#59T - Ross Grimsley "Traded" (BAL)

This is not your typical airbrush job.  Oh, it's an airbrush job, alright, but the oriole cartoon logo on Grimsley's hat seems to be cut and pasted from another photo onto this picture.  The detail of the bird is too fine and the artists don't have the capability of producing such artwork.  So, this hat is almost in a category by itself.  Anybody else with any input on this hat?  Could airbrushers have done this in your opinion?

Grimsley was traded from one 70's powerhouse team to another, the main other player in the trade being Merv Rettenmund.  He was traded from a team that played the A's in the World Series to a team that played them in the ALCS just two years later.  This card really stuck in my memory from my childhood and now it's stuck on my blog.


Ballpark Background:  As far as I can tell, this is Riverfront Stadium.  Grimsley is wearing the Reds home uni in this pic, and it looks like Riverfront.  So why not? 

#51T - Bobby Heise "Traded" (STL)

This is a bad airbrush job, but then, what's a good one?  Certainly there are worse.  I think the "StL" logo is one of the most difficult to airbrush because of its complexity.  It's probably a Brewers uniform he's wearing with the neck trim airbrushed, but one thing for sure is that he's wearing a pullover jersey.  I wonder what kind of airbrush job these Topps artists could do if they even had Photoshop at their disposal.  Probably not too bad a job.

According to the back of the card, Heise can fill in ably for Mike Tyson.  Wow, I didn't know that!  Heise is a lot older, too.  Maybe he picked the wrong sport.  In any case, Mike's trade record is a long one, as I noted in his regular card post.  He would be traded twice more in '74.  It's funny, but the A's team slogan - after winning two consecutive World Series - was "once more in '74."  Or was it, "one more in '74?"  I don't remember, but I'll have to look that one up before I post the A's team photo.

Ballpark background:  I can't quite put my finger on the ballpark in the background.  It might be the Astrodome, but I can't quite be sure.  If anybody knows what ballpark this is, I might offer to take you out to lunch.

#43T - Jim Wynn "Traded" (LA)

Just to reiterate, Jim Wynn was traded for the player just previous to him in this set, Claude Osteen, shown on card #42.  What I've noticed about cards in the Trades set is that many of the trades take place in December of the previous year, while trades made after the New Year don't make it into the set.  I'll need to follow the dates listed on these cards to figure out a cutoff point for Topps publishing.  Hmmm, now a good way to do that?  Excell spreadsheet?  Back of a used envelope?...  Okay, nevermind.  I just looked at the back of all my Trades cards.  Most of the trades were between December 3 and 7, 1973, with a few as late as Dec. 11, and one in November.  It seems that these deals were probably made at the winter meetings and heavily promoted by Topps in their upcoming set.  The latest trade included in this set was Dec. 11. 

I'm also using the "Airbrush" label on this card.  While there are no grotesque attempts at logo, hat or uniform revisions, there is the small matter of the Dodger blue wool at the tip of the bill on Wynn's cap.  A fairly easy change, maybe fit for an up and coming rookie airbrush artist at Topps.  All in all, I would say this is not a very flattering picture of the Toy Cannon.  It says, "Hey, man, if you mess with me, I'll rearrange your face before I go back to bed." 

Ballpark background: If this is in a ballpark, it has a rather un-major league-like roof held up by spindly columns.  Likely, this was taken at spring training.  So, I cannot determine where it was shot.  Maybe, if Wynn got together with Osteen for whom he was traded at that golf course I think Osteen's shot was taken, then I can imagine that the roof beyond is covering the driving range.

#42T - Claude Osteen "Traded" (HOU)

As airbrush jobs go, this isn't one of the bad ones.  This trade has an interesting twist in the 1974 set.  Osteen was traded for the very next card in the set, #43 Jim Wynn.  How often does that happen?  Something that sticks out is that Claude's nickname, "Gomer," which was shown in the #42 card's cartoon, is in the headline here. 


Ballpark background: This photo may have been taken somewhere other than a ballpark.  Osteen's uniform really doesn't look like a uniform.  I'm guessing that his hat that was airbrushed was NOT a Dodger hat, but rather a golf hat, and those trees in the background are on a fairway somewhere.  Just over his right shoulder next to that tree looks like a sand trap.

#23T - Craig Robinson "Traded" (ATL)

Here's the first Trades card of the set.  "TRADED"  What a mark to have on a baseball card.  "Robby" goes from the Phils to the Braves.  The Trades set had a different format from the regular cards.  A new photo was issued, showing the player with his new team, but rather than re-hash the players stats on the back - because he already had a card in the set - Topps decided to do a mock newspaper story giving tidbits of the trade and other info.  But, as far as I can tell, all the Trades photos except one were airbrush jobs because Topps didn't yet have a current photo of the player on their new team.  (Another reader commented to me that Bob Locker's card used a two year old photo when he was with the A's, and was traded back to them, so Topps used the filed shoot.)  Topps took photos of players each year to include in the following year's set.  Most were taken during the season at a ballpark, while some were taken during spring training.  So if a player were traded in the off season, there would be no way for Topps to get a new photo of the player donning his new threads.

This was a separate set issued later in the year, but I don't know when.  There have been several players so far that were traded during spring training that didn't have cards in the Trades set.  I don't know what the cut off point was for being included in the Trades set, but at December 3, Craig got into the set.  I'll have to keep track of this somehow.  Maybe a new "page" at the top could show trade dates vs. getting into the Trades set.

Ballpark background:  This photo was taken in Candlestick Park.  You can see the VIP box at the top of the park next to his left ear.  Craig was in a Phillies uniform, and it was airbrushed with Braves colors.  His red-collared powder blue zip jacket was painted black and white, and his Phils hat was given two colors, blue on the edge of the bill, and white on the hat.  The artists (ahem!) missed the blue on the side panel of the Braves two-tone hat at the seam, and the white is taken all the way to the left side of the hat outline.  Topps seemed to take a good number of photos looking up from under a player's hat.  These are the easiest airbrush jobs.  Under the bill of his hat next to his forehead you can see an inverted number "18," which was his uniform number with Philly.  Groovy sunglasses on both cards, Craig!

no # - Trades Checklist

Here's the checklist for the 1974 Trades set.  This card has no card number (just like the team checklists), but I've decided to place it here for a couple of reasons.  Since it has no number, I wanted it to be the first card of the Trades set to appear in this blog set.  I've also decided to insert the Trades cards into the overall blog set immediately after that Traded player's original card.  This is because I've always felt that these cards were just as part of the set as the others, and I wanted to make it easy to compare the two cards in two consecutive posts.  And since the first Trades (#23T) card comes immediately after card #23, I decided to place the Trades Checklist card before #23.  So, here it is, right after card #22.  Nice chartreuse color, too - real 70's!

I obviously used this checklist to keep track of cards as I collected them, but stopped checking the boxes for some reason.  The Trades cards are ripe with airbrushing masterpieces.  Stay tuned...