Saturday, November 3, 2018

AIRBRUSHING IN THE 1970'S: 1975 JIM NORTHRUP

Today we take a good look at another great airbrush gem from Topps during the wild-70’s, that of former Detroit Tigers outfielder Jim Northrup,,who found himself finishing up a very nice career in Baltimore as a member of the Orioles after eleven-years in the Motor City:


Actually Northrup came over to the Orioles after a brief stint with the Montreal Expos, for whom he played 21 games for before playing eight with the O’s at the end of the 1974 season.
Obviously you can see that the Topps artists simply took an image of him in a Tigers’ uni and went to town on his cap, seemingly using all the orange he could find to make that bill and logo POP!
Turns out he’d play in 84 games in his final Major League season of 1975, batting .273 with five homers and 29 runs batted in over 194 at-bats.
During his time with the Tigers he topped 20-homers three times while giving Detroit some excellent seasons in the late-60’s/early-70’s.
By the time he retired, he finished with a career .267 average with 153 home runs and 610 RBIs, with 603 runs scored and 1254 hits.
Incredibly, I never realized he never made an All-Star team, not even as a substitute during his entire career.

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