Wednesday, January 26, 2011

But is that a complement?

Once again we've got a gem from 1974. 
For some reason I find the shot of the field and stands with Manny in a close-up really striking. Even more so because Manny is a catcher and, unless I'm totally mistaken, he's out tooling around with someone else's glove on a day off. 

But the real greatness on this card is the back:
Specifically the cartoon:

The fastest catcher in the NL?!? That's great but let's face it, I'm not sure the title of "fastest catcher" has much meaning. That's like "least noodle-armed OF." At any rate, it's a great almost-complement made even better by the catcher running fully geared up towards...who knows? And as we know from the front of the card, Manny's not even a big fan of gear. 

Have a good one everybody and goodnight Pumpsie Green, wherever you are!

5 comments:

  1. Here's an explanation about why he's wearing a different glove:

    As the 1973 season began, Manny was placed in center field to fill the void left when Roberto Clemente died. As it turned out, he never adapted to the position and was back behind the plate by mid-season. So the picture was probably taken during his short time as an outfielder.

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  2. Photography had a lot more character in those days..

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  3. Everybody stole my thunder.

    I have that card but never really realized what a great picture that is.

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