Airbrushed Fridays: 1981 Topps Stickers #224

Stickers are certainly not exempt from airbrushing, especially when it comes to those manufactured by The Topps Company. That's pretty much the gist of today's lesson.

Darrell Porter was a four-time All-Star catcher who had his best playing years with the two Missouri-based teams, Kansas City and St. Louis. Porter was the MVP of the 1982 NLCS and World Series while with the Cardinals, and he wore some funky glasses. He battled drug problems in his playing days but seemingly had turned his life around before he died of a cocaine overdose in 2002.

Why did Topps airbrush Darrell's photo? Porter was a big offseason free agent signing by the Cardinals at the end of 1980, coming off of his third consecutive All-Star season. This clearly paid dividends for the Cards a couple of seasons later when they would capture the title. I have no idea when the stickers and sticker albums were released, but I'm guessing they did not want to use an outdated photo for a big name player.

What's wrong with this picture, anyway? I'm not sure if it's just more difficult to detect on stickers than it is on cards, but I actually can't really tell the difference when looking at the jersey. This is probably helped by the fact that both Kansas City and St. Louis wore baby blues back in the day. However, the cap is an example of what seems to be an endless series of mangled STL logos. Yikes.

(If you are interested in obtaining a card featured here, please send me an e-mail. If you have a card you would like to nominate for Airbrushed Fridays, please get in touch as well. I will require that I am able to see the card in person, either on loan or as a donation, so that I can examine the card and experience it in all its cruddiness.)