Monday, June 8, 2015

WHEN EXPANSION CAUSES HEADACHES FOR TOPPS: 1977 KURT BEVACQUA

I always get a kick out of the obvious headache the 1977 expansion caused for Topps when they were scrambling to get a full Blue Jays and Mariners "team" represented in their set.
Today's card: Kurt Bevacqua, was a prime example of what could go wrong, and the curious choices Topps made to select the players airbrushed into baseball card history.


Great job on the cap huh? Ha! Love it…
First off Bevacqua played in only 12 games in 1976, good for seven at-bats for the Milwaukee Brewers.
He was then purchased by the new Seattle team, so Topps went ahead and used Bevacqua as one of the Mariner infielders for their card set.
Problem was, Bevaqcua was released by Seattle before the '77 season even started, and found himself as a member of the Texas Rangers when the season broke.
So here we have a card for a guy who barely played the year before, and then never actually suited up for the team he was shown as a member of.
You have to feel for Topps when it comes to those cards. Must have been chaos trying to figure out who to have as members of the new squads.
Bevacqua joins other classics as Dave Roberts, Dave Hilton and Pete Broberg as guys that never suited up for the new expansion clubs they were supposedly part of.

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