Saturday, October 5, 2019

What's In a Name?


Topps had this habit of changing a player's first name sometime during their career.

This was especially annoying for the time I was using Zistle. Their search feature only finds the cards having the name you entered, and doesn't include their cards having an alternate first name. (Last-name only searches would have been ok for Clemente and Dalrymple, but you wouldn't want to do that for Taylor.)


The most famous example of this is the case of Roberto Clemente. Topps called him "Roberto" in 1955 and 1956, until switching to "Bob" for the next 13 years, before finally relenting in 1970.


Orlando Martinez had cards from 1967-72, the first two having "Orlando" before Topps changed it in 1969. (Is there a more unimaginative nickname for someone named Martinez than "Marty"?) 


Hawk Taylor cards showed up every year from 1961 to 1969 (except for 1967).  He was "Hawk" from '65 to '68, "Bob 'Hawk' Taylor" in 1961, and just "Bob" for the other years. When I hear "Bob Taylor", I think of the Flyers' backup goaltender during their Stanley Cup championship years very (very, very, very, very, very) long ago.


"Clay" was good enough for Topps every year except 1970, when they went all formal on Dalrymple.


Here, Topps just couldn't make up their mind.

4 comments:

Brett Alan said...

And, as a fan of the 60s Phillies, I'm sure you're aware of the Richie Allen and Dick Allen cards.

Eric C. Loy said...

How about Jesus/Orlando McFarlane!

Jim from Downingtown said...

I have not seen any Jesus McFarlane cards.

Jim from Downingtown said...

Ok, just saw his 1962 card on the web. That's odd that he had his own card in 1962, then was put on a multi-player rookie card in the 1964 set. Maybe Topps thought it was 2 different people. :)