Starting off slow, with nicknames. In the 1987 set we saw Lee Mazzilli with a tan glove with "MAZ" on it. In 1988 he has a black glove with "MAZ" on it.
Meanwhile Todd Frohwirth has "FRO".
Moving on to wrong bats. The Indians were too cheap to buy a light-colored sharpie, I guess. If you look closely you will see that Andy Allanson has bat #2. Allanson wore #6; #2 belonged to Brett Butler.
Frank White wore #20, as can be seen on the bill of his cap. His bat knob however, appears to have the #8. #8 had been worn by Jim Sundberg in 1986, and would be worn by Mike Macfarlane in 1988, but no Royal wore that number in 1987.
Dave Clark wore #12, but neither bat has a 12 on it. One appears to be an upside down 6? But the other is clearly #15, worn by Dave Gallagher.
The Traded set will be it's own post another time, but a lot of wrong numbers in the base set are the result of mid-season trades. Jim Morrison wore #2 for the Pirates, but switched to #9 when he was traded to the Tigers in August. Topps airbrushed his spring training photo but did not change the number.
Pittsburgh got Darnell Coles in exchange for Morrison. Coles wore #19 for the Tigers but switched to #7 with the Pirates. This is not an airbrushed shot, but it looks like Coles is using a bat with his old Detroit number.
Glenn Hoffman also kept his bats after a team and number switch. Hoffman switched from #18 to #37 when he was traded from Boston to the Dodgers in August. Looks like Hoffman, or the Dodgers equipment manager, crossed out the old number and wrote in the new one.
When Mark Davis was traded from the Giants to the Padres in July, he went from #32 to #48. Davis didn't cross out the 32, but he did add in a 48.
My eyes are so bad... I have to trust you on half of these. I stared at Allanson's bat knob for at least five seconds... and couldn't see anything.
ReplyDeleteBaseball nicknames seem to have lost a lot of momentum by the late 80's.
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