1971 Topps - Bert Blyleven

The 1971 Topps cards are one of the few dark bordered Topps issues. I can't think of another vintage year off the top of my head that has a full black border like this one. I like the look of it, but the downside is that it badly shows edge and corner wear. I like the way the name and position are in different colors. I like the blue dot in the middle. I like that they tried to include a photo on the back (even though it isn't a very useful photo).

Bert Blyleven is historically underrated. If I asked you to guess where Bert ranked in post-WWII career WAR for pitchers, I doubt many would guess anywhere close to 6th place. But he is 6th. 12th among all pitchers. Yet it took quite a while for him to be elected into the Hall of Fame (elected by 79% in 2011, 19 years after he retired). Why did it take so long for a pitcher of that caliber (also ranking 5th all-time in career strikeouts) to be elected? I don't know. Maybe a combination of never winning the Cy Young award, only being selected to a few all-star games, playing for too many teams, mostly bad ones, and being one of the unfortunate players to end there career in the early nineties (I have argued before that the stars of the 80s who retired in the early nineties are hard to just by those who struck with the game through the 80s rise, through the strike, into the steroid era and beyond).

Bert was a commentator for the Twins for a number of years (perhaps he still is) and made use of the telestrator. People would bring signs that read "Circle me, Bert" in hopes of being on TV and having Bert draw a circle around them. I think that is fine.