My best friend Jeff lived across the street and he too was a card collector. I have vivid memories of us spreading our cards out in the garage or bedroom, flipping through the team stacks, making trades, and marveling at the wonders of seeing our baseball heroes on cardboard.
One summer day a year or two into collecting Jeff and I had our cards spread out in his garage. A boy a couple of years older than us named Guy was riding his bike in the cul-de-sac and when he saw us, he rode up to the garage.
Guy took in what we were doing, looked over some of our cards, and then said, 'I want you two to come with me. I want to show you something.' So we headed just down the block to his house.
He went into the house while we waited in his garage. He came out with a couple of shoe boxes, opened one, and pulled this out:
When I saw it, my jaw dropped.
The action shot of Green turning the double play was nothing short of spectacular, and it was a sideways card! Absolutely brilliant!
Shortly thereafter, Guy pulled this card out of the box:
The city displayed at the top. The team nickname at the bottom. Marichal's photo snapped at the very peak of his leg kick.
It was love at first sight.
Guy explained that the cards were from the 1974 Topps Set. We flipped through his boxes and he did trade me a handful of his doubles, but neither Dick Green or Juan Marichal was among them.
In the 1970's there was of course no ebay, no internet, and if there were card shops in town, I was unaware of them. The stores like High Street Pharmacy only sold the current year's edition. Thus, I had no other way to see or buy cards from the past as a child. Guy was my sole link to the 1974 set back then.
I stopped collecting cards in 1982 and my interest waned through the teen years and beyond. In my 30's I found myself thinking more and more about my incredible childhood and with that, my interest in cards was rekindled. It's now possible to buy complete sets at card shops and of course on ebay and I've done some purchasing on the latter over the past ten years or so.
Today I have the complete Topps sets from 1976-1981, each of the years I was into card collecting. However, I have one more gap to fill in my collection and that gap is 1974. I've taken a look at auctions for it over the years, but the prices have always been too rich for my blood. 'One day' I've told myself over and over. One day I will own the 1974 set too.
I recently won some money thanks to some NFL games falling my way. Ever since, I've had that 'found money' feeling and have decided that this is a prime opportunity to purchase that much longed for set after all of these years. I've been watching various '74 auctions on ebay and a few days ago, thought I had one in the bag. Alas, someone jumped in and snagged it from me with a mere two seconds left in the auction. My disappointment lingers but I have certainly not given up hope.
There will be others.
And one of them shall be mine.
Hopefully sooner rather than later.
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