And sometimes, it bit them in the ass because of last-minute transactions, like the 1977 Willie Crawford card that has him on the Giants:
Turns out that while he was indeed sent to the Giants after the 1976 season was over, he was then sent to the Houston Astros right before the 1977 season started, leaving us with a “phantom” team that he actually never played for.
This is some of the stuff that actually had me think about doing a blog of 1970’s baseball cards, because it really shows what Topps was up against in that day and age.
Today with all the up-to-date split-second technology we have, it’s cool to be reminded of what it was like not too long ago when (some of us) were kids.
Crawford put together a nice 14-year career in the Majors, mainly with the Los Angeles Dodgers, for whom he played 12 of those seasons for.
Between 1964 and 1977 he’d hit .268 as a pro, collecting 921 hits over 3435 at-bats in 1210 games.
