Saturday, January 2, 2016

ANOTHER AWESOME CARD FROM THE 1976 SET- BUT WAIT A MINUTE...???

I have always loved Billy Williams final card as a Major League player, his 1976 edition as an Oakland A’s player. Then again, I love many of those Oakland cards from that set since the colors of both the card design and the players uniforms make for great stuff.
But first, the Williams card:


GREAT action shot of the future Hall of Famer! Also gotta love the facial hair, a clue as to the age and era we are dealing with.
However, though I still love the card, upon further inspection I have to wonder about a few things.
First off his hands look awkward for his follow through swing, as if they were airbrushed in, and poorly at that. And when you do look closer, you see that they were in fact airbrushed. At least the lead, left arm.
Why?!
When you look at the “Williams” across his back you can see it seems to have been brushed in as well.
Am I wrong?
Strange, and I wonder what the original negative looked like before Topps felt the need to mess with it.
Anyone know what the deal was?
Still a GREAT card from that awesome set! 



***THANKS TO RAJ HERE IS THE ORIGINAL IMAGE THAT WAS ON GETTY-IMAGES:


I really don't see why they had to mess with it. Strange. And look at the bottom, there's MORE on the card than in the original (player in the dugout).