[Merkle923]

To explain briefly why there were only "Washington" variations for only half of the 1974 San Diego cards:

Though in 1973 Topps had test-marketed in Florida and other places selling the entire 660-card set all at once, they still didn't have to print and distribute them all at the same time. Most 1973 cards were printed and sold and shipped in five series spread across the spring and early summer.

1974 would be the first time Topps tried to move out nearly all the cards at the same time - and evidently it didn't go well. They started preparing the set late in the baseball season of 1973 in the wake of the May announcement that the Padres had been sold to DC interests. But there were widespread efforts in San Diego to keep the club and rumors that the city would sue to keep them.

Topps approached this carefully. Proof sheets of the 1974 set show no Washington cards. The proofs probably were printed in mid-to-late October (they also list Glenn Beckert with the Cubs and Jerry Morales with the Padres; they were traded for one another on November 7 and all issued cards reflect the trade). It was after the proofs were produced - with "San Diego" on all of them - that the National League voted on December 6 to approve the sale and relocation of the Padres to Washington.

Topps was either already printing the 1974 cards, or about to. Somebody quickly changed the "San Diego" cards to "Washington" - presumably addressing only the first part of the printing job (cards numbered 1-396). As soon as that had happened, the city of San Diego sued, Ray Kroc stepped up to save the Padres, and the Washingtons were changed back into San Diegos. Having spent part of that March in Florida I can tell you that I found the Washington variations in the cellophane-wrapped packs but only San Diegos in the regular wax packs. Back in New York a week later I found no Washingtons.

That Washington variations numbered between 265-396 are scarcer than those numbered between 1-264 suggests that there was indeed some kind of staggered printing process and that the decision to revert to San Diego literally came after a lot of the first two sheets had been printed but while the third one was still rumbling through the presses.

The explanation of the Freisleben variations is lost in the folds of history. Guesses range from some pre-proof mockup stage in which every Padre was listed as Washington and that one just slipped through uncorrected, to the idea that somebody at Topps panicked and made the change at the last minute when they saw the famous photos of the one and only 1974 Washington Nationals uniform - worn by the very same Dave Freisleben. The two San Diego variations are simply an editor's style correction.