Up
on the blog today, we take a look at the airbrushed image used for
former catcher Rick Stelmaszek, who found himself traded to the
California Angels after coming up with the Washington Senators/Texas
Rangers to begin his MLB career:
Clearly you can see how the people at Topps simply worked on his cap while cropping the photo just so that his original Texas Rangers jersey was out of view.
I'll give an "A" for effort on the shading/shadowing on his cap though!
After coming up in 1971 for six games with the Senators, Stelmaszek
spent the 1972 season In the Minors before making it back to the Big
Leagues in 1973, going on to appear in seven games for the now relocated
franchise before a trade in May sent him to the Angels.
He’d appear in 22 games for California, one of the MANY catchers the
Angels seemed to have at that time, batting .154 for them and a combined
.143 between the two organizations.
It was a short-lived tenure with his new team, and he would find himself
playing for his hometown Chicago Cubs by the time the 1974 season
opened up, playing in 25 games and batting .227 with 10 hits over 56
at-bats while filling in behind the plate.
Those would actually be the last Big League games for Stelmaszek, though
he would toil in the Minors for another four years, each year for a
different organization, retiring as a player after the 1978 season.
All told, he finished with a .170 batting average, with 15 hits over 88
at-bats in 60 lifetime games, driving in 10 runs while scoring four
himself.