Friday, July 20, 2012

Airbrushed Fridays: 2012 Topps #588


Sure, Allen & Ginter is still fresh on the shelves, but aren't we already at the point in the year where there's almost nothing left to come out? Aside from the Update set, is there anything else to look forward to on the release schedule? I really wanted to make this the year of working on old sets, but I haven't done the greatest job so far. I suppose there's another 5+ plus months left to go, however.

Who is this week's victim, and why do we care? Mark Ellis is an average, unremarkable but also inoffensive second baseman. Like many of his Oakland teammates (Eric Chavez also comes to mind), he's not someone I really ever paid attention to. He just plays baseball and continues to get paid to do it. Ellis is like the Gin Blossoms were in the grunge era: palatable, but not terribly interesting.


Why does this card exist? Ellis ended his 10 year career with the Athletics last season with a brief stay in Colorado. This past offseason, the Dodgers signed him as a free agent because they are the Dodgers. In the past couple of years, they have given homes to quite a bit of MLB flotsam. This year's roster alone has included the likes of Juan Uribe, Adam Kennedy, Mike "Mac the 9th" MacDougal, Bobby Abreu and Todd Coffey, just to name a few. Don Mattingly must have the same fondness for the "scrappy veteran" that Tony La Russa had.

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 a hyperlink and some cancelled postage stamps, but you never know!

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