20 March 2011

whose house?

take a look at this fantastic card - the 1973 topps dave johnson card.
my copy is crooked and miscut, but it's still a pretty cool card.  it's one of the cards that made me decide to go ahead and try to complete the set.  johnson, who played for the orioles in 1972, has been airbrushed into his braves uniform, even while he steps over what appears to be a pinstriped yankee (roy white?) at second base.

now, whenever i see those light bulbs, i think of dodger stadium and the old field level scoreboards they had before frank mccourt decided to squeeze more people into chavez ravine.  but this couldn't be dodger stadium, could it?  the angle is wrong, and something doesn't look quite right, but with topps famously and poorly relocating george scott on his 1973 card,
i thought it possible that topps not only airbrushed johnson's uniform, but they also transported him to a national league ballpark.  so, i did my due diligence and quickly found this photo of original yankee stadium (before the renovations in 1974) and confirmed that johnson remained in the house that ruth built.

as an aside, while davey was good at math, topps sucks at spelling
johnson would, of course, later find his way to dodger stadium as the dodgers' first non-o'malley manager.
here's to you, 1973 topps dave johnson!

1 comment:

  1. Just completed 73 set myself. A lot of funky stuff going on with some cards

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