Now I know I have been focusing on the 1973 Topps set a ton lately, but bear with me...
So I was looking at the 1973 Mike Marshall card (#355)
because of the airbrushing on the cap, then started to really look at
the uniform he's wearing.
Even though you can barely see anything, I DID notice the dark
striping and wondered what team's uniform that could be. At this point,
Marshall was already an Expo player since 1970, so why the need for
airbrushing in the first place?
I know Marshall was a colossal headache for Topps, as he refused to
either pose or even refuse to have a card altogether (hence the
"missing" cards in the 1970, 1978 and 1979 sets).
So is this why Topps had to use an outdated photo of him even for their 1973 card? Possibly.
But then as I was looking at that jersey again, I realized it looks
like a Detroit Tigers home jersey with the dark brown striping, and
Marshall DID come up with the Tigers in 1967 before moving on to the
Seattle Pilots in 1969.
Is this a photograph of Mike Marshall from 1967 or so?
If you look at his 1972 card (#505) you can see what the Montreal Expo jersey looks like, and the '73 photo is not even close.
I can't be 100% sure, but I really do think that's a Tiger uniform
he has on, meaning the image on the 1973 baseball card can possibly be about
six years old.
Anyone out there know?
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| Is that a Tiger jersey Marshall has on? |
I'll be profiling more of Mike Marshall in the future, both with "missing" cards and airbrush jobs.
This guy was truly a character both on the field and off, and even in the baseball card realm!