The 1974 Topps baseball card set was issued by Topps during the 1974 baseball season. As with most yearly issues from Topps during this era, the 1974 set features 660 cards in the base set. The cards are broken down into team cards for each of the 24 Major League teams at the time, league leaders, rookie cards, managers, coaches, as well as special subsets highlighting all-stars and league award winners from the 1973 season.
Each team’s section contains 21 player cards, with the exception of the Cincinnati Reds who get 22 cards since they were the reigning World Series champions. This added an extra card to the set. The team cards run from #1 to #630 and feature each team’s roster from the previous season, with players organized by uniform number. Each card front contains a color action photo of the player along with their name, team, position, and batting or pitching stats from 1973.
The back of each card contains more in-depth stats as well as a short career recap. Some notable rookies in the set who made their card debut include Andre Dawson, Eddie Murray, and Gary Carter. Hall of Famers included in the set are Nolan Ryan, Reggie Jackson, Juan Marichal, and Willie Mays in their coach/manager cards.
In addition to the team cards, the 1974 Topps set included 12 cards highlighting the league leaders from 1973. These spanned categories like home runs, RBI’s, ERA, wins, and hits. Cards #631-642 showcased the top individual performers statistically from each league.
Managers and coaches took up cards #643-656, with legendary names managing teams like Walter Alston of the Dodgers and Dick Williams of the A’s. Rookie Cards were found in the #657-659 range, with Dave Tomlin and Butch Hobson among the rookie debuts. Lastly, the All-Star cards #660 highlighted the starting lineups from both leagues in the 1973 Midsummer Classic.
The designs on the 1974 cards themselves were relatively simple compared to sets issued later in the 1970s. Photographs took up most of the front of the card with limited graphics. The backs contained copious stats and info in small text. Topps was still a few years away from adding bazooka bubble gum packaged with the cards. The 1974 set was a snapshot of the MLB landscape right before rule changes and a player strike shook up the sport. It preserved the rosters and stats of teams from what was the tail end of the launch angle era in baseball during the early 1970s.
The 1974 Topps baseball card set was the standard 660 card release from Topps during that year. It functioned as an annual record of each MLB club and a collection of players, managers, coaches and stats from the previous season. Rookie and young talent in the set like Dawson and Murray went on to have Hall of Fame careers. The simplicity of the design lent an old school charm to what remains a coveted vintage release for collectors today.
