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Why no '77 Aaron?

67ToppsRule67ToppsRule Posts: 26
in Buy, Sell & Trade - Cards & Memorabilia
This is a bit off topic, but this has bothered me for a long time...Has anyone ever heard a story behind why there is no 1977 Topps Hank Aaron card? He played in 85 games in '76, hitting 10 homers...You'd think Topps would want to issue one last card commemmorating a great career....But, there isn't one.....Any thoughts? Was there some kind of problem? Typically Topps issues a card for every player who played the year before....

Comments

  • CoachTomCoachTom Posts: 78
    67ToppsRule,
    I am no expert, but Mr. Aaron had been rumored to have almost retired several times before that. It is my understanding that the assumption was the he would not return in 76, and the #1 card was slated as a tribute card anyway. Topps did not reuse his namesake until the 1979 set.

    One small card company did honor Mr. Aaron in 1977-Renato Galassco. They did a small set of black and white cards.

    CoachTom
    Always interested in Hank Aaron items-currently buying Aaron OPC singles or lots-graded or raw.
  • GriffinsGriffins Posts: 6,076 ✭✭✭
    Topps didn't issue cards for retired players back then- once they quit playing that was it. No '72 Banks or '74 Mays.
    The only exceptions I can think of would be '69 Mantle (he retired during spring training, and the card was already on the sheet) and '73 Clemente (killed a few months before the season started and the card was already on the sheet).
    Up until that time the only tribute cards I recall are Roy Campanella in '59 and Ken Hubbs in '64. By '77 there had been plenty of Aaron related tributes, so they probably just moved on.
    My question is why did Hank Aaron never make it into any of the Kellogg's sets?

    Always looking for Topps Salesman Samples, pre '51 unopened packs, E90-2, E91a, N690 Kalamazoo Bats, and T204 Square Frame Ramly's

  • shagrotn77shagrotn77 Posts: 5,624 ✭✭✭✭
    I believe it has something to do with the player signing an MLB contract. As was written earlier in this thread, if a player wasn't playing that year, he had no card that year. I always hated that. A 1980 Topps Thurman Munson card, tribute or regular, would have been nice.
    "My father would womanize, he would drink. He would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Sometimes he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy. The sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament. Our childhood was typical. Summers in Rangoon, luge lessons. In the spring we'd make meat helmets. When we were insolent we were placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds - pretty standard really."
  • bxbbxb Posts: 805 ✭✭
    I would have liked a regular issue 1967 Koufax as well, which would have had all his career stats on it.
    Capecards
  • RipublicaninMassRipublicaninMass Posts: 10,051 ✭✭✭


    << <i>I believe it has something to do with the player signing an MLB contract. As was written earlier in this thread, if a player wasn't playing that year, he had no card that year. I always hated that. A 1980 Topps Thurman Munson card, tribute or regular, would have been nice. >>



    Did they do a Ken Hubbs trinbute card? I seem to remeber one. I love the Campy "symbol of courage" card.
  • 67ToppsRule67ToppsRule Posts: 26
    Thanks for all the cool thoughts on this....Later on Topps seems to have eased up on this rule, as it did issue a 1986 Topps Carew, for instance...It's really too bad, think of all the great cards we'd have with lifetime stats on them...The 73 Clemente is extremely popular for exactly this reason...
  • GriffinsGriffins Posts: 6,076 ✭✭✭
    Topps did a "In Memoriam" card of Ken Hubbs in '64, it's at the end of the set.
    image

    Always looking for Topps Salesman Samples, pre '51 unopened packs, E90-2, E91a, N690 Kalamazoo Bats, and T204 Square Frame Ramly's

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