothen would go on the DL later that day, to be replaced by Tommy Toms.

The small image of Altobelli is a stumper - I cannot find enough detail to even make a guess at when it was taken during his professional career, which spanned 1951-1970.

Greg Minton, like Mike Paxton of the Red Sox, seems to be a painted-over black and white image. It was likely taken at Phoenix Municipal Stadium in Phoenix in the spring. Lynn McGlothen was also take in the spring at Phoenix - even though they were Arizona, photos do suggest the presence of a lot of trees over the right and center field fences.

All the remaining photos were taken in Candlestick at some point during the 1977 season: McCovey, McCovey RB, Sadek, Barr, Halicki, Montefusco, Foli, Thomas, Evans, Whitfield, Altobelli, Moffitt, Heaverlo, Hill, Clark, Madlock, Harris, Andrews, Curtis, Herndon, LeMaster, Williams, Knepper, Alexander, Thomasson, Lavelle and Elliott.

deweyinthehall · #6 03-22-2023, 06:22 PM

Well, I've come to the end of the road with the 1978 set.

As always, if anyone can offer alternative IDs for any of these images, PLEASE do so.

And finally, I need to discuss those few card images that are simply too hard to begin to try to place: Vic Davalillo, George Medich and Danny Walton.

Between his departure from the A's in 1974 and his return to MLB with the Dodgers in 1977, Davalillo played in Mexico. Was this image snapped with Oakland? A Mexican team? Impossible to know unless the Topps Vault has released the negative which might show some of the real uniform along the borders.

George "Doc" Medich played for the A's, Mariners and Mets in 1977 - is his Rangers uniform painted over one of those? Perhaps it is from his time in Pittsburgh in 1976 or even with the Yankees for several years before. The background is too fuzzy to make a guess as to a location.

Danny Walton got into 11 games with the Astros in 1977 after arriving from the Dodgers farm in early September. He was Dodger property throughout 1977 and 1976 before that. Is there a Dodger uniform under the Astros paint job? Perhaps a Twins image? Who knows.

Thank you for indulging me this journey through the 1978 set and like I said - please send any ID information you may have!

deweyinthehall · #7 03-23-2023, 07:54 PM

One more post on the 1978 for good measure -

There are 59 paint jobs in the set, reflecting transactions which occurred as early as 2/28/77 (Buddy Schultz) and as late as 11/30/77 (Kingman, Maddox, Brohamer).

Surprisingly, 31 took place before or during the 1977 regular season, and a full 18 took place before 8/1/77, when most teams still had series to play in Candlestick and Shea, or Yankee Stadium and Oakland.

Seems Topps could have gotten an image of Doug Rader as a Blue Jay (acquired 6/8), Tom Murphy as a Blue Jay (acquired 7/27), etc, etc.

The last transactions captured in time for the 1978 set were Kingman, Maddox and Brohamer on 11/30. Baseball Reference lists Ron Schueler as joining the White Sox on 12/3, but newspaper accounts place this on 11/17. Dave Bergman's card reflects a 12/1 date, but all else points to 11/23.

The first transaction in December involving any players that would be featured in the 1978 occurred December 5 when the Angels Traded Bobby Bonds, Thad Bosley and minor leaguer Richard Dotson to the White Sox for Brian Downing, Chris Knapp and minor leaguer Dave Frost. Neither this trade nor any subsequent transactions were reflected in the 1978 set.

Therefore, I think we can conclude that Topps locked the player/team combinations in order to finish the proofing process and start runnin the presses for the 1978 set as of 12/1/77. It would be interesting to see whether other sets at this time share a similar cut off date.

Sleepless72 · #8 06-20-2025, 12:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by deweyinthehall

The 1978 Topps Houston Astros

There are 24 Astro images, not counting the Walton and Zamora paint jobs.

The team photo was taken in the Astrodome, sometime between 8/24 and 8/31, after Bannister came off the DL but before the call-ups arrived.

The small image of Virdon was taken while he was with the Pirates, 56-65.

Several images were taken at Candlestick, during 4/26-4/28, 8/9-8/11, 9/14-9/15: Howe, Cabell, Metzger and Pentz (August or September).

A few were taken in Shea, 6/16-6/19 or 8/22-8/23: Bannister, Watson, Lemongello, Gonzalez and Sperring.

The rest were taken during the spring - Herrmann was definitely taken at the Astros facility, Cocoa Expo Stadium in Cocoa Beach, FL. The rest were likely taken there as well - Ferguson, Cedeno, Forsch, Puhl, Niekro, Sambito, Andujar, Cruz, Richard, McLaughlin, Virdon and Howard.

Hey Dewey! This is a great thread. I don't know how important/useful this detail is to you, but I noticed that you dated Bill Virdon's playing-days photo as "56-65." I thought I'd mention that the Pirates began wearing sleeveless jerseys in 1957, so that should narrow the dating of the photo to 1956-57, allowing for the possibility that the Bucs wore the old jerseys during spring training of 1957.

Also, I see that you live(d) in Ellicott City. I'm right down the street in Columbia!

deweyinthehall · #9 06-20-2025, 06:22 PM

Thanks for the assist - sent you a PM on the Columbia/EC connection

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