Floating Heads, 1978 Style

Moving through the seventies, up to 1978.

It's pretty much the same thing as the '77 version:  take the original photo, moves some players around a little to fit the cards format, done.

Row one from the original becomes row three on the Topps card and original row one was moved by Topps to the third row.   I can't think of any reason for making the switch, but someone at Topps must have had their reasons.

The fourth row and second rows were switched too, but at least there was a reason.  The second row on the photo was short to accommodate the Cubs logo and would have looked strange being short on the Topps card.  It looks much better on the bottom.

The big news here is that Mr. Cub has finally disappeared.  In 1977 Ernie was moved to the front office, becoming the Manager of Group Sales.  He held that job through 1979 and in 1980 became the Director of Community Relations.  When the Tribune bought the team in 1981 he was moved to Corporate Sales.  In 1983 his title became Special Services.  I think Dallas Green wanted to get rid of him, but didn't want to risk the bad P.R. that would have come with that move.  So they just kept moving him around, but by 1984 Ernie was gone from the organization.

No Ernie, but here who the others are:

Row 1: Al Dark, Randy Hundley, Peanuts Lowrey, Barney Schultz, Mike Krukow, George Mitterwald, Mick Kelleher, Steve Ontiveros
Row 2: Steve Renko, Paul Reuschel, Rick Reuschel, Dave Rosello, Bruce Sutter, Steve Swisher, Jim Todd, Joe Wallis
Row 3: Larry Biittner, Bill Bonham, Ray Burris, Gene Clines, Greg Gross, Ramon Hernandez, Willie Hernandez, Ivan DeJesus
Row 4: Bill Buckner, Jose Cardenal, Herman Franks, Bobby Murcer, Jerry Morales, Manny Trillo