- Rick Manning bounced back from a 1977 season that was shortened by a back injury to reclaim the starting center field job for the Cleveland Indians. Manning had a typical "Rick Manning" year in 1978. His 1976 season was above his career norm and his 1977 season was below normal.
- 1978 Stats:
- .263, 3 HR, 50 RBI in 148 games
- 1978 Highlights:
- Here is Knucksie posing in Candlestick Park. The field had artificial turf from 1970-1978.
- Phil had a good year in 1978. He led the NL in losses (18) and in home runs allowed (41), but he also led the league in innings pitched (334.1), starts (42), and complete games. Niekro won the first of his five Gold Glove awards and appeared in the All Star Game
- 1978 Stats:
- 19-18, 1 save, 2.88 ERA in 44 games (42 starts)
- 1978 Highlights:
- Doug DeCinces had one of his best power years in 1978. Doug hit 28 home runs and had 37 doubles. He had to deal with comparisons with his predecessor Brooks Robinson and although he wasn't as good defensively, Doug's defense was above league average.
- 1978 Stats:
- .286, 28 HR, 80 RBI in 142 games
- 1978 Highlights:
- An exceptionally fine bunter? A highlight about a sacrifice from two seasons ago? Topps was really having to scrape to find something to say about Mr. Sadek.
- If Topps had a stathead writing the card backs, perhaps the fact that Mike led NL catchers with a 44% caught stealing percentage in 1977 could have been highlighted instead. Mike only caught in 32 games in '77, but he's listed as the league leader in that category.
- Mike was the backup catcher for the Giants for the first half of the 1978 season. Mike was injured and missed much of the second half of the season.
- 1978 Stats:
- .239, 2 HR, 9 RBI in 40 games (109 at bats)
- 1978 Highlights:
- May 19 - Went 2 for 5 with two runs scored and three runs batted in as the Giants beat the LA Dodgers 10-7. Mike singled in Larry Herndon in the 7th inning to break a 7-7 tie.
- June 18 - Scored the winning run in the 10th inning of San Francisco's 4-3 victory over the New York Mets.
- July 19 - Suffered a broken jaw and lost a tooth after a home plate collision with the Chicago Cubs' Ivan DeJesus. Mike wouldn't return to action until September 15. He started four games behind the plate from Sept. 15 - Sept. 19 and went 0 for 11.
- Nolan Ryan just doesn't look right with the "70s hair" look.
- Ryan finished his career with 215 games of 10 or more strikeouts. He had 148 in the American League and 67 in the National League.
- Randy Johnson has come the closest to breaking this record. Johnson had 114 10-strikeout games in the National League and 94 10-strikeout games in the American League (a total of 208).
- Johnson struck out 10 or more in a game 23 times in 1999, 2000, and 2001. Ryan struck out 10 or more 23 times in 1973.
- Here is one record that will be tough to break. Carl Yastrzemski tied the record in 1983, but he hung up his spikes and didn't break it. Derek Jeter is the active leader with 19 years with the New York Yankees (1995-2013).
- It's a nice touch for Topps to do a "goodbye card" for Brooks in 1978. A similar thing was done for Al Kaline in 1975.
- At this point in his career Pete was featured on record breaker cards often. My quick perusal of the cards shows Rose on record breaker cards in 1979, 1981, 1985, and 1986.
- Since Rose is the all-time hit leader, he is also the all-time hit leader for switch hitters. The likelihood of anyone breaking this record is very minuscule. Here is a Sporcle game in which the player tries to guess the top ten all-time hit leaders for switch hitters. I didn't do very well.
