Billy Over the Years

Now that I have roster books with pictures, I can see the evolution of a player.  I can also see how cheap the Cubs publicity department was.

Since I have pictures of the players, I can go year by year and compare the pictures to one another.

Unfortunately, the Cubs publicity machine of the '60s and '70s wasn't what it is today.  The player's pictures in the roster book were the team head shots.  But the PR department didn't update the photos each year.  Billy Williams was included in 14 roster books, from 1961 - 1973.  Yet there were just six different pictures used over the 14 years.

This is the first picture of Billy and was in the 1961 book.

The team shot a new picture of the 1961 rookie of the year for the 1962 book.  They liked it so much that they used it again in 1963... and 1964........and 1965.........and 1966.  Yes, the same picture was used for five consecutive years.  The Cubs were making Topps look good!

Finally in 1967 this new picture was used.  But not wanting to let a good thing go to waste, it was recycled for the 1968, 1969, and 1970 books.  That means just two pictures over nine years.

From that point on, however, things got better.

A new picture was taken for the 1971 book.

In 1972 the Cubs began wearing new pullover uniforms, so new pictures were taken of every player.

Billy grew a mustache, so a new picture was taken, for the third year in a row.  Crazy!  But his would also be the last picture, as it was used in both the 1973 and 1974 books, and the '74 was his last.