i was one of those folks who wondered why in the world upper deck used so many tightly cropped portrait shots in their 2009 o-pee-chee release. cards like this garret anderson seemed to be so 'mug shot'-esque and out of place in the baseball card world.
well, i was looking through a few of my binders, and found that upper deck is not alone in their use of the extreme closeup. here's a 1957 topps gino cimoli card to prove that point:
topps didn't even let us see gino's whole face, blocking his chin with text. it's almost as if the photographer were looking for bats in the cave.
then there's this 1958 topps randy jackson
we get to see all of randy's face, but that's about it. the dodgers' logo looks like a big chip on his shoulder, too.
fast forward to 1992, and the extreme closeup on chris gwynn's o-pee-chee card reveals a sweaty temple.
the hatless extreme closeup is pretty much worthless on a baseball card. worthless.
finally, i'll show off todd hollandsworth on his 1998 upper deck collector's choice card
this may well be the most extreme closeup ever used on a baseball card. we only get about 2/3 of hollandsworth's head for goodness sakes.
so, i apologize to you 2009 upper deck o-pee-chee. you were not bucking tradition with your extreme closeups. still, would it have been so hard to use the upper torso/posed swing images instead?
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