1978 Topps Cards #19 through #24

THE PLAYERS

#19 Darrell Porter
#20 Pete Rose
#21 Steve Kemp
#22 Charlie Hough
#23 Bump Wills All-Star Rookie
#24 Don Money



THE DESIGN

Good: The thing that sticks out here is the All-Star Rookie gold cup on Wills' card. It's the same design used on 88 Topps all-star rookie cards. The exact same design was used on many other sets as well, but not every year. 1986, for example, does not have all-star rookies. Plus, I think the design of the cup was different in earlier years. But overall, it's very cool to see this same cup design across so many years. It's a very nice way of linking and unifying Topps' brand and design. Somebody out there must know the full story about which cup styles were used in which years--please comment and enlighten me.

Bad: The baseball on Money's card is really off. The threads are totally asymmetric, unlike every other card, and his position designations are way, way, off center. Do I really care about this? No, but I have to say something.

I must also point out the last sentence on the back of Kemp's card: "He gets good wood on ball." In particular with the bad grammar, that sentence is truly embarrassing.

THE PHOTOS

Good: The Porter photo is an absolute classic. The side view is great, and yet you can still see his face. Plus he's got the Royal blue eyeglasses and he's making a hang-10 sign with his left hand.

Bad: Look at the Rose card. Seems like a good photo, huh? Look again. Now notice that there is a friggin' bat about 6 inches away from the camera, running right across the photo. Pete Rose is such an interesting subject that you're immediately drawn to his face on any baseball card. But why, oh why, would they use a photo with a bat obscuring so much of the view? If not for it, we might be able to tell who's sitting next to Rose on the bench.

I like the closeup of Kemp but they might have chosen a less goofy face.



THE STATS

First of all, how about that stat mentioned on the back of Wills' card regarding two consecutive inside-the-park homers? Wow, that must have been damned exciting to watch.

Steve Kemp is a name that might not be too familiar to many current fans, but check out the list of guys to get at least 100 RBIs in both 1979 and 1980. Kemp's on there with Mike Schmidt, George Brett, Gorman Thomas, and just 3 other guys.

Can you believe that Charlie Hough had already been playing for 8 years when this card came out? And that he also pitched for the Florida Marlins in 1993 and 1994?

Don Money hit a whopping 6 homers off Fergie Jenkins (Money's most against any pitcher.) Check out the first two. The first one came in the 7th inning with his team down 5-1 to make the score 5-2. The second came in the 9th inning with the same score, tying it at 5. Checking out the box score, Money hit a go-ahead double in the 11th inning, but the Cubs won the game on a homer by Willie Smith in the bottom of the frame.

You may notice that I have gotten rid of "good" and "bad" stats. I'm having trouble finding good and bad stats easily, so rather I'm just going to share 2 or 3 cool stats regardless of them being good or bad.


THE COUNTERS

Hall of Famers: 8
(none)

Deceased: 1
(+1 for Porter, the first deceased person in this set)

Future managers: 4
(+1 for Rose again)

Fathers and sons of major leaguers: 4
(+1 for Pete Rose Jr. again, +1 for Maury Wills, father of Bump)

Loyalty counter: 2
(none)

Rookies of the Year: 3
(+1 for Rose again)

Total all-star appearances: 119
(+4 for Porter, +17 for Rose again, +1 for Kemp, +1 for Hough, +4 for Money)

Total MVP awards: 4
(+1 for Rose again)

Total Cy Young awards: 1
(none)

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