Sunday, April 25, 2010

"Sudden" First Post

With this blog, I'll be tossing out cards from the 1973 Topps baseball card set to show off the sometimes bizarre choices made about what photos would be used on the cards.

Here's an example:

Card #511 -- Sam McDowell, San Francisco Giants


This card of "Sudden Sam" McDowell is really busy. Looking past the fact that a visual trick makes it look like he's throwing the baseball wildly, you see the batter, catcher, umpire and an infielder. Add to that the fact that the image is slightly tilted...it looks like Sam is about to tip over and the field appears crooked. Considering the era, it makes you wonder whether the photographer may have been in a certain frame of mind...

Sam McDowell was winding down his career as this card was printed. He would be pitching for the Yankees in June of '73, appeared on one more Topps card in pinstripes before pitching his final game.

1 comment:

  1. Hey Chris, I'm going to start at the beginning and work my way through every post. I did that with Night Owl's '75 blog and it was a lot of fun. I love the '73 set for it's wackiness and photo choices so this will be great. As much as I like this set, I know there are a lot of the cards I've never seen.

    The tilting background reminds me of many of the '75 cards too.

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