1977 Topps - Pete Rose and Bruce Sutter

In the mid-80s Pete Rose was a living legend. He became the all-time hits leader in 1985. I had his own special sub-set of card in the 1986 Topps set. He was both the manager and the first baseman for the Reds. Pete Rose was his own thing.

My younger brother received a box full of 70s and 80s cards from our neighbor. We had a great time going through those cards. I was extremely jealous. He was kind to give me a few. I'm not sure if this was one of them. I told myself it was for a long time. But I also wondered if I was just telling myself that. So this card has haunted me for all these years, although the haunting has lessened as I have realized that it isn't really worth anything since Rose has fallen from grace, and the card is not in great condition anyway.

The '77 cards had a decent design, too much negative space up top thought, especially for short team names. Below is a Bruce Sutter Rookie card from the set. Bruce was really good for 8 of his 12 seasons, which doesn't seem like enough to get into the Hall of Fame. But he recorded 300 saves in a time when the save was just becoming a big deal, so I guess that did it. He closed out the '82 Series for the Cardinals, but that was before I was a Cardinals fan.