Buyback Franken-set: A Pair of Populated Pages & a Petrocelli

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.  Let's get on with it!

1970 Topps #81 - Dave May

I know Dave May wasn't a superstar or anything, but that is a nice looking 1970 Topps card if you ask me.  It's got a slightly blurry/dreamy kind of vibe to it.  I've really started taking a liking to this set in recent years, I'd love to slide this card into the franken-set binder.  In order to do so though...

...I'd have to bump Pete Redfern here.

Don't have a problem with that!

1974 Topps #124 - Bob Coluccio

I'll admit I don't know a damn thing about Bob Coluccio.  Not exactly the most exciting card that 1974 Topps has to offer.  Hey, they can't all be stars.  Maybe this one will at least plug a gap in the set?

Nope, George Mitterwald's 1977 card has been in slot 124 for a bit.

The Coluccio just isn't compelling enough to merit replacing Mitterwald.

1973 Topps #429 - Jim Fairey

Some nice palm trees in the background on this Jim Fairey, no way this photo was taken in Montreal!  1973 was actually Fairey's final Major League season, and he spent it with the Dodgers not the Expos.

Already had this Tony LaRussa in slot 429.  Not off to a great start today with respect to new numbers for the binder.

There's no way I could toss LaRussa in favor of Fairey.

1972 Topps #245 - Tommie Agee

Finally get a new number here, with "Miracle Met" Tommie Agee's 1972 Topps card.  Though he was only in his late 20s by 1972, Agee's career was already in sharp decline.  The 1966 Rookie of the Year never played another MLB game after 1973, just his age 30 season.  Of the '70s releases, 1972 Topps might be the toughest set to find buybacks from.  At least that's been my experience so far.  Happy to have Agee in the binder.

1979 Topps #219 - Roy Smalley

Roy Smalley looks like he's up to something here on his 1979 Topps card.  I know I made a mistake here.  When I thumbed to the appropriate page and looked in pocket 219 of the set I found this card standing in Roy's way:

Nothing all that spectacular if I'm being honest, but I much prefer the '75 Topps set to the '79 release.  So...

...I sent Roy Smalley off to the rejected box.  What I didn't realize at the time, and learned while typing up this post, is that 1979 was the pinnacle of Smalley's career.  He played every single game of the season for the Twins that year, 161 at shortstop and a single game at first base.  Smalley led the league in plate appearances and posted career highs in hits, doubles, home runs (24) and RBI (95) en route to his only All-Star selection.

Yeah, I'm going to have to right this wrong at some point.

1978 Topps #97 - Stan Bahnsen

With no disrespect to the man, Stan Bahnsen looks almost nothing like a professional athlete on this card.  The 1968 AL Rookie of the Year has one of the best nicknames in baseball history, "The Bahnsen Burner".  Love it.  Don't love this 1978 card nearly as much though.

There's no chance it's going to force Mike Cuellar here from the franken-set binder.

Sorry Stan.

1967 Topps #383 - Ken Henderson

Next up, outfielder Ken Henderson, who enjoyed a 16-year MLB career.  Ken played for 7 different franchises during that time, though his 8 years with the Giants were by far the most he spent with any one team.  This 2016 Heritage box-topper is a new number for the project as well at #383.  Welcome to the franken-set binder Mr. Henderson!

1976 Topps #276 - Mickey Scott

Mickey Scott looks a bit creeped out on his 1976 card here.  Scott went 3-0 in 33 appearances out of the 'pen in 1976.  Not a terribly exciting buyback I have to admit, but it's a great one for this project because it's a new number...

...and it completes a page!  After a long build-up it's nice to be getting to the point where I'm completing pages on a somewhat regular basis now.

Highlight of this page for me is undoubtedly the rookie card of Bill "Spaceman" Lee in the lower right!

1966 Topps #6 - Chuck Schilling

Here's a nice Topps Heritage box-topper buyback of Red Sox second baseman Chuck Schilling.  This is actually a "sunset card", as Schilling played his entire five-season MLB career with Boston between 1961 and 1965.  For the second card in a row here we have a new number for the binder...

...and a completed page!  I'm very pleased to have the very first page in the set completed at long last.  With four Nolan Ryans, a Pete Rose, and a Mark Fidrych 1/1 this has to be my best completed page to date.  I won't mind staring at this every time I open the binder going forward.

1966 Topps #298 - Rico Petrocelli

Here's the last card for today, and by far my favorite in today's post.  In fact, I picked up the small lot of ten buybacks you see today on eBay a long while back pretty much solely because I wanted this Rico Petrocelli.  I paid $9 and change for the lot, and was pretty pleased as I would've gladly forked out that amount for this Rico alone!

A '60s buyback of a popular player from my favorite team featuring the great oversize All-Star Rookie trophy?  Yes, please!  I'm very pleased that Topps was wise enough to place the buyback stamp on the right side of the card here and not obstruct that beautiful trophy graphic.  I've definitely seen others where that is not the case.

Larry Herndon stands between Petrocelli and franken-set glory.

But gets booted from the binder, no questions asked.  I'd be a fool to keep this card in the franken-set while that amazing Petrocelli sat in the rejected box.

Not a bad lot at all today.  Four new numbers for the project have me sitting on the precipice of 600 cards in the franken-set, and even where there were conflicts I made a couple of improvements, most notably the Petrocelli.

Tune in next time to see if I can cross the 600 buyback threshold.  Thanks for stopping by!

Franken-set Progress: 599/792 (75%)
1990 Topps Buyback Set: 64/792 (8%)
"Rejected" Buybacks: 456
Total Buybacks in Collection: 1,119