Mike Boddicker Has A Great Sense of Humor!

Last Fall, I called out Topps on their mistake for using a picture of Mike Boddicker on Jim Palmer's Greatest Seasons card in the Update Series.

As a followup to that post, I wanted to share a picture that Bill sent me of the card where Mike displayed a great sense of humor by signing the card using Jim Palmer's nickname "Cakes":

Its great to see Mike taking this mistake in stride and having fun autographing a card where he is identified as Jim Palmer with a playful nod to the mistake.

As for the origin of the nickname, it is a result of Palmer's routine of eating pancakes on the day he was scheduled to pitch:

 

 

The fantastic "When Topps Had (Base)Balls!" site created an awesome Nicknames of the 70's card for Jim "Cakes" Palmer:

I'd like to thank Bill for sending along the picture of the card showing Mike having some fun with Topps' mistake.

Topps Carelessness Creates Collecting Dilemma

In looking at the cards that just came out in the Topps Update series, I found that there is a new Jim Palmer card to add to my player collection - or so I thought.  When I took a look at the picture of the card, I realized it wasn't Jim Palmer on the card:

Instead of Jim Palmer, we get a picture of Mike Boddicker. 

Really Topps?  I appreciate you trying to find a new picture rather than recycling the same few shots over and over again, but this is ridiculous.  Is there no quality control process to check to make sure the pictures are of the correct players, especially for a series recognizing a player's greatest season?

This isn't some minor league prospect we are talking about.  Jim Palmer is a Hall of Famer, and appears in a number of Topps sets each year, so you should have an idea of what he looks like.  His # 22 is retired by the Orioles, and Boddicker's uniform clearly shows a 5.   How this got missed is beyond me.

So here is my dilemma - should I even bother with adding this card to my Palmer collection?  It obviously isn't him.  If this were the only card, I'd probably say yes, just as a curiosity.  However, as with almost every Topps card these days, there are the dreaded parallels.  I see there are gold and blue parallels already listed on ebay, and I'm sure there are black, green, red, and 150th variations as well.

Since I do try to pick up the parallels (the unfortunate curse of being a completist), I find myself not even wanting this card, because then I've essentially committed myself to gathering up the parallels to go with it.   I've got the 150th Anniversary Greatest Players card of Palmer (and all of the parallels except red), but if I then put this card in the Jim Palmer binder, it will seem odd that 1) IT ISN'T EVEN HIM! and 2) unlike the other cards where I have the parallels, this one will look odd by itself.

I find myself disliking the card because of the fact that Topps obviously doesn't give a flip about producing quality cards.  When you don't have any competition, why bother to try hard.


So I'd like to ask the player collectors out there - if one of the players you collect ended up with a card picturing someone else, would you still feel it needs to go in your collection?  And if you also chase the parallels, would you try to track those down as well?

Orioles All Orange Uniform Finally Appears on a Topps Card!

46 years after the Orioles first wore them, Topps has finally created a card showing the all orange uniform that was worn briefly in 1971 and 1972:

The 2017 Topps Stadium Club card of Brooks Robinson shows him in the all orange uniform.  Here is a look at the uncropped photo:

 

Here are the other photos that were taken that day: 

 

 

 

Its great to finally see the all orange uniform make an appearance on a Topps card.  

Topps - great work showing this rarely seen uniform.  If you are reading this, please consider using this photo for one of your next Brooks Robinson cards so that we can also have a card showing the 1968 - 1969 Orioles vests:

 

New Photos of the 1971-1972 Orioles All Orange Uniforms

A couple of new pictures have turned up showing the rarely seen all orange alternative uniforms the Orioles briefly wore  in 1971 and 1972.

First we have Brooks Robinson

whose sporting goods company supplied the uniforms:




And we have 2 shots of Merv Rettenmund:

I believe these shots are from the April 22, 1972 game in Cleveland.  Hopefully a few more color pictures will surface from this game.  We have shots of almost the entire lineup from this game, but unfortunately most of the shots are in B&W.  

More Rarely Seen 1968 - 1969 Baltimore Orioles Vests

I've recently come across some more pictures of the Orioles in their rarely seen vests which they wore occasionally during the 1968 and 1969 seasons.

The first set of pictures are from May 21, 1969 when the Orioles played the Twins at Memorial Stadium:

We can see from the scoreboard that the Orioles won 4-3 as Davey Johnson, Boog Powell, Pete Richert, and Andy Etchebarren are walking off the field.

Here is a shot of Davey Johnson running to first as Harmon Killebrew is waiting for the throw:

 And here is Paul Blair trying to lay down a bunt:

The second set of pictures was taken a few days later when the Orioles played the A's on May 24, 1969, in which both teams were wearing vests:

We have a nice shot of the back of Brooks Robinson's jersey as Dick Green is about to be tagged out at 3rd.

We get to see Earl Weaver wearing the vest while discussing a call with the ump:

While I've posted this picture of Mike Cuellar before, it is from the same game which the Orioles went on to win 2 to 1 as seen on the scoreboard as he is wrapping up his complete game (which only took 1 hour and 49 minutes!):

All of these pictures were taken by the great photographer Neil Leifer and can be found on Getty Images.

Finally, here are 2 other pictures for which I don't have a date, but which show Davey Johnson:

If you are interested in seeing other pictures of the Orioles wearing the vests, please see my previous post.

How I would love to see the Orioles bring back this look for one of their alternate jerseys next season.

A Very Busy Day for the Topps Photographer - May 28, 1972

A post on the great blog When Topps Had (Base) Balls! about the 1973 Gerry Moses card got me to thinking about the number of pictures in that set that show the Orioles playing at Memorial Stadium.  After looking through the set, I realized that there are a number of Orioles and Indians cards that appear to have been taken at the same game.  Doing some research on Baseball Reference.com, it looks like 11 different cards in the 1973 set came from a Sunday afternoon game played at Memorial Stadium on May 28, 1972. 

Two of the cards that clearly show this is a game between the Orioles and Indians involve Jack Brohamer.  In fact, I think both of these cards are from the same play:

In the top of the 3rd, Brohamer singled, and then was out on a double play on a ball hit to 2nd.  Jack's card shows him getting tagged out by 2nd baseman Bobby Grich.  I think the Mark Belanger card shows a photo of Brohamer at the conclusion of the play coming into 2nd, and Belanger jumping out of the way.

 

Brohamer did steal 2nd earlier in the game, but given that he isn't sliding, and Belanger isn't trying to make a tag, I don't think this card shows that steal.

In addition to the appearance on Brohamer's card, Grich's card also shows him at Memorial Stadium catching a infield popup.  Frank Duffy hit a popup to 2nd in the 2nd inning, and Tom McGraw popped up to 2nd in the 8th, so this card likely shows one of those 2 plays.

On the Gerry Moses card which started me on my search,  we can see an Oriole sliding in to home behind him.  The Oriole appears to be Mark Belanger, who wore # 7.  Gerry was traded along with Graig Nettles to the Yankees on November 27, 1972, which is why his cap has been airbrushed, and why his card lists him on the Yankees.

Belanger scored on a sac fly by Bobby Grich in the bottom of the 4th.  

Speaking of Graig Nettles, his picture was also taken at this game, and he received a rather poor airbrush job to show him as a Yankee:

These next 3 cards all show the same background as the Gerry Moses and Graig Nettles cards, so presumably they were all taken the same day as well:

 

 

We have one more card showing the Indians and the Orioles from this game.  Frank Duffy's card shows him making a play at 2nd with an unidentifiable Oriole sliding headfirst into the bag.  If I had to guess, I would say the Oriole is Don Baylor who was out at 2nd on a ground ball hit by Boog Powell to the 2nd baseman who threw to the shortstop to get the forceout.

Jim Palmer's 1973 card shows him pitching at Memorial Stadium.  While there is nothing to confirm that this was taken against the Indians, Jim did pitch a complete game against the Indians on May 28, and got the win 5 - 1.  Given all the other pictures that seem to be from this game, I would say the Palmer card is from that game as well.

And finally, we have Brooks Robinson.  While there is nothing in the photo to confirm that this great photo was taken during the same game, given that all of the other Orioles cards that show an action shot appear to be from this game, I think it is a safe bet to say this picture was taken the same day.

I'm not sure what the record might be for number of game used photos from a single game being used in 1 set, but having possibly 11 cards from the 1973 set coming from one game is pretty impressive!

1998 Kenner Starting Lineup Frank Robinson in the Orioles 1971 - 1972 All Orange Uniform

I don't know how I've overlooked this for so long, but I just found out that Kenner produced a Starting Lineup figure using the short lived all orange Orioles uniform from 1971 - 1972.  The rarely seen uniform was used on their Frank Robinson figure that they released back in 1998:

 

The figure is a very good representation of the uniform, although based on the one color picture we have of Frank in the uniform, they should have included his first initial, not outlined his name in white, and made his stirrups a bit higher: 

 

Also, the white stripe around the collar was not nearly as wide as shown on the figure based on this photo of Brooks Robinson:

Here is a picture of the figure in the packaging.  It would have been great if they could have found a photo of Frank in the orange uniform to go on the card that came with the figure as well:

For a look at more pictures of the all orange Orioles uniform from 1971 - 1972, click HERE.

New Pictures of the 1971 - 1972 Orioles All Orange Uniforms - Now we have almost the entire lineup!

Thanks to ebay, we've got 4 more pictures from the Sporting News archives to add to the collection of the All Orange Orioles uniform worn at the end of 1971 and the beginning of 1972.

We've now got a picture of Davey Johnson:

As well as three pictures of Merv Rettenmund:

It appears the Sporting News must have had a photographer at the April 22, 1972 game which was played in Cleveland as we now have a picture of almost every Oriole that started that game.

According to the lineup that day, Don Buford was the leadoff hitter

followed by Merv Rettenmumd and then Paul Blair (who we can see on deck)

Batting 4th was Boog Powell

and Brooks Robinson was 5th

Batting 6th was Elrod Hendricks (who can barely be seen behind Brooks), followed by Davey Johnson.

Mark Belanger batted 8th (and can be seen on deck behind Johnson), followed by Jim Palmer

Paul Blair, Elrod Hendricks and Mark Belanger are the only starters from that day for which we don't yet have full pictures (although we can see all of them on deck).  I'm hoping that eventually we'll see these players at bat as well as it seems that every few months a few more pictures surface.