I chuckled over the story of Jayson Werth‘s reaction to his 2014 Topps baseball card, but I think the card company used a pretty cool photo.
Now if Chris Young had a similar response to his Topps baseball card in 2010, he had a much better case.
In 2012, Topps told Yahoo Sports that Skip Schumaker‘s short-printed card focusing on the rally squirrel was the first time in the company’s history that a players card had not featured the player’s face.
I think Young could argue that point.
Can you think of any recent baseball cards with poorer photo choices than this one?
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The rally squirrel is among the all time worst. I mean, I think its sort of a neat card, but it should’ve been credited to the squirrel and not to Schu.
That said, the 1971-73 sets, where Topps was, in essence, experimenting in action photography, had lots of cards where you can’t see the player’s face. I remember, was it Bud Harrelson, pulling one of the 71 Mets and thinking “Who the hell is that supposed to be a card of and how can you tell?” And, yes, there were cards in the ’71 of the backs of players’ heads as they slid into a base. I still think the worst Topps card of all time is the 1973 card of Tommie Agee, where they airbrushed (badly) the entire Mets squad into Astros’ unis. Much worse than the Chris Young. Of course that Agee card is on some people’s all time favorite lists and I doubt the Chris Young card would be. To each his own.
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I agree with you on the squirrel – if the critter had gotten its own card (and was not a shortprint) I’d probably have one sitting somewhere on my desk. But it was kind of lame to stick the squirrel on Schumaker’s card.
The action photos in the 1970s were novel at the time, and have some retro charm now.
I doubt anyone thinks Chris Young’s 2010 card has any appeal.
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Not baseball in but basketball. 1991-92 Hoops John Battle card shows his backside while dribbling the ball down the court. I absolutely hated that card
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Just found your blog through Twitter and I’m glad I did. My father and I owned a card and collectible business decades ago in the heyday, so to see articles like this makes me happy. I love errors and faux paxs from Al Leiter to Billy Ripken to the dang squirrel! Keep up them good work, looking forward to more.
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