Once again we have a spring training shot . . .
. . . with a dubious date.
On Tom Seaver's card the photo was exactly the same time as his 1973 base card. For Simmons, the photo is different but was clearly taken at the same time. You can even see the same bats in the background.
Simmons was in Series One in 1973, so this card was certainly out already by April 3, 1973. My guess is that the photograph was April 3, 1972. Maybe in the Topps photo archives, the date was written on the photo but not the year, and whoever was editing the deckles assumed all the photos they were using were from 1973. Nope - there was a baseball strike going on and players were locked out of their spring training ballparks. I have no other guesses, but it seems odd that Topps would just make up a date.
Nice detective work. Maybe Topps did just make up dates... and didn't expect people to ever go back and research information on these cards.
ReplyDeleteNow this is the best photo so far. I can't imagine any others topping it either.
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