Airbrushed Fridays: 1986 Topps #668

Congratulation to Chris Stufflestreet on winning the first ever Airbrushed Fridays Contest. Chris wins a memorabilia card of his choosing from 2010 Allen & Ginter, unless said card becomes ridiculously cost prohibitive. He also will receive a small pile of cards from his favorite team or other interest. (A suitable equivalent relic card may be chosen if none of the subjects from 2010 Allen & Ginter are appealing. Honestly, I have not really looked at the checklist myself.) Chris runs the blog Vintage Sportscards and had what was deemed the best comment by a panel of Erin. No one here can accuse me of playing favorites. Erin, on the other hand...

Cecilio Guante was right-handed relief pitcher who spent most of his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He had pretty decent numbers, with a career ERA of 3.48 and more than a 2:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio, but for whatever reason his only claim to fame was that he was part of the Rick Rhoden for Doug Drabek trade after the 1986 season. Oh, and for some completely unknown reason, he apparently has a blog named after him.

Why did Topps airbrush Cecilio's photo? Someone... please... explain this one to me. Anyone? The man had spent his entire major league career with the Pirates up until the time the 1986 Topps set came out, spanning 149 appearances over 4 seasons. I know there wasn't much love (still isn't) for non-closing relievers, but this was the era of the 792-card set. I don't understand!

What's wrong with this picture, anyway? The cap is off. It looks overly tall and the 'P' blends in with the yellow lines. It's not supposed to. The jersey has the same issues that we've seen dozens of times on this blog. When you line everything up including the nondescript background with nothing in it but blue sky, this has all of the telltale signs. I just don't understand the "why" in this situation.

(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.)

I'm Angry at Baseball

I'm getting really tired of the Cardinals losing. The NL Central seems to have reverted to its pre-2008 levels of total mediocrity and yet the Cards have been completely unable to capitalize. It looked like the team had finally conquered its fear of scoring runs (krosdaplaetophobia) when they absolutely crushed the Royals the weekend before last. Perhaps, non-coincidentally, I left town right around that time and missed that entire series only to come back to the same anemic offense that had been struggling before I took off. Last night, Albert Pujols provided three runs for the team, but Chris Carpenter unfortunately picked the wrong night to have his worst start of the season.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I'm ticked off. When I get ticked off, I decide to post really bad packs in lieu of something that I can be a little more rosy about. I think someday I might buy a whole box of 1986 Topps, because there's nothing quite like actual wax pack wrappers and 1986 was the first year I started collecting. I know that the set is bad, and there really aren't even any decent cards in the set. It's stuck between the bumper crop of rookies from 1983 through 1985 (Sandberg, Mattingly, Puckett...) and the late '80s rookie class (Glavine, Smoltz, Biggio, Randy Johnson...)

Ah!! Curse Randy Johnson!! He wasn't all that great last night, but he got the job done and St. Louis has now lost yet another game to the Giants. Alright, here's the cards...

415 - Hal McRae (Complete with wax stain on the front that's probably invisible in the scan. Hal is the current Cardinals hitting coach. Maybe he is to blame!)

326 - Kent Tekulve (Great specs and great uniform. There's really nothing not to love about this card.)

726 - Orioles Leaders (Featuring Rick Dempsey, "Co-Dean of the Orioles", providing "Continuous Service Since: June 15, 1976". I didn't quite understand this language when I was still 10 and starting to collect this stuff.)

106 - Ray Burris (I have no idea who this guy is, but it's a cool picture.)

372 - Ben Oglivie (I'm gettin' over Oglivie! I wanted to link a relevant Ovaltine commercial on youtube or something here, but I failed to find one.)

716 - Rickey Henderson All-Star (Rickey Henderson finished 4th in the AL in OBP in 1985 behind the illustrious Toby Harrah.)

41 - Brad Wellman

426 - Brewers Leaders (Featuring Dean Charlie Moore)

- "Spring Fever Baseball"

586 - Greg Harris

287 - John Christensen

231 - Jim Frey (I have no recollection of this guy being a manager of anything, much less the Cubs.)

23 - Manny Lee

728 - Mike Marshall

363 - Terry Forster (Forster was notoriously referred to on air as a "fat tub of goo" by David Letterman at some point in the mid-'80s and went on to finish his professional career as a Portland Beaver in 1987. The Twins won the World Series that year, but Forster was never called up.)

249 - Rob Deer (I always think of Rob Deer whenever Adam Dunn is brought up. I'm not sure the comparisons are fair, though. Adam Dunn, as much as I dislike low-average/high-strikeout guys does at least draw his fair share of bases on balls.)

Here's Deer, complete with gum stain. I don't remember packs back then having wax stains on the fronts of cards and gum on the back. I'm sure the gum made its imprint over time because of the long wait before it was opened, but the wax being affixed to the front of a card instead of the back is interesting. Perhaps the pack was resealed, or maybe it wasn't. I'm not sure what sort of golden ticket would ever be waiting inside a pack of this stuff. Wax coated card fronts just seemed to be more of an early-'80s (and before) thing to me if I remember correctly.

Hopefully tomorrow will bring more cheer in the baseball department. I did mail off about a half dozen packages today, so at least that's good news.