Friday, May 24, 2024

OPC IMAGE VARIATIONS: 1977 JACKIE BROWN

Up on the blog today we take a closer look at the image variations between former pitcher Jackie Brown's 1977 OPC and Topps cards:

OPC version

Topps version

After two seasons with the Cleveland Indians, Brown found himself North of the border with the Montreal Expos, and the fine folks at OPC tried their best to show him with his new team, giving us the airbrushed beauty you see here.
As for Topps, since they hit the presses earlier than OPC, we're given the nice posed shot of the righty in all that maroon Cleveland glory, which is fine by me!
Brown pitched for seven years in the Majors, originally coming up in 1970 with the Washington Senators, for whom he'd pitch the first four and a half years of his career.
As mentioned earlier he'd put in two years with the Indians before one season in Montreal, where he'd go 9-12 over 42 appearances, tossing 185.2 innings with six complete games and a couple of shutouts, finishing with an ERA of 4.51.
For his playing career he would go 47-53 over 214 games, with a 4.18 ERA in 892.2 innings of work, with eight shutouts and three saves along the way.
After his playing days he would go into coaching, where he would put in time with the Texas Rangers (1979-82), Chicago White Sox (1992-95), and Tampa Bay Devil Rays (2002), while also holding the title of Minor League Pitching Coordinator for various organizations before passing away at the age of 73 in 2017.
A baseball lifer through and through.

 

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