One of those card mysteries that has puzzled me for all these years was Topps card of Richie (Dick) Allen in their 1972 set.
By now Allen was a bona fide star in the Majors, and was actually
on his way to be the A.L. M.V.P. in 1972. And even though he was traded
to the White Sox in December of 1971 from the Dodgers, which made it
difficult for Topps to have a "correct" image
of him, it was strange that Topps ended up using a terribly outdated
picture of Allen for his card.
As a matter of fact, Topps ended up using an image that they already used
for their 1970 Richie Allen card. If you look at the 1970 card
below, you can see "Phillies" peeking out on the front of his jersey.
They just cropped it tighter when they used it
again in 1972.
What makes the card especially outdated was the fact that Allen's
facial features changed considerably between the 1970 shot and what he
looked like by the time he was a White Sox. By then he was sporting a
nice set of sharp sideburns with full mustache,
and as we all know from one of my early posts, his 1971 card was
actually the first Topps card in their history that depicted a player
with facial hair.
So to go back to an older photo was really odd. Why not just go
ahead and use a shot of him during his Dodger tenure? Or what about his
season with the Cardinals? Did Topps really not have an image from the
previous two years that they could use?
Well, what I did was redesign the 1972 card not only with a proper
image, but with his name as "Dick" rather than "Richie", since by the
time he was playing in Chicago he was insisting on the former as his
first name.
Allen really was such an interesting athlete, and I wish I was old
enough to actually see him play before he hung them up in 1977. Truly
one of the enigmatic figures in professional sports not only in the
1970's, but in American history. Turmoil seemed
to follow him around wherever he played, whether it was justified or
not.
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| Clearly a Phillies jersey on his 1970 card. |
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| Same image as the '70 card. Cropped a little tighter. |
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| Better image and proper first name for the 1972 A.L. M.V.P. |
