The Quest for the 1975 Topps Mini Phillies

Some people might agree with this statement, and some people might not. What that statement is, I'll never know. Besides that point, I have made it my unofficial quest to collect at least one version of all Phillies minis. This is not a goal to be taken lightly. They are titchy little buggers, prime to fall out of piles of cards in a mountain of disarray.

 I may have to revise that goal after seeing the inclusion of chrome prospect minis in this year's Bowman edition. Fortunately, we all set the parameters of our own mini-collections within our collection. For this mini collection of minis, I hereby exclude thee Bowman minis! The vintage 1987 and 1972 mini inserts from Topps in 2012 and 2013 will count, however.

This post is about the progenitor of the mini brand, the 1975 Topps brand or as someone, who is the godfather of 1975 Topps, says MMMMMMMMMIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNIIIIIISSSSS!!

I will humbly go about the business of scooping up the Phillies and setting them along side their full sized versions to show that size does not matter in cards, only awesomeness.

Here are the latest arrivals....

Bob Boone: He has shrunk on the card, but his helmet has not.

Jim Lonborg: Made the Veterans Stadium wall shrink with him.

Steve Carlton:  I read this article about Carlton the other day.  It;s an old article from Philadelphia magazine.  It was illuminating.  Read it here.

Bill Robinson : His mustache grew to reflect the disco era.

Tom Hutton:  He decided to shrink his K rate instead to show what a platoon player is all about.

Surprisingly, I only need 3 more cards for this particular team set (70, 312, 615)....this means that they've been sneaking into my collection for years.  But now they are properly captured.

Phillie Project Update: mid-1970s Edition

Here's the general update on the Phillies project I instituted very,very long ago on this blog. I am now two cards short for Mike Schmidt career collection, six cards short for the Steve Carlton career collection, and 29 cards short of all the Phillies cards of the all the players who made an appearance for the 1980 Phillies team(click on the links on the sidebar under the wantlist heading for more detail).

In the meantime, I have been completing team sets. Here are some of the cards that appeared as I aimed to fill in this collection. This includes the touted and not so touted players of that bygone era.

Bill Robinson 1975 Topps: Had first of 4 career 20 Hr seasons as a Phillie with 25 HR in 1973.
Tony Taylor 1975 Topps: 4th all-time in games played as a Phillie (1669) and 11th all-time in hits as a Phillie (1511)
Jim Lonborg 1975 Topps: Placed 3rd in the NL with 16 complete games in 1974.
Mike Schmidt/Dave Kingman/Greg Luzinski HR Leaders 1976 Topps: Luzinski and Schmidt both had >135 OPS+ from 1975-1977.
Mike Schmidt/Graig Nettles HR Leaders 1977 Topps: Mike Schmidt led the NL in HRs 8 times in his career while Nettles had two 30 HR seasons including 1976.
Terry Harmon 1974 Topps: As a utility infielder for the Phillies in the 1970s, Harmon did not get much opportunity to play. Hit his only 2 Hr in 1972 including one on the last day of the season.
Mike Ryan 1974 Topps: Batted .193 for his career and had a 51 OPS+. Ranked 815th all time in OPS for the Phillies. I remember him as a bullpen coach in the '80s.
Willie Montanez 1974 Topps: Led the league in assists as a 1B three times in his career. Had a 100 RBI season in 1975 while hitting only 10 HR.

There's always familiar faces and faces which I have never seen before in Phillies lots from the 1970s. I hope to receive all the cards at some point to imprint even these names to memory. The project marches on.

These two cards make me happy...

...and the World Series did not yesterday. Brad Lidge...again. That's all I have to say besides I'm looking forward to games 5-7.

Quote of the night (from me) during the debacle: "Don't try to make me happy. I don't want to be happy."

Then I remembered there are cards of Phillies that could do the trick.



This is a sideways 1975 Topps Wayne Twitchell. I have never heard of this gentleman before. He does however, have the maroon and powder blue uniforms of my youth and has just finished a followthrough without a ball in an empty stadium. Plus, this is abright and colorful and cheerful 1975 Topps card. I love this set (maybe not as much as others, but it is a groovy green and yellow smorgasbord of color explosion.


This is a 2005 Turkey Red...Red Dooin. A long-time Phillie, he missed being in their first postseason by one year, leaving after the 1914 season. Never a great player, he mostly played catcher. I was just taking a look at his fielding stats, and he had a 40 error/15 passed ball season. Was this common in his era? Did he not accept those new-fangled catcher's masks and shinguards as proper tools of ignorance? I'd like to picture him as one of the last to not wear anything except a glove and finger splints (I have no basis in fact for this claim). Plus, this is Turkey Red in the orginial form. Note the borders. Vintage.

I almost feel better now.
Cards courtesy of Stats on the Back