Mike Schmidt's rookie card, 1973 Topps #615, is a shared one, with Ron Cey and John Hilton. His first card to himself came a year later.
It was not an obvious card to save. In 1973, his first full season, Schmidt had hit .196 with 18 home runs, and that is the line printed on the back.
A .196 hitter on the back. The home-run title came that summer.
Topps issued its 1974 set all at once, 660 cards, its first baseball set in a single series. It was also the year of the Washington Padres: Topps printed some San Diego cards as "Washington, Nat'l Lea.," expecting a move that never happened.
Schmidt is in a batting stance on a practice field, in the Phillies uniform with maroon sleeves, a fence and light towers behind him. A red pennant reads PHILADELPHIA across the top with 3rd BASE beside it, and a second pennant, PHILLIES, sits in the opposite corner beside his name, inside a thin yellow frame.
Then came the 1974 season: 36 home runs, the most in the major leagues, 116 runs batted in and his first All-Star team. In the late 1980s, when collectors began chasing second-year cards, this was one of the cards they chased.
