Today on the blog we spotlight one of the best image variations between OPC and Topps, that of Johnny Grubb, who found himself airbrushed into a Cleveland Indians uni on his OPC card, while Topps went to press before his trade, thus giving us the card you see here, suited up with his original team, the San Diego Padres:
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| OPC version |
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| Topps version |
Really
fun that the Topps image is the original image that OPC used for the
airbrush job, really giving us a better understanding at how amazing the
paint-job was to create an Indians version.
Amazing
work here, especially for that era where we didn't have the advantage
of Photoshop to create life-like images like we do in the present day.
In
December of 1976 Grubb was traded to the Indians along with Fred
Kendall and Hector Torres for slugger George Hendrick, leaving the only
team he played for after five solid years.
Grubb had himself a very nice rookie campaign in 1973, finishing up the season
hitting .311 with 121 hits over 389 at-bats, scoring 52 runs while
collecting 33 extra base hits.
He
would also hit .286 in 1974 and .284 in 1976, with a .269 season
sandwiched in between, not too shabby in an era of "dead ball" as anyone
growing up in that time period as yours truly could attest to.
He
would hit .301 for the Indians in only 34 games in 1977, before coming
back and hitting .265 over 113 games for the Tribe before getting traded
to the Texas Rangers for two players to be named later at the deadline,
Minor Leaguers Bobby Cuellar and Dave Rivera.
He would go on to have a nice 16-year career in the Big Leagues, easily
overlooked with his .278 batting average playing for the Padres,
Cleveland Indians, Texas Rangers and Detroit Tigers between 1973 and
1987.
Sadly for him, though he did stick around for 16 seasons as a Big Leaguer, that .311 batting average in 1973 turned out to be a career-high, and it was also arguably his finest season in Major League ball.
Nevertheless, by the time he retired he left the game with 1153 hits over 4154 at-bats, along with 553 runs scored and 475 runs batted in, while also being a member of the World Champion juggernaut 1984 Detroit Tigers team that went wire to wire.
Not too shabby...
Sadly for him, though he did stick around for 16 seasons as a Big Leaguer, that .311 batting average in 1973 turned out to be a career-high, and it was also arguably his finest season in Major League ball.
Nevertheless, by the time he retired he left the game with 1153 hits over 4154 at-bats, along with 553 runs scored and 475 runs batted in, while also being a member of the World Champion juggernaut 1984 Detroit Tigers team that went wire to wire.
Not too shabby...