The 1976 Floating Heads

We skip over 1975 because as in 1973, the Cubs have a regular team picture on the card.  Keeping floating heads a Chicago thing, the 1975 White Sox floated.  The Cubs returned to the float in 1976.

The first thing you may notice is that this is strictly floating heads.  There is no markings or writing from the original Cubs team photo sold at the ballpark.

This is what the original 1975 photo looks like.  That shot of Wrigley Field is new to these.

Notice that Topps had to move the players around to different rows on the card to get everything to fit.  Topps condensed the players into four rows.

All 30 players on the original photo are in the card. But there is one odd difference.  Tim Hosley has two different pictures.  On the photo, he is in the bottom row, second from the left, wearing a regular hat.  On the card he is in the top row, second from the left, and is wearing a helmet.  

I've been able to find just one version of the original photo. It looks like the Cubs stopped updating it a few years earlier.  So why did Topps change Hosley's picture?

Odd, very odd.

One other oddity...

Ernie Banks is shown in the team photo and on the Topps card, too.  But in 1975, he was not a coach for the Cubs any longer.  He had no real role with the team.  Yet the Cubs left him on the photo.  I guess they couldn't bear to dump Mr. Cub.

And here is the lineup of players:

Row 1: Pete LaCock, Tim Hosley, Steve Swisher, Geoff Zahn, Ron Dunn, Ken Frailing, Bob Locker, Rob Sperring
Row 2: Eddie Watt, Don Kessinger, Steve Stone, George Mitterwald, Oscar Zamora, Darold Knowles, Manny Trillo, RayBurris
Row 3: Jim Marshall, Bill Bonham, Rick Monday, Jose Cardenal, Jerry Morales, Jim Saul, Champ Summers
Row 4: Bill Madlock, Rick Reuschel, Ernie Banks, Irv Noren, Marv Grissom, Jack Bloomfield, Andre Thornton