Vintage Fridays: Tim Nordbrook, 1976 Topps #252

There's no turning back now. Good friend and affordable vintage watchdog Ed let me pick through a box of well-used 1974 and 1976 Topps commons, and when the dust settled I had bought a total of 370 cards off of him. I've put each (incomplete) set in a shiny new binder, so I guess there's nothing left but to admit that I'm building those sets. I don't have want lists posted yet; that would have required some planning. But a glimpse at my card catalog tells me that my 1974 set is 57% complete (377 of 660), and my 1976 set is right behind it at 56% (371 of 660). So as soon as I get my act together - and who knows when that will be - I'll be sure to point you towards my lists so that we can make a deal.

I love the two-color bar design at the bottom of the 1976 Topps set for its simplicity and brightness. Green makes sense as a secondary color for the Orioles, in my humble opinion. Not too sure about the yellow, but I'm not sure what else Topps could have done. Blue? Purple? Ewww. This is one of the delightfully crooked photos that are seeded throughout the set, giving it a trippy 1970s vibe. The subject of the card is Baltimore's own Tim Nordbrook, a hometown boy who attended Loyola Blakefield, one of the local all-boys' Catholic high schools. The Birds then drafted him out of Loyola College in Maryland (no relation) with their ninth-round pick in 1970. Though Tim had a six-game stint in the majors in 1974, this is his rookie card and the only Topps card depicting him as an Oriole. He had played a career-high 40 games in 1975, but came to the plate only 41 times with a frightening .118/.268/.147 triple-slash. He would go on to have cups of coffee with the Angels, White Sox, Blue Jays, and Brewers, playing his last game in 1979 and finishing with stats of .178/.286/.195 in 128 major league games. He managed in the Milwaukee farm system from 1982-1984 despite still being in his early thirties, and later returned home to coach baseball at his high school alma mater.