Since my attendance at ballgames paled in comparison to years past and a couple friends, it’s not worth sharing my favorite memories from the past seasons, ML and minor league. And unless someone from my baseball past passes away before Monday morning, this will be the last reflection on 1973.

While skimming through some of the 1973 Topps set, I reflected on that season and my perception of it back then. It’s easy to look things up online and recreate memories from the past. But I wanted to share some thoughts as I remember then back then.

I was eight years old in 1973 and I was a passionate Cubs fan. Almost all of the Cubs games I attended were with my Dad and a friend on occasion. I might have made it to a few White Sox games each season until I started going with a Sox fan friend and his family. And since we couldn’t access live games 24/7, I had to rely on baseball cards as a means of learning about AL players (for the most part). I do have personal in-game memories of several Sox players and a handful of other AL’ers, but I know I had no knowledge of the cats calling games on the radio or TV for the Sox until Harry Caray came along.

My knowledge and appreciation for the Cubs was deep-even at that age and WGN TV and radio were a big reason why. At the time I had a certain fondness for that ’73 Topps set. The colors were more vibrant, and the silhouette of the player’s position in the circle somehow evoked thoughts of I Spy or Mannix. I also loved the manager/coaches’ card for each team. I don’t think I ever really cared what each guy coached (outside of the Cubs) and usually had to ask my Dad who some of these really old looking guys were. The cards were usually horizontal with a larger picture of the manager and mini headshots of the coaches. At the time, I didn’t know anything about the coaches and their playing careers and just assumed they were old guys. They looked much older than most coaches do today.

What continues to amaze and amuse me today is that for decades, players survived and thrived despite such small ML coaching staffs. I remember this particular crew as if it were yesterday-Reiser was the third base coach, Ernie was at first, Jansen pitching and Aguirre, the bullpen coach. Other teams had only three coaches and managed to win games and produce HOF’ers.

I think the Dodgers were probably the first organization to expand their on field coaching staff, and I don’t know when 6-man staffs were the norm and not the exception.

What’s funnier than merely adding more bodies is the creation of some of the titles. I can’t help but think of the war room scenes in Doctor Strangelove or Midway where there were multiple experts advising Peter Sellers or Admiral Nimitz. 

Check out any ML roster and note the silly titles for most of the new coaches. It’s straight out of Monty Python or Office Space. Too many guys and gals with MBAs are involved in front offices and creating nonsensical job titles that have no relevance.

Make an argument for 12-person coaching staffs, please. I didn’t have to dig too deeply to find the most absurd example. While the ’73 Cubs were able to fit their entire coaching staff on one card, the 2024 A’s can’t fit their hitting staff on one card.

Straight from the Oakland website-their titles not mine: Darren Bush-Bench Coach-Director of Hitting, Mike Aldrete-Hitting Coach, Tommy Everidge-Hitting Coach, Chris Cron-Assistant Hitting Coach, Lloyd Turner-Hitting Development Coach, and Scott Steinmann-Hitting Performance Coach. For those of you counting, we’re four short of a minyan. For the love of Matt Alexander, I bet a dozen donuts at least one A’s hitter will bat .232 despite this great support staff.

Since Epstein and Hoyer have taken over the Cubs, the dugout looks more like a boardroom than a dugout.