BY SPECIAL REQUEST: RE-DO 1974 ELLIOTT MADDOX

By special request today, we have on the blog a "do-over" for Elliott Maddox and his 1974 card, with today's example showing him as a New York Yankee, the team he helped finish in second place in perhaps his finest season in the Major Leagues:

Coming over from the Texas Rangers after three years with that franchise, Maddox immediately paid dividends, as he helped the Yanks to a very nice 89-73 record, good for second place in the American League East.

In his three seasons with the New York Yankees, the first two saw him top a .300 batting average, easily his two best seasons as a Big League player.

His 1974 seasons saw him hit .303 in a full-time role, scoring 75 runs and setting personal season-bests across the board, topped off with a surprising 8th-place finish for the MVP Award later that year.

In 1977 he'd play for the Baltimore Orioles, though appearing in only 49 games, hitting .262 while playing center field and third base, before going on to the New York Mets.

He'd play well for them, hitting about .260 overall over what turned out to be his last three seasons in the Majors.

He would play in the Minors during the 1981 season but he would leave the Big Leagues shortly after, with a career .261 average, with 742 hits in 2843 at-bats in 1029 games.

REVISITING A POST FROM 2015: ELLIOTT MADDOX AND HIS AIRBRUSHED 1978 CARD

Good day everyone!

On the blog today, revisiting a blog post from March of 2015, taking a closer look at a great airbrushing job by Topps on the 1978 Elliott Maddox card.

Here's the original write-up for that post way back when:

 

 

"Recently, when I posted an article on the great airbrushing job by Topps on the 1977 Doyle Alexander card, we started a small conversation on some OTHER great airbrushing done on cards of the period.

Some one mentioned the 1976 Nelson Briles, which was indeed a great job (I'll cover that in the future), and someone else mentioned a card I was already planning on writing about: the 1978 Elliott Maddox card.

Now, first things first: I never realized this was an airbrushing job until about a month ago! All these years it just looked genuine to me at a passing glance.

Then I was looking at Maddox's career and saw he never played for the Mets in 1977, but the Orioles.

That's when I took a closer look and realized Topps took a shot of Maddox when he was with the Yankees, and cleverly airbrushed the TINIEST end of the "Mets" logo on his jersey, while keeping the Yankees pinstriping, messing with the hue just a bit to resemble the Met's pinstriping.

Brilliant!

With the most minimal of airbrushing: in this case that little bit of the "Mets" script peeking out from behind his arm, this really made for an authentic looking shot.

I love stuff like this!

As for Maddox the player, he played a solid 11 years in the Major Leagues, coming up in 1970 with the Tigers before moving on to the Senators/Rangers, Yankees, Orioles and Mets, for whom he played for the last three years of his career until 1980.

He finished with a .261 average with 742 hits over 2843 at-bats, and even finished 8th in MVP voting in 1974, his first season with the Yankees, after hitting .303 in perhaps his finest year in the Majors.

GIMMIE A DO-OVER: 1978 ELLIOTT MADDOX

On the blog today is a fun card, a do-over 1978 card for Elliott Maddox, who actually had a great 1978 "minor" airbrush card to show him as a member of the New York Mets, who he'd play for in 1978, but I have him here for the team he played for in 1977, the Baltimore Orioles:

Maddox appeared in 49 games for the Orioles in 1977, hitting a respectable .262 with 28 hits in 107 at-bats, with 14 runs scored and nine runs batted in.

The previous three seasons saw him play for the New York Yankees, with the first two of those years seeing him topping a .300 batting average, easily his two best seasons as a Big League player.

He'd play well for the Mets, hitting about .260 overall over what turned out to be his last three seasons in the Majors.

He would play in the Minors during the 1981 season but he would leave the Big Leagues shortly after, with a career .261 average, with 742 hits in 2843 at-bats in 1029 games.

 

GENIUS MOVES: THE 1978 ELLIOTT MADDOX "FAUX-BRUSH" MASTERPIECE

Recently, when I posted an article on the great airbrushing job by Topps on the 1977 Doyle Alexander card, we started a small conversation on some OTHER great airbrushing done on cards of the period.

Some one mentioned the 1976 Nelson Briles, which was indeed a great job (I'll cover that in the future), and someone else mentioned a card I was already planning on writing about: the 1978 Elliott Maddox card.

Check out the card:

Now, first things first: I never realized this was an airbrushing job until about a month ago! All these years it just looked genuine to me at a passing glance.

Then I was looking at Maddox's career and saw he never played for the Mets in 1977, but the Orioles.

That's when I took a closer look and realized Topps took a shot of Maddox when he was with the Yankees, and cleverly airbrushed the TINIEST end of the "Mets" logo on his jersey, while keeping the Yankees pinstriping, messing with the hue just a bit to resemble the Met's pinstriping.

Brilliant!

With the most minimal of airbrushing: in this case that little bit of the "Mets" script peeking out from behind his arm, this really made for an authentic looking shot.

I love stuff like this!

As for Maddox the player, he played a solid 11 years in the Major Leagues, coming up in 1970 with the Tigers before moving on to the Senators/Rangers, Yankees, Orioles and Mets, for whom he played for the last three years of his career until 1980.

He finished with a .261 average with 742 hits over 2843 at-bats, and even finished 8th in MVP voting in 1974, his first season with the Yankees, after hitting .303 in perhaps his finest year in the Majors.