...At Least They Stopped Airbrushing

Over the past week, Garvey Cey Russell Lopes and Night Owl (nice rant, by the way) have talked about the photoshop job on this Topps Stadium Club card:



The photo was taken in Fenway; Manny's uniform and the signboard were photoshopped, but the ad on the signboard was left alone.

Allow me to give you a different perspective: at least it looked like Ramirez was in a Dodger uniform. As someone who grew up collecting cards in the 70's, when you compare the way they doctor cards today with the crappy way it was done 30 years ago, I say thank you photoshop. At least they stopped airbrushing.

Here are a couple of my Hall of Fame bad airbrush jobs from the 70's. Both cards are from Topps' 1973 set.



Bill Hands was traded by the Cubs to the Twins after the 1972 season. Topps spent a lot of time airbrushing a fake Twins uniform on Bill--take off the pinstripes, slap a couple stripes on the leg, sleeve, and waist, then add a "T" to the hat, and bingo, you're a Twin. But what about the background...aw, shoot, let's just leave it alone. The photo they used was obviously taken while Hands was still on the Cubs. I think, just maybe..., the ivy on the walls might give it away! Interleague play was 20 years in the future. Did Topps really think we would believe that this was a Twins uniform in a National League ballpark?? What were they thinking???



This is my all-time favorite bad airbrushing job, Bob Locker, and it has a detail you may have missed unless you look very carefully at the card. Locker was traded from the A's to the Cubs over the winter, so again, the Topps artists went to work, putting a fake Cubs uniform on Locker. They even took the time to put the little cubbie bear patch on his left sleeve. But what about his back? His blank back! Topps wants us to believe that poor Bob Locker was the first player since the 1930's to not have a uniform number.

But here is the dumb detail that you may have missed: look very carefully at the player in the outfield and you will notice that Topps put a big red C smack in the middle of his jersey. Nevermind that the Cubs logo patch is on the left side of the jersey and it has a blue circle around it. Lets just plop a big C in the middle and everyone will know this is a real Cubs uniform! Unbelievable!!!

Here is a closeup of the red C on the jersey. And something else I never noticed until the card was blown up: the outfielder's shoes are still the yellow worn by the A's.



As maddening as some of the photoshop jobs of today's cards may be, just appreciate that all the players look like they are in the right stadium and that they all have numbers on their backs!