houston had a mother of a problem with stadium envy

i don't mean to pick on houston, but i was drawn to the beautiful backgrounds in the 1987 mother's cookies astros issue. somebody decided to photograph the team in dodger stadium, rather than their home confines of the astrodome. jealous, perhaps? here's a sampling.

davey lopes.this is a very strange card to me - it doesn't compute to have davey lopes in dodger stadium but in an astros uniform. anyway, a nice use of the field level scoreboard and colorful stands.

nolan ryan.the ryan express is standing in about the same spot as lopes. ryan threw his 5th no-hitter against the dodgers, but that was in houston.

the coaches.
gene tenace looks like a giant next to these guys. again, they are in the same spot as lopes and ryan, just in front of the visitor's dugout.

glenn davis.

now the photographer has moved to showcase the right field pavilion. nice palm trees. the field and loge levels seats really accent the astros uniforms pretty well now that i think about it.

charlie kerfeld.

now the photographer has moved around and is using the dugout and seats directly behind the dugout as the background. kerfeld is wearing his glove on the wrong hand. i am willing to bet that he's not wearing a jersey under the jacket either, just his jetson's t-shirt.

terry puhl.

my 25th (or so) favorite saskatchewanian. after my relatives.

jim pankovits.

with a lurker waiting his turn. let's see who it is...

good lord, it's jim deshaies!

he does not look pleased. annoyed, not pleased.

there are a few cards, such as this dickie thon

that are not shot in dodger stadium. it's too bad, because it would have been nice for the whole set to have the dodger stadium background.

obviously it is more than likely that the production of the mother's cards was based on the west coast, so it was just easier to be photographed in la. so, maybe they weren't jealous after all, but who could blame them if they were? especially when you consider that they played in this place

for 30+ years.