Airbrushed Fridays: 1969 Topps #86

This is the time and space where I would probably say something about the most recent Hall of Fame voting results, but I'm starting to not care very much about it. It's clear that the sport cannot figure out how to address the issue of drugs. It's a deep rooted issue. Dudes have been taking drugs and playing the game for longer than I've been on this earth. Some of those drugs probably helped said dudes increase their performance in baseball games. And I don't like cheaters. But what I dislike more is not knowing the truth, and knowing that some people are liars. I wish they could keep the liars out of the Hall until/unless they come clean, and I wish that they could figure out a better way to keep people from cheating. But none of that really matters, because the voters are ill-informed and under prepared to do what they're charged with doing. 

Okay, fine, I guess I ranted. I would have voted for Lee Smith and Edgar Martinez, anyway, like I say every year.

Who is this week's victim, and why do we care? It's Pete Richert! He was a two-time All-Star lefty hurler who spent his first six seasons as a starter before settling into a role as a valuable reliever. Overall, he logged 13 years in the show with 5 teams, including two separate stints with the Dodgers and a brief stopover in St. Louis.

Why does this card exist? I realize that I'm not really asking the right question here after all this time. The card exists because Topps created it. I really want to know why said player is airbrushed/Photoshopped/whatever. So, a better question might be: Why is this a thing? Well, for once I am totally stumped. Richert was traded by the Washington Senators early in the 1967 season for a couple of players and had been playing for Baltimore for almost two seasons when this card went out to packs. You can just barely see that Pete is still wearing his Senators jersey as they didn't bother to do anything to it. The cap looks like it got a Sharpie taken to it.

Airbrushed Fridays is a regular, weekly feature as the name seems to imply. If you know of a card with an altered photograph that you'd like to see featured, please contact me. You probably won't win anything other than a hyperlink and an entry into a Publishers Clearing House drawing, but you never know!