1970 Topps

Almost no one is going to say the 1970 Topps set is iconic or one of the best sets they've ever produced. It is, however, uniquely designed and instantly recognizable. It is one of the few times that Topps went with a grey border. It's minimalist in design and execution.

1970 Topps is representative of this picture of Ken Berry. There's a perfectly good picture. Not great, but acceptable. And then you notice somebody's elbow in the shot, after you go home and develop the film. You can't go back and fix it. The moment is gone forever. You have two choices and a deadline looming. You go with it and hope nobody notices or you scrap the whole thing, regroup, and try again next year.

Obviously, you need to go with the former and plow ahead. That is what this set feels like, in retrospect. It's a nice design, but not great. Memorable, but not in a good or bad way. It's just there. It's perfectly ok, but unexceptional.

The White Sox have twenty-five cards in the set.

18 - Carlos May
35 - Joel Horlen
51 - Bob Christian
91 - Rich Morales
123 - Don Gutteridge
146 - Danny Murphy
180 - Tommy John
217 - Ron Hansen
239 - Ken Berry
263 - Duane Josephson
274 - Gerry Arrigo
299 - Buddy Bradford
315 - Luis Aparicio
342 - Wilbur Wood
368 - Ed Herrmann
395 - Walt Williams
414 - Paul Edmondson
444 - John Matias, Bill Farmer
483 - Gail Hopkins
501 - White Sox Team
518 - Bill Melton
561 - Tom McCraw
618 - Billy Wynne
669 - Bart Johnson, Dan Lazar, Mickey Scott
695 - Bobby Knoop

The last two cards are high numbers, so they might be slightly more difficult to obtain. Really the only challenge in collecting this White Sox set is the age of the cards. They are not always in the best condition. The older a card is, the less chance you find it available.

Essentially, this is the warm milk of White Sox vintage sets. There's no one super exciting in the lineup. You have interesting, like a late career Aparicio, a Tommy John and an early Bill Melton, but nothing spectacular. The White Sox teams from this little window are some of the worst ever. That doesn't mean that there's nothing to value here, but it's not the same as the lineup a few years prior and a few years later. Like I said... the warm milk of White Sox vintage sets.