550 - Dave Johnson

About This Player
Davey Johnson played 13 years in the big leagues and three of them with the Atlanta Braves.  Johnson began his playing career and spent the majority of it with the Baltimore Orioles.  During his tenure with the O's, Johnson started at second base for four American League pennants and two World Series Championships. He also made three of his four All-Star appearances as an Oriole and won three Gold Glove Awards.

Johnson, after a poor 1972 season, was traded to the Atlanta Braves and responded with the best offensive numbers of his career.  Johnson had career numbers in 1973 in runs (84), hits (151), home runs (43) and RBI (99).  He earned his fourth All-Star selection that year.  Johnson tied Rogers Hornsby's single season record for home runs for a second baseman with 42; one on Johnson's home runs came as a pinch-hitter.  The 1973 Atlanta Braves also featured the first trio of teammates to hit 40 home runs in a season; Darrell Evans hit 41 and Hank Aaron hit 40.

After getting a hit in his only at bat in 1975, Johnson was released by the Braves.  He spent 1975 and 1976 playing in the Japanese league.  He returned to the play in the U.S. in 1977 with the Philadelphia Phillies and finished his playing career with the Chicago Cubs in 1978.  In the 1978 season, Davey Johnson became the first player to hit two grand slams in pinch-hit at bats.

Johnson is probably more profilic for his career as a manager.  Johnson has spent 16 seasons as a manager at the Major League level with division pennants with the New York Mets, Cincinnati Reds, Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals and a World Series Championship with the Mets in 1986.  Johnson was selected as American League Manager of the Year in 1997 with the Orioles. 

Johnson is the current manager of the Washington Nationals.

About This Card
To reflect many of the trades that had taken place during the offseason and current season, Topps often airbrushed the new uniforms on a player.  Davey Johnson appears in this photograph in a Braves uniform at the end of the first turn of a double play with New York Yankees' Felipe Alou having slid through second base even though the Braves did not play the Yankees.

This play took place, with Johnson as an Oriole, on September 17, 1972.  Alou hit a single in the bottom of the second inning.  Thurman Munson followed by grounding into a 6-4-3 double play.

In addition to Johnson having been airbrushed into a Braves uniform, Topps also airbrushed over the first half of the scoreboard on the right field wall in Yankee Stadium.

Special thanks to Chris Stufflestreet and his 1973 Topps Photography blog.

474 - All-Time R.B.I. Leader (Babe Ruth)

About This Player
Babe Ruth enjoyed an illustrious 22-year career from 1914 through 1935.  Ruth started his career with the Boston Red Sox as a pitcher in 1914.  Though by the time he left Boston, Ruth became one of the premier sluggers of his time.  After his contract was purchased by the Yankees in 1920, the "Sultan of Swat" became the mythic icon of professional baseball.  During his 15 seasons in New York, Ruth lead the American League in home runs 12 times and in RBI six times, lead the Yankees to their first four World Series championships and started in right field in the first two All-Star Games in baseball history.  Ruth played his final season with the Boston Braves in 1935.

At the time of his retirement, Ruth held many of baseball's all-time records including most home runs, most RBI, most runs and most walks.  He still holds the records currently for highest slugging percentage and highest OPS.  In the year after his retirement, Ruth was one of five players elected to the inaugural class of the Hall of Fame.

Ruth passed away on August 16, 1948 at the age of 53.

About This Card
This 1973 card shows Babe Ruth with a career total of 2,209 RBI.  (After historical scoring corrections, his RBI total would be updated to 2,213.)  Just as Hank Aaron was approaching the home run record, he was also approaching Ruth's RBI record.  Aaron would later surpass Hank Aaron's RBI mark in 1975.

33 - Jim Breazeale

About This Player
Jim Breazeale spent most of his playing career in the minor leagues with a few brief stints in the Majors.  Breazeale was drafted in the first round of the 1968 amateur draft.  He made his big league debut in 1969 at the age of 19 and played in three games that season.  He returned to the big leagues in 1971 and played in ten games.  Breazeale remained on the Braves' roster for the entire 1972 season used primarily as a pinch hitter and a backup first baseman.  Breazeale would remain in the minors until 1978 when he was drafted by the White Sox in the Rule 5 draft.  He would see only minor playing time with the White Sox.

About This Card
The cartoon states that Jim Breazeale is the backup first baseman to Hank Aaron.  Breazeale played 16 games at first base and was used more often as a pinch hitter.  Teammate, Orlando Cepeda, played more at first, 22 games, before he was traded to the A's.

This card is Breazeale's only Topps card.

537 - Bill Slayback

About This Player
Bill Slayback enjoyed a very brief pitching career with the Detroit Tigers from 1972 through 1974.

Slayback is better known as the voice behind the song, Move Over Babe.  Recorded in 1973 and written by long-time sports broadcaster, Ernie Harwell, the song celebrates Hank Aaron's journey toward baseball's home run record.

For more information:
Move Over Babe (Here Come Henry)

About This Card
This card is Bill Slayback's only Topps card.

The cartoon about Slayback's skill outside of baseball is an understatement.  In the book, Hank Aaron and the Home Run that Changed America, author Tom Stanton described Slayback's many talents.

Slayback who provided the music, was something of a Renaissance man. He sang, played numerous instruments, painted, sketched, and made furniture.

1 - All-Time Home Run Leaders (Babe Ruth / Hank Aaron / Willie Mays)

About This Opening Day
As Opening Day started in 1973, baseball enthusiasts watched in anticipation as Hank Aaron was closing in on baseball's all-time home run record.  Only 42 homers away from breaking Ruth's mark, and considering Aaron his 34 the year before and 47 the year before that, there was a small possibility that Hank Aaron could break the record in 1973.

Babe Ruth held a mythic record long thought to be unattainable.  Before Aaron and Mays began their careers, the player second on the home run list was Jimmie Foxx with 534 home runs, 180 short of Ruth.  Ruth would hold the record for 53 years.

Hank Aaron, 39 years old at the time, still remained a productive hitter.  Despite never hitting more than 50 home runs in a season, Aaron continued to rank in the home run ranks with his consistency and longevity.  Aaron would end the 1973 season with 40 home runs, only one short of Ruth's mark and two from breaking the record.

Willie Mays was third on the home run list at the time and still active in 1973.  When Mickey Mantle retired in 1968, third on the list at that time, Mays ranked second and looked like he could take the record.  However, his production decline in the following year.  In 1973, Mays would hit only 6 home runs in his final season with the New York Mets.
 
About This Card
Topps capitalized on the home run chase by featuring Ruth, Aaron and Mays as the first card in the first series of the set.  Topps continued featuring all-time records later in the fourth series.