#4 - First Series Checklist

A stinking checklist. Not much more can be said about these guys. I like it now that the stinking checklist isn’t considered a part of the base set. That means I don’t have to collect them. As I’m putting together older sets (1970 and before) I hate having to find checklists and pay decent money for them. I’d rather buy an Enzo Hernandez card than a stinking checklist.

1972 Feature

One of the biggest honors of the year is the announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize. Nobel Prizes are cash awards given in many fields of the human endeavor (medicine, economics, literature) and are given by an endowment of the man who invented dynamite, Arthur Nobel. Originally the purpose was to use the cash award to encourage great people to do great things for mankind. However, the Peace Prize seems to stick out as the most important.

It's been won by many great people for pursuing an end to hosilities. It's been won multiple times for trying to end the centuries old conflict between Israel and the Arab world. Lech Walesa was a winner for putting his life on the line to try to bring freedom to Poland. Dr. Henry Kissinger is a winner. Mother Teresa won. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bishop Desmond Tutu were honored for their work to bring basic rights to people of color. Secretary of State George Marshall won for his humanitarian plan to rebuild and restore post-war Eurpoe. One of the first winners was President Theodore Roosevelt for leading talks to end the Russo-Japanese War.

Who won in 1972? Trick question. Same person that won the 1994 World Series MVP. The official listing says the prize "was allocated to the main fund." What that means is that they didn't think anyone was deserving and the prize wasn't awarded in 1972. At that time, I think the monetary value of the prize was significant, but it isn't anymore. 1972 was the last time the Nobel Peace Prize was not awarded. Short of another world war, I don't think we'll see another when the prize isn't awarded because now it often seems to be used to bring a particular cause to the public light. But in 1972, the Nobel Peace Prize was about like a stinking checklist.