Throughout the 1970's Topps used airbrushing to try and quickly fix
a player's photo who switched teams at the last second, before cards went to press.
Some notable star players who had this done on their cards were Nolan Ryan in 1972 and Reggie Jackson in 1977.
Now, while we all know that airbrushing only goes so far, kind of like lipstick on a pig, the Topps
team did a decent enough job most of the time, considering what technology they
had on hand.
However, there WERE times where we have to stare at the final result and wonder "W.T.F.?!"
A great example of these airbrush failures is the 1975 Rudy May
card shown below. Just LOOK at that "NY" on his cap!
Wow. Not even
close! That "N" is actually hilarious to look at!
I plan on revisiting this topic repeatedly in the future as I come
across other airbrush failures, so keep an eye out for them! Enjoy…
