Error Cards I Have Known

 

Below are the error cards I have spotted in the baseball sets I collect. (Not including minor typographical errors.) 

 

 

1963 

Eli Grba's card has a photo of Ryne Duren. 

Ken Hubbs' card is missing the position. 

 

1964 

Phillies Rookies card (that features Dave Bennett) says "This 19-year-old pitcher is just 18 years old!" 

 

1965 

Reds' catcher Don Pavletich's card has a position of "Pitcher". 

Jim Kaat's last name is mispelled on the front as "Katt". (I refuse to believe this is a typo. Some flunkie at Topps just didn't know how his name was spelled.) 

 

1966 

Dick Ellsworth's card has a photo of Ken Hubbs, Ellsworth's teammate who died 2 years earlier. 

George Banks' position is OF-3B on the front, 3B-OF on the back. 

 

1967 

The first Tigers Rookies card has an incorrect photo (corrected on the 2nd rookies card). 

The White Sox team card has the Cleveland Indians' statistics on the back. 

On the 3rd series checklists issued with the 2nd series, #214 incorrectly says "Dick Kelley". This was corrected to "Tom Kelley" on the checklists issued in 3rd series packs. (Dick Kelley's card is #138.)

Milt Pappas' card is missing the autograph. 

On Harmon Killebrew's card, the team name "TWINS" should be green, not yellow. 

On the Twin Terrors card, the card name (in place of the team name) should be green, not purple. 

On the Sox Sockers card, the card name (in place of the team name) should be purple, not orange. 

Luis Aparicio's position is "INFIELD" on the front, "SHORTSTOP" on the back. 

Johnny Klippstein's card has pitching stats on the back, but with a "Batting Record" heading. 

Charlie Lau's first name on the back of the card is "Charley". 

 

1968 

The Topps rookie trophy is missing from the cards for Rick Monday, Dick Hughes, and Rich Nye.

 

1969 

Aurelio Rodriguez's card has a photo of the Angels' bat boy. 

The photo on Larry Haney's card is reversed. 

SF Giant Frank Johnson's card has a cartoon on the back that says he plays for the Cubs. 

 

1970 

The Topps rookie trophy is missing from the card for Carlos May. 

Gil Garrido's card has his name misspelled as "Gill" on the front. 

Woody Woodward's and Richie Scheinblum's cards have their positions shown as S.S. and O.F. respectively. The periods are not necessary!

   

Topps' Blunders

One of the recurring themes on my blogs has been “That’s just Topps being Topps”, where I highlight (or more correctly, lowlight) their many blunders, whether it be including the wrong player on a card (’66 Dick Ellsworth, ’69 Aurelio Rodriguez), using capless photos long after they had the chance to get a new photo of a traded player, wretched airbrushing techniques, failing to secure a licensing arrangement with the ’68 and ’69 Astros, failing to consider back-loading the 1968 Athletics’ and 1969 expansion teams’ cards until later in the year to give themselves time to take photos, or just incorrect text on the back of a card (or nonsensical text, as with Dave Bennett’s 1964 card – “This 19-year-old right-hander is just 18 years old!”). 

 

Anyway, I’m going to show some examples of their tendency to use capless photos well past a logical time point, and will only focus on the Phillies. (This could apply to all 20 teams, but even I reach a point of overkill.) 

 

 

First, I will start off with the 1967 Dick Hall card, Topps’ version of “even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes”. Hall joined the Phillies before the start of the 1967 season, but somehow managed to get a current photo of him for that year’s set. 

 

1967 Bob Buhl

Ok, now we are seeing their true colors. Yes, Buhl’s card is in the 1st series, but he was acquired on the same day in early-1966 as Larry Jackson, and they managed to get a new photo of Jackson for his 1967 card.

 

1968, 1969 Turk Farrell

Farrell re-joined the Phillies in late-May 1967, and was their top reliever for the next 2+ seasons. Surely there was an opportunity to take new photos before the ’68 and ’69 cards went to press. If not, why not re-use a photo from his early-1960s stint with the Phils? It’s not like they were against using old photos. Just look at Jim Grant’s 1969 card, wearing an Indians’ uniform from his pre-1965 years with Cleveland.

 

1967 Ruben Gomez

Gomez rejoined the Phils in early 1967 for a few games, and appears in a Phillies uniform in a 5th series card. Topps, you’re not getting credit for this one – he looks about the same age as he did on his 1960 and 1961 Phillies’ cards. Why didn’t you also re-use an old photo of Farrell?

 

1967, 1968, 1969 Don Lock

Topps! Don Lock joined the Phillies in the 66/67 off-season. Get off your ass! 

 

1968, 1969 Woody Fryman 

Fryman joined the Phillies before the 1968 season, but if they couldn’t get a Turk Farrell photo for these 2 sets while also having most of 1967 to do so, there’s little reason to expect they would for Fryman.

 

1968, 1969 Mike Ryan

See Woody Fryman.

 

1969 Jerry Johnson

Johnson didn’t join the Phillies’ organization until November 1967, and made his debut with them in July 1968. Yet he has a card in an early-season 1969 series. Were Farrell, Lock, Fryman, and Ryan all hiding from the photographer?

 

1970 Larry Hisle 

Topps already used good photos of Hisle in the ’68 and ’69 sets. Topps, this was one of your All-Rookie Team cards. WTF?

 

1970 Ron Stone

Ol’ Ron is depicted in his 1966 Kansas City A’s vest. Stone only played 26 games for the A’s that year. He played over 100 games for the 1969 Phillies, but here we are with a capless 4-year-old photo. Stone was a major news item during Spring Training in 1969, tearing the cover off the ball and anointed a Spring Phenom. You would think Topps wanted to get in on the ground floor for the next “superstar”.

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.

Topps! Pay Attention!

Normally, a player "graduates" from a Rookie Stars card to his own card the next year (or in the case of Lou Piniella, 6 years down the road!)

But Topps was in reverse gear for these 3 players. After already appearing on their own card, they later found themselves on the baseball card equivalent of "the childrens' table".

1965:

1966:

1965:

1966:

1967:

1969:

There can be only one explanation!
.