Friday, May 10, 2013

Airbrushed Fridays: 1974 Topps #237


At the risk of sounding like Jerry Seinfeld, what is the DEAL with these umpires today? First, we had Oakland getting robbed by a botched home run call whose replay was botched because the MLB uses dollhouse sized TVs to do their reviews. And then, last night, the umps decided to allow the Astros to replace a reliever who hadn't even faced a batter yet. It's the very kind of rule that prevents Tony La Russa from turning every game into an eight hour stalemate, and it's shocking to me that it was allowed. Of course, the Angels came back and won, so if their protest is actually upheld does it take their victory off the board?

Who is this week's victim, and why? Today we have chaw-chewin', pine tar-lovin' George Brett's older brother. Ken was an impressive player in his own right, racking up frequent mileage (and uniforms) in his 10 team/14 season career. He was a southpaw starting pitcher who had an All-Star season the year this card was released.


Why is this a thing? Brett was a Phillie (Philly?) for a year, and then was traded in the offseason for cash. Dave Cash. Not Cash Considerations, which would be a great name for a baseball player. Holy crap, though! That hat! What were they thinking? Also of note: Ken Brett has 16 (!) of those circled number things on Baseball-Reference.com, each one representing a uniform and jersey that he wore in his career. Impressive!

Airbrushed Fridays is a 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 an acknowledgement of impropriety from Major League Baseball, but you never know!

1 comment :

  1. Wow, you don't like that hat job? I thought it was one of their better jobs in 1974. Back when I got this out of the pack as a kid, I thought they'd actually gotten a picture of him in the Pirate outfit.

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