Airbrushed Fridays: 1987 Topps #619

Does anyone miss plain ol' baseball cards? This one doesn't sparkle. There's no die cut. There's no diamond cut. There's no red diamonds here. No blue diamonds. No blood diamonds. No pie, no Abe, no fictitious Japanese characters...

It's still screwed up, though.

Jerry Reed was a right-handed relief pitcher who was in and out of four teams' lineups through the '80s. His best career stretch was a nearly five year stint with the Mariners, for which he appears here... kind of.

Why did Topps airbrush Jerry's photo? Even though Reed was acquired in April and did not pitch for Cleveland at all in 1986, Topps must have found him to be rather elusive as he only logged 11 appearances with Seattle that year. Maybe I need to stop making up excuses for Topps. There's really no good reason for them to botch this. If Reed was really that insigificant, they could have left him out of the set.

What's wrong with this picture, anyway? The M's trident logo that they used up through 1987 is one of the more complicated ones. Let's put it this way: if I had to choose any logo to draw on a card, this would probably rank just ahead of the Trail Blazers pinwheel logo. In other words, it's very far down the list. I like how the middle and right arrows are essentially the same size, but the one on the left is barely even there. Jerry's got some wavy brush strokes on his jersey top that are more easily seen when holding the card in hand.

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.