1976 All-Star Game +40: Sparky Anderson 1978 Topps #401

With the Phillies in Cincinnati for Opening Day it gives a chance to look at the leader of the NL All-Star Squad and manager of a Reds squad that placed seven players on the 76 squad.

1978 Topps #401 Sparky Anderson

George Lee "Sparky" Anderson earned the privilege of managing the 1976 All-Star Squad by leading the Reds to capturing the prior years pennant en route to a World Championship. It was the first of three World Series Wins for the Hall of Fame manager who managed in five of them, Four with the Reds and one with the Tigers.

The Five League Pennants meant that Anderson got to helm a like number of All-Star teams. His record was 3-2 in the contests with all 3 of the victories coming for the NL.

The 1976 Reds and their 7 all-stars would go onto win 102 games and the final World Series of their 1970s era dynasty.

Anderson was likely an Hall of Fame manager based on his Reds resume alone, if there was any question an additional World Championship with the 84 Tigers rebuffed most doubts.

1978 Topps Managers
I am a fan of these cards, it is a nice variation on an solid and underated base design. The dual pictures which couples a current photo with a shot of the manager from their playing days is a concept that I would like to see Topps reprise in a flagship set - it doesn't have to happen every year, but we shouldn't have to wait 40 years for it to return. 

Source and Links
1976 All-Star Game Index
Sparky Anderson HoF Index
Baseball-ref
Baseball Almanac

Sparky Anderson HoF Index

This is an index of our postings related to Hall of Fame Manager Sparky Anderson

1978 Topps #401 Sparky Anderson

The best HoF Bio among our postings is probably the 1978 Topps Card which discusses Anderson as part of our series on the 1976 All-Star Game.

1959 Topps #338 (rc) (For The Collector / Purchase History)
1959 Topps #338 (rc) (Memorial 1934-2010)
1978 Topps (1976 All-Star Manager - Hall of Fame Resume)

Sparky Anderson 1934 - 2010

1959 Topps #338 George Anderson

Sparky is of course a Hall of Fame Manager who won the World Series in both leagues and amazingly remains the all-time wins leader both the Reds and Tigers.

and Yes Sparky played 152 games for the 1959 Phillies.

This is his rookie card from the 1959 set. For a further discussion of this card check out the original Phungo posting. Note - the low winner among recently completed ebay Auctions is $12, on the high end a BIN went for $62 within the last 24 hours.

2009 09 27 - Philly Show, Valley Forge PA

Both Sports Cards Info and Stale Gum have posted video on the Philly Show - both were entertaining and informative with some great cards. Here at Phungo we shall remain low tech and camera shy and bring you a show report with good old fashion scans.

I had a great time at the show and the roughly 3 1/2 hours I alloted myself clearly was not enough. I spent almost my entire trip in the cheapo vintage bins. Pardon the presentation, I am lazy tonight and have left the cards in their sleeves.


1959 Topps #338 George Anderson

Better known as Sparky Anderson, And yes Sparky wore a Phillies uniform during his playing days. I spent more on other cards and may have found deeper bargains then this one, but this one was likely my purchase of the day.

For the Colletor:
I believe there are only Two Topps Sparky Anderson cards the above 59 and his 1960 card #34. This card is in pretty good shape, though off-center and went for $2.50. Nice price for a rookie card of a Hall of Famer - albeit an HOF manager. The low completed auction on eBay for the 59 Sparky Anderson card ended at $6.64 (incl shipping) with many of the cards going for $10 and up topping out at just over $70.

1961 Topps #132 Frank Howard Rookie Star (RC)

Frank Howard played before my time, but I saw him on the field several times as a coach and he certainly is a big man. There was no doubt that he looked like the type of guy that could hit 30 homers and 100 RBIs in a season. Nice RC to pull out of the dollar bin.

I also came across several vintage Bowman cards in the dollar bin including this beat up Jackie Jensen card.

1954 Bowman #2 Jackie Jensen

If your not aware of who Jensen is, reach back into the baseball card blog annals to Ben Henry's post on 9 cards to Jump Start a collection and you will realize why you can't let this card go for a dollar. It should also be noted that Jensen made Jayson Stark of ESPN's all-underrated Red Sox top three strictly on the recommendation of Peter Gammons.


Another Red Sox great that I found in the buck bin was this 1975 Carlton Fisk

1975 Topps Mini #80 Carlton Fisk

A 75 Carlton Fisk might not be a steal for a buck, but look closer - this baby is a Mini. Can't turn down a 75 Topps Mini Hall of Famer.

2008 Topps Gold Campaign 08 #C08-MR Mitt Romney

Just taking a break from all the vintage. This is the last card I needed to complete the Campaign 08 series. For this small set, I didn't care whether the card was a gold card or base. 1 of each candidate was enough for me. It is likely the weakest of the 08 Topps Insert sets, but it is the first I completed - whoohoo. This likely came out of the 3 for a dollar bin and I still payed to much for it.

Back to the good Old Vintage


1958 Topps #115 Jim Bunning
1965 Topps #30 Jim Bouton
1960 Topps #555 Nellie Fox Sport Magazine 1960 All-Star

It was Sunday and check who we found in the half off bin - Two Vintage Hall of Famers and Jim Bouton. What the hell is a 2nd year card of Jim Bunning doing in the half off bin, and this is after already being knocked down to $6? 50+ Year old HOF card for three bucks - that's going in the Phungo collection baby.

I am basically a baseball collector, but football season is upon us and the Vikings are off to a quick start so.....

1974 Topps #129 Fran Tarkenton All-Pro

This is one of my favorite cards from my childhood and it was great to recover it and get the card back into a proper home witin my collection. The 1974 Topps Football is one of my favorites - The All-Pro cards don't have the goal posts but I really like the look of them.

1961 Topps #312 1960 World Series Game #7 Mazeroski's Homer Wins It!

The ultimate David slays Goliath World Series. The New York Yankees outscored the Pittsburgh Pirates 55-27 in the 1960 World Series. But none of that mattered as the Bucos won the 4 tight games while losing the three blowouts.

I look at this card and think of the Pirates winding down their umpteenth consecutive losing season, and the Bronx Bombers preparing to enter another Post-Season as the tournament top seed and favorite.....And then I think that if the Pirates could knock off the Yankees today, Now that would be David Taking Down Goliath.

For the Collector:
As you can tell I was mostly in the vintage bins. I can tell you that Chris over at Stale Gum was able to pick up a Hobby Box of Goodwin Champions for $68 (compare $82 Dave and Adam's Card World). I spoke with another colletor at the show that mentioned that the new Topps Ticket to Stardom was going for $75 ($85 DAC).

The one item I passed on was a 1936 Diamond Stars #27 Pie Traynor. The card was slabbed in 1-Poor condition and ran $20. I considered it just to have a Hall Of Fame player out of this 70 year old set.

Back in the 70s when Mike Schmidt and Brooks Robinson were still active Traynor was the Third Basemen on the Topps 1976 All-Time All-Star team. Now he is in danger of falling into the forgotten Hall of Famer category.