1973: Baseball changes with the times

For years baseball lagged behind the times.  By 1973 the hippie generation was in full dominance on the playing field.  Legends like Ernie Banks were gone and Willie Mays was on his way out.  The 'fro, the 'stash and even the dreaded beard were common place on each cardboard card.  Just as the country was in transition (end of the Vietnam War / Beginning of Watergate) baseball was transitioning as well.  In search for more offense the American League told their pitchers to concentrate just on pitching, because a new position was being created...the Designated Hitter.  On April 6, 1973 Ron Blomberg of the NY Yankees came to the plate to face Luis Tiant as the first DH in the history of the game.  Blomberg walked straight into stardom and joked that DH meant Designated Hebrew, in reference to his religious persuasion.  If the Yankees had gone 3 up 3 down in the top of the 1st Orlando Cepeda would have been the game's first DH.  Since "Cha-Cha" is already in the HOF its only fitting that someone else got the nod.

On the field the "Swinging A's" of Oakland won their 2nd straight World Championship".  The gang that Charlie Finley paid to grow mustache's battled the American League and themselves to regain their spot back on top of the baseball world.  This time the would need all 7 games to beat an upstart Met team that was barely 3 games over .500, and the worst team (to that point in time) to ever qualify for the Fall Classic.

Worst offender: Airbrushed action shot in horizontal format

Updated card in vertical format

The game was loaded with stars.  Some were on their way out (Willie Mays) and others just starting (Mike Schmidt).  The pennant races were a mixed back of the wild, the wacky and the predictable.  In the AL East the O's won their 4th Divisional flag in 5 years by outlasting the defending divisional champion Tigers, who faded from contention in mid August.  Oakland did the same thing by blowing past the upstart Royals, who actually held a share of 1st in late August.  The Big Red Machine, who annihilated their competition in 1972 got off to a slow start and by late June found themselves 11 games back of the Dodgers.  The Reds went on a 3 month tear that enabled them to win 99 games and outlast the Dodgers to clinch the NL West flag.  While those races were interesting, they couldn't even hold a candle to what was going on in the NL East.  In a division that nobody wanted to win, or more aptly should have won 5 of the 6 teams were in it until the last weekend.  Each team was more flawed than the other.  When the dust cleared it was the Mets, who were in last place on August 30th, who hoisted the NL East flag.  Their rewards:  they got to face the 99 win Reds in the LCS.

Post Season:  Both LCS's went the full 5 games and the World Series went 7.  Nobody could have predicted that.  Everyone expected and A's / Reds rematch.  What they got instead was a 7 game classic between the A's and the upstart Mets that Oakland needed 7 full games and some Yogi Berra managerial blunders to win.

The 1973 season saw more garish uniforms as baseball moved as far away from the traditional home whites and road grays.  San Diego had the mustard tops.  Baltimore had orange on orange.  The A's featured Green jerseys, yellow jerseys and Sunday home whites.  Button downs were replaced by pull overs and polyester.

On the field Hank Aaron inched to within one homer of topping the Babe's 714 mark.  Pete Rose and Reggie Jackson won their first and only league MVP's.  Seaver and Palmer were Cy Young winners.

Topps released a great set of cards that featured icon bubbles for each position. The rookie panel cards featured 3 players for each position in a horizontal format.  Most of the set was vertical, except for 2-3 players from each team in horizontal action shots.  Some were good...and others were less than stellar.  Take a look below to see the highlights.

In my 1973 update I created cards for the following reasons:

1. Player was missing from the set
2. Player had a horizontal card
3. Player had a nasty airbrushed card
4. Player had the BHNH syndrome
5. Player played on multiple teams.
6. I just hated the player's original card (LOL !)

In total I created 537 new cards for my fellow ARAIG managers to use in our upcoming season.  IMO, nothing makes game play more fun than seeing our "Cardboard Heroes" in card form on the screen.  I hope you like and enjoy the cards and the pennant races as we replay 1973 in 2018.