Airbrushed Fridays: 1990 Topps Traded #23T

It seems like Bobby Cox was born wearing a Braves uniform, but as we see here this actually wasn't the case. I'm continuing on in my quest to find the newest or last airbrushed card that Topps produced. I'm guessing there was probably some sort of transitional period from where they neither airbrushed nor photoshopped pictures, but I haven't quite narrowed that down yet. We've stepped into the 1990s here with one of the most lackluster traded sets of all-time.

Bobby Cox once was and still remains is the Atlanta Braves manager. He actually managed the Braves in the late '70s up through 1981 with little success before taking over the helm of the Toronto Blue Jays, turning the Jays from a cellar-dweller to a playoff team in 1985. He ended up returning to the Braves as the GM for nearly 5 seasons before hiring himself as manager midway through the 1990 season.

Why did Topps airbrush Bobby's photo? I'm actually at a total loss for words on this one. Is this a 5 year old Blue Jays picture that they airbrushed? Why not go the full distance and use a picture from 1981? I suppose the Braves cap logo had changed by 1990, but this is just strange. He was the reigning GM, though, so you'd think they could have at least used a cap-less photo of him doing something remotely baseball-related.

What's wrong with this picture, anyway? Well, the 'A' logo is obviously bad and he's wearing a very nondescript solid dark blue that was probably a different shade of something in a past life. What's really wrong, though, is that the card is faking Bobby Cox into a uniform that he should be very real in.