The Golden Era of Topps Baseball Checklists

I’ve written extensively about checklists on the blog:

• The Curiously Similar 1970 Topps Baseball and Basketball Checklists
• Ranking The 19 1970s Topps Basketball Checklists 
• The Story of the Scarce 1975 Topps Football Team Checklists
• Are the 1957 Topps Football Twin Blony and Bazooka Checklists the Set’s True Gems?
• The 1973 Topps Football Team Checklists
• The Checklist Bucket List
• 5 Super Tough Basketball Checklists
• 10 Reasons I Collect Vintage Sports Card Checklists
• The Notoriously Tough 1966 Topps #132 Football Checklist
• Why Are There So Many Vintage Checklist Variations?

I’m also @ChecklistGuy on Twitter and Instagram. So I thought I would start a few more themed posts here on PostWarCards. This article is the first in a new series defining checklist eras/groups. And, special thanks to George Bennett on Twitter for the motivation; I’ll be reinforcing his call that the Golden Era of Topps Baseball Checklists was the three-year 1967, 1968, and 1969 run.

Now, why is this the golden era of Topps checklists? Golden ages, or eras, are defined by great happiness, prosperity, and achievement. And these three years of checklists were an outstanding achievement. Including a headshot of some of the era’s biggest stars on the front of the checklist makes them way more desirable than a standard checklist.

Here are the runs of each year’s checklists, along with the featured player. There are variations to these checklists, which I’ll go into more detail about when I build the ultimate checklist variation guide here on PostWarCards, as either a series of posts or an eBook.

1967 Topps

• 1st Series – Frank Robinson
• 2nd Series – Mickey Mantle
• 3rd Series – Willie Mays
• 4th Series – Jim Kaat
• 5th Series – Roberto Clemente
• 6th Series – Juan Marichal
• 7th Series – Brooks Robinson

1968 Topps

• 1st Series – Jim Kaat
• 2nd Series – Juan Marichal
• 3rd Series – Carl Yastrzemski
• 4th Series – Orlando Cepeda
• 5th Series – Ken Holtzman
• 6th Series – Frank Robinson
• 7th Series – Clete Boyer

1969 Topps

• 1st Series – Denny McLain
• 2nd Series – Bob Gibson
• 3rd Series – None
• 4th Series – Don Drysdale
• 5th Series – Mickey Mantle
• 6th Series – Brooks Robinson
• 7th Series – Tony Oliva

Unfortunately, Topps returned to a more generic, two-celled checklist design in 1970 without featuring any star players. As I said, I’ll be featuring more posts about checklist eras, so if you have any suggestions, please share them in the comments or over on Twitter. I hope you enjoy the look of these cards as much as I do and look to put your own set of thumbnail legends together; happy collecting!