Ernie Likes to Kneel

 

When I saw the 2020 T206 card for Ernie Banks I thought the picture looked familiar.  I seemed to remember several cards with Ernie kneeling with a bat.  So I went through my collection.

Here's a couple from the mid-fifties, but not a match.

Ernie line up in front of a bunch of bats in the mid-sixties, but again, not a match to the T206.

This one looks to be late-sixties.  He's wearing a home uniform like the T206, but it's not a match.

This picture from spring training, 1969, was very popular with card makers.  But it's not the one on the T206.

These are from the early 70s, but Ernie is in a road uniform, so we don't have a match yet.

He's back in the home uni in this early 70s picture, but still no match.

He still liked to kneel after he retired and became a coach, but this isn't the picture on the T206.

Bingo!  We have a match.  The 2020 T206 card has the same picture that Topps used in the 2018 Gallery set.  I've got 25 different cards of Ernie kneeling, but only one matched the T206.  That's not bad for Topps.  Now let's make sure we don't overuse this picture!