Progress on my 1972 set

I've posted before that I'm working on a 1972 Topps set.  I've always wanted to put together a set like this.  I started in October, 2017, with a goal of being finished in about two years.  My progress so far is that I'm at 62.13%: 489 out of 787 cards, including all of Series 1, Series 2, and Series 3.  For the hardest part, Series 6, I have 50 out of 131.  I hardly have any of Series 4 and 5, and I guess that will be the main focus of the coming year.  I'm pretty happy that there are fewer than 300 cards to go at this point.

Now, let me show a few favorites from 1972 which appeared in my COMC Black Friday box.

Roberto Clemente In Action.

Bucs win the series.

That's a great Clemente card, whatever just happened to induce that expression.  Maybe he had just struck out?  And that's a great shot of Manny Sanguillen's joy upon winning the 1971 World Series.

Gene Mauch.

Johnny Callison.

Here we have two former Phillies, since scattered to other teams.  The one thing that I heard about Gene Mauch in the 80s was that he had never won a pennant.  That was partially because of the Phold, the epic collapse of his 1964 Phillies, who ended up finishing second in the NL.  Johnny Callison was the starting right fielder, playing in all 162 games.

Jim Fregosi and his accordion.

Earl Weaver.

Then we have two managers who did win a pennant.  Jim Fregosi was still in the middle of his playing career, and this card caught him when he was briefly with the Mets.  Of course, it's not just any Fregosi card, but a Boyhood Photos card, with him holding an accordian that's almost as big as he is.  Fregosi led the 1993 Phillies -- Dykstra, Kruk, Mitch Williams, and the like -- to the World Series and a loss to the Blue Jays.  And Earl Weaver was in a number of World Series, winning one and losing three (two of those losses to the Bucs!).

Del Unser.

Art Shamsky.

There are a bunch of cards in this same pose, featuring the underside of the bill of the player's cap.  And I chose Del Unser and Art Shamsky to feature in the close-up pose.  Unser won the World Series with the 1980 Phils, and was one of two pinch-hitting specialists on the team, along with Greg Gross.  And Art Shamsky is well known to fans of the show Everybody Loves Raymond, as the favorite player of Robert Barone, who named his dog Shamsky.  Shamsky of course was on the Miracle Mets who beat Earl Weaver's Orioles in the 1969 World Series.

Frank Howard.

Cardinals rookies, including Jim Bibby.

Finally, we have these two, including Frank Howard, also featured in the underside-of-the-cap close-up pose.  I've posted a few times about my Frank Howard cards.  I'm always impressed by how the slugger manages to look like an old man.  Then we have the rookie card of Jim Bibby and two other Cardinals.  Bibby of course was part of the We Are Family 1979 champion Pirates.

Thanks for reading!