1978 Topps Image Inventory

[deweyinthehall]

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]

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]

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]

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.

[Fleerfan]

Love the look back at the 1978 set as it was one of the first sets I collected. Regarding the Orioles review, the picture of Mark Belanger is from Memorial Stadium. That is the Memorial Stadium scoreboard in the background with the National Bohemian (Natty Boh) sign.

[deweyinthehall]

So it is! Thanks! I will update my list.

[bobw]

It is probably a Dodgers image underneath the airbrush.....

Same folding chairs in the background.

Same gray t shirt underneath.

Same lock of hair across his ear.