In late October of 1974 Jose Cruz was purchased by Houston from St. Louis, where he played from 1970-1974.
He never really got to play full-time with the Cardinals, but that changed in a hurry when he suited up for the Astros.
He immediately became a popular player, going on to play 13 solid seasons for them in the outfield and finishing in the top-10 in M.V.P. voting three times in the process.
Actually, Cruz can be the quietest 2000+ hits guy from the 1970's and '80's. He finished with 2251 hits, 165 home runs and 317 stolen bases while collecting two Silver Slugger awards over a 19-year career. Not bad at all.
Anyway, when Topps was getting ready to produce the 1975 set, they needed to airbrush Cruz into a Houston uniform, and for some reason things seemed to get out of hand when it came to the Houston logo on his cap. The star is all wrong at the bottom, and the "H" is huge and thick.
For a comparison on what it was supposed to look like, check out Ken Forsch's card from the same set. See the nice, thin "H" inside a smaller black star?
Now go and look at the Cruz cap again.
Hilarious! As if those Houston uniforms from the 1970's needed any help being garish...
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| An extra special cap logo for Mr. Cruz... |
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| What the logo was supposed to look like. |
