I played around a bit and took a photo of Thompson while still donning the Senators uni, and photoshopped him into a Texas uni.
As you know the Rangers players that year were airbrushed into a blank red cap, or had images of them that conveniently had any noticeable team insignia not visible (think Jeff Burroughs).
If you look at Thompson’s 1973 card you’ll see almost an exact same pose between the two, making it easy for me to use some of the ’73 pic on this ’72 card.
As for Thompson, the fact that he HAD a 1973 card was odd since he didn’t even play in 1972.
So then why not a 1972 card since he appeared in 16 games for Washington in 1971, where he posted a 1-6 record along with a 4.86 earned run average over 66.2 innings?
Sadly for him, that one win in 1971 would be the only win of his brief four-year career, as he would end up at 1-15 with a 4.86 ERA playing for the Senators/Rangers, St. Louis Cardinals and Atlanta Braves.
I profiled the fact that he did get a card in the 1976 set after appearing in 16 games for Atlanta, with a woeful 0-6 record and 4.70 ERA, making for one of the rougher set of statistics on the back of ANY card.
