Saturday, February 15, 2020

AIRBRUSHING THROUGH THE 1970'S: 1973 BILL HANDS

Today’s blog post looks at the great airbrushing job the fine folks at Topps did for former pitcher Bill hands and his 1973 card. Take a look:


Granted, the ivy covered wall in the background is the dead giveaway that he was at Wrigley Field, but what a great job of getting him into a Minnesota Twins uni for the card!
If my eyes aren’t deceiving me, the airbrush artist even went as far as touching up the outfielder to match him up as well in the correct uniform. THAT is some dedication!
Hands was traded to the Twins from the Cubs on November 30th of 1972 along with two others for Dave LaRoche, which kind of mystifies me since Hands was a steady starter for the Cubs for five seasons at that point, while LaRoche was a solid reliever, though nothing spectacular. So why did the Cubs give up three players for him?
Nevertheless, Hands retired with a 111-110 record and 3.35 E.R.A in 374 career games between 1965 and 1975, pitching for the Giants, Cubs, Twins and Rangers.
The high point of his career was easily 1969 while pitching for the Chicago Cubs.
That season he teamed up with Fergie Jenkins, forming a 20-game winning one-two punch, going 20-14 with a nice 2.49 E.R.A. while starting 41 games, good for 300 innings on the nose.