1970 67 1969 NL ERA Leaders Juan Marichal Steve Carlton Bob Gibson
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| 1969 NL ERA Leaders Juan Marichal Steve Carlton Bob Gibson |
This is the seventh of the League Leader cards for 1970 and the first in a pitching category.
With both Gibson and Carlton pictured on the front, one can look at this card as a passing-of-the-torch moment. Carlton would spend the 1970's overpowering batters - much as Gibson had done in the 1960's. This card provides one more reason to favor Topps' League Leader style of @1970 instead of the style from later in the 1970's and into the 1980's. This card is much more interesting with both Carlton and Gibson pictured on the front instead of just Marichal with whoever did the best in the AL.
Tug McGraw appears at the top of the 75-161 inning category. That does not really make up for Topps failing to print a separate leader card for "saves" and failing to include saves on the back of the base cards for much of McGraw's career.
With "1969" emblazoned on the front of these League Leader cards, dilettante collectors would become confused years later as to what year the card was from. They wouldn't be confused in 1970 as they were pulling this card from the packs, but they would forget the various styles a few years later as they looked in their old shoeboxes, traded with friends or went to card shows. They didn't have the internet to set them straight. Even today, I occasionally see cards for sale on Amazon or Ebay with the wrong year in the description because the last year mentioned on the back was the previous year or because the previous year appeared prominently on the front.
A true collector knows instantly that the gray border cards are from 1970. Of course, Topps does not make it easy with the endless "heritage" and other historical reprints in recent years. If there are still "historians" 100 years from now, they will be really confused if they have to look through several decades of Topps cards.
If you are a dilettante, just remember that they could hardly have known the 1969 statistics if this card had been for sale in the summer of 1969. Better yet, if you don't really know what you have, don't try to sell it online.
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