Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Tile Tuesday: Airbrushed Cubs

I really thought I'd have a lot more of these than the 44 I've got.

For today's tile, I went through my Topps Cubs and picked all the cards that were airbrushed.  I started with 1957 since that was the first year that Topps used actual photographs on the cards. The last card is from 1984.  By then, Topps had the Traded sets coming out each year.  The base set went to press much earlier, and players were shown with their old teams.

In more recent years the airbrush has been retired and replaced by photoshop.  I din't use any of those. They're a little tougher to spot and not as kitschy as the 'ol airbrush.

Nine of the 44 cards are rookie cards.  That is understandable, what with prospects being traded around and rookies not in major league uniforms at spring training.

Since there are only 44 cards, I made the tile a little bigger than usual. That should give you a better look at the fine work done by the Topps artists.



4 comments:

  1. '75 was a great year for Cubs and airbrushing.

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  2. The 1957 Charlie Silvera is airbrushed. And who can forget the Frank DiPino and Ed Lynch jobs in 1988?

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  3. Did they even try on the '69 Lee Elia card? It looks like they cut a hole in the card where his hat was.

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  4. Do you take requests? If so, I would love to see your Cubs collections of Billy Williams and Fergie Jenkins. I am always looking to add and something tells me that you can give me some solid direction...

    Thanks.

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