My birthday is coming up (one hint: it's allegedly a spooooooky day) and I most likely won't get a chance to post again until Sunday night or Monday at the latest. With that in mind, I'm going to go in a bit of a different direction this week. I originally pulled this because the card looked so odd that I knew it had to be an airbrush job. Upon further inspection, however, it could be that I have just a really shoddy example of this card. Or, perhaps, they're all shoddy. The person who can best provide evidence for either case, airbrushed or not, will win a treat of some sort. (It won't be my leftover Halloween candy, I promise.)Some evidence to consider: everything appears to be really off-register, like one of the color palettes was printed slightly askew from the other, giving the whole card a bit of a blurry effect. There are little printing spots off to the left of Anderson's face. The O's logo almost looks like it was taken from another card or picture and just pasted onto the master "card" or something. And there is some really crazy shading going on with his face. Either Anderson has some sort of skin condition that I'll later feel terrible about making fun of or the Earth used to have 3 suns back in the late '70s. Hey, I was only a few years old at the time, so there's no way I'd remember if that wasn't the case.
Mike Anderson was a reserve outfielder who would make his last major league appearance before this card even came out. His Wikipedia bio says very little and he finished up his final season by logging just an .094 batting average in 32 at-bats. That was his only season with the Orioles, which also made me think he was a great candidate for airbrushing.
Mike Anderson was a reserve outfielder who would make his last major league appearance before this card even came out. His Wikipedia bio says very little and he finished up his final season by logging just an .094 batting average in 32 at-bats. That was his only season with the Orioles, which also made me think he was a great candidate for airbrushing.
The overall photo quality in 1979 Topps is pretty bad. After I opened my first couple of packs I decided not to try to complete the set and instead bought the set through the mail.
ReplyDeleteThe photos are bad on the 79s. This looks airbrushed. If you look on the white panel where it meets the black you can tell that the artist tried to blend in the black and white. The red color on the cap bill and jersey collar are also just not right. The black on the collar just also does not look right. One other thing, the red on the cap bill extends past his ear, I don't think the color does not do this on the orignal cap.
ReplyDeleteI look at the Oriole logo. This oriole appears to be forcing a smile, rather than the actual oriole logo that features a genuine smile.
ReplyDeleteAirbrushed.