For years I have been mystified by George Hendrick's 1972 rookie
card. The ghostly airbrush job they did on it confused me to no end.
Years later I figured Topps went ahead and airbrushed his uniform
because they didn't have an image of him up in the "big leagues", but I
couldn't understand why they apparently went ahead and continued the
airbrushing on his face.
To make it all even more interesting, they also used a photo which
had someone else on it, albeit obscured a bit, but now had to airbrush
THIS player as well.
Was this a situation like the 1978 Greg Minton or Mike Paxton
cards, where Topps didn't have a color shot of the player so they ended
up using a black-and-white image?
If this was the case, why the strange, almost albino-like
coloration of his face? It's like they lightened up his eyebrows and
messed with his eyelashes too. Anyone out there have an answer to this
one? Would love to hear it!
The airbrushing made the already NEON Oakland A's uniform burst out even more with all its psychedelic beauty!
Anyway, because of this "paint job", I DID always like this card. It was so weird and "otherworldly" to me and I'd always think of it when the topic of "odd cards" came up.
I remember I found this card at a flea market in Brooklyn, where you went
through boxes of cards this guy had on these fold-out tables. It was $1.00 for 22 cards! This was around 1981. I walked away with about
400 cards, and had to explain to my dad why I was
carrying this big box when I went back to meet my him after
wandering around the market wondering where I was. I also remember how pissed
he was that I managed to spend $20, all of my money, on something as
ridiculous as "old cards".
Nevertheless I was flush with my "unbelievable find" (hey, I was 11
years old) and was on cloud nine all the way back home to Bensonhurst,
staring at these "old" players and cards I
never saw before.
Ah, those were the days!
