Mets Card of the Week: 1973 Jon Matlack

1973 TOPPS JON MATLACK

They say the camera adds 15 pounds. If that’s true, I shudder to think how skinny Jon Matlack was back in the day.

The Mets had pitchers with thick legs – Tom Seaver jumps immediately to mind – and Matlack stood out in contrast. Especially given the skinny jeans uniform he was sporting. Lee Mazzilli gets all of the credit for wearing tight pants but Matlack could have given him a run for his money. I think we should all be glad that his follow thru covers his groin area.

But actually, what I really want to talk about with this card is the trophy. Each year Topps would pick an All-Rookie team and the following year the players on the team would have a giant trophy pictured on their card. If you look at the 1968 Seaver, you’ll see what I mean.

I thought that trophy was great, something a man could be proud of. Yet for some reason, starting in 1973, they went away from the big trophy to this saucer trophy, one that seemed more suited for a little girl’s tea party. It was yet another disappointing aspect of the 1973 Topps set.

The previous year, Topps foreshadowed The Eagles’ 1975 hit when they decided to “Take it to the Limit” with their set. The 1972 Topps set featured 787 cards with psychedelic overtures, “In Action” sets, “Boyhood Photos of the Stars,” “Traded” cards and a host of other bells and whistles.

In 1973 they pulled back in every sense, seemingly foreshadowing Jackson Browne’s “Running on Empty.” The set was only 660 cards and it was the plainest, most boring set since their 1962 offering. Yes, the position graphics in the lower right were kind of interesting, but it worked better in isolation than over an entire set. Plus, when the pitcher had a follow-thru pose, like Matlack here, it really took away from the graphic. And vice versa.

The saucer trophy was so poorly received that Topps didn’t include any trophy on the All-Rookie cards in 1974.

Matlack’s card was a good one for the 1973 set, but that’s damning with faint praise. It should have been majestic, like the 1966 Ron Swoboda featured in our header image. Instead it looks inferior, leaving the viewer wondering why they airbrushed an old man’s hat on his head, especially since Matlack never played for another team at this point in his career.

Topps made it up to Matlack somewhat, as he had pretty cool cards in ’74 (despite the landscape orientation), ’75 and ’77. But he deserved better in ’73.