NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- 1974 CHRIS CANNIZZARO

How ‘bout we go and give former catcher and fellow Italian-American Chris Cannizzaro a “not so missing” 1974 card shall we?
Well here you go:

Cannizzaro appeared in 17 games for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1973, hitting .190 while serving as a back-up catcher defensively.
He would have one more season of Major League ball left, playing for the San Diego padres in 1974 before calling it a career at the age of 36, playing 13 years between 1960 and 1974.
Over that time he finished with a .235 batting average, with 458 hits in 1950 at-bats, appearing in a total of 740 games, and was even an “original Met” when he appeared in 59 games during their inaugural 1962 season.
He then was an original San Diego padre, even making the All-Star team in THEIR inaugural 1969 season, the only season he was a full-time player.

 

"WHEN AIRBRUSHING GOES TERRIBLY (RIGHT &) WRONG"- PART XI

Here's an absolute classic airbrush job Topps executed in 1975 for one of the most "vibrant" team uniforms in Baseball history: a 1975 (#355) Chris Cannizzaro card in technicolor Padre-yellow!

Man! You think Topps stocked up on the mustard-yellow paint for this card or what?

(Un)funny enough, Cannizzaro never even played in 1975, as his Major League playing days were over by the end of the previous season.

But what I don't understand is that he actually played in 26 games with San Diego in 1974, so why wasn't Topps able to snap off a shot of him in Padre yellow for his 1975 card?

I tell you, the guy doing the airbrushing job here did a thorough job, as I cannot tell at all what uniform he was actually wearing in the photo before they painted it. Usually you can see some part of the original photo peeking through.

 

Man, dig that crazy mustard uniform!

 

As for Cannizzaro, here's a little trivia: he was actually an original New York Met in 1962 as well as an original San Diego Padre in 1969, becoming the very first Padre player selected for an all-star game the very same year.