The Best of Topps Photoshop: Carlos Peña

So I'm sitting there the other day going through the compa's Peña collection. Who knows why, but the following two card jumped out at me.

As everyone knows, card companies recycling photos is nothing new. I'm guessing I never noticed these two before because a) the cropping makes for a radically different card and b) because someone photoshopped the bejeesus out of one of them (my vote is for the second). 

Unlike other (well, most) airbrush/photoshop jobs you see Topps take on, this one is well done 

enough. You don't get the feeling that Los just emerged from a nuclear reactor, that his jersey is melting off, or that part of him is floating in the aether. Like I said, I never noticed the photoshop until I noticed these cards were identical.

So, Topps, well done here!

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

1963 Topps Paint by Numbers: Lew Krausse

The scan doesn't do this card justice. The field looks like it was watered with radioactive sewage from the Manhattan Project until Lew Krausse just sprang up one day. Lew's uni is practically floating in space around his body, I mean he's certainly not wearing it. And in the inset shot below it looks like the "KC" on his hat was added with an oversized crayon. That or he's wearing an epically oversized cap.

I'm guessing he's actually wearing a Minor League uni from his days with Binghamton, hence all of the artificial flavoring.

The highlight of the card, though, is the cartoon. Topps recycled and reused a number of these over the years, but this one is pretty unique: the image of a buckskin-clad scout beating hedges with a contract until ballplayers pop out. Guess the one in yellow is Lew. Things have changed a bit in the 24-hours news cycle, no?

Another thing, too. Note that is says Lew came up at 18, threw a shutout in his first game in the Majors, then spent '62 in the minors recovering from arm trouble. Now, in all fairness Krausse did go on to have a 12 year career as a reliever and spot starter (ERA+ of 85), but this is just more anecdotal evidence about "pitching them too many innings while they are still young." I still go apoplectic when people talk about pitching from the late 1800's to the early 1980's as though there was no such thing as arm troubles. If you have read ANYTHING about pitching from A.G. Spalding to to Albert Bender to Gene Conley, you know that a lot of the alcohol problems that plagued the sport from early on came from pitchers throwing through immense pain. Well, that and frat-style on the road partying but still: if you wake up and can't lift your arm to your head to comb your hair, you're gonna have to do a lot of painkilling just to get dressed, much less go nine innings.

Anyway, still full of snow up here. Have a good one and good night Pumpsie Green, wherever you are!

When they photograph you in the locker room it ain't good: Gordy Coleman

A lot of folks around are really into airbrushing, so I thought I'd trot out this 1960 Gordy Coleman.

I'm guessing the original photo is him with Cleveland in 1959, retouched a bit to make him look like he's in a Reds uni. But the closer you look, the more it falls apart in all its photoshopped disaster glory. For starters, there's no name on the front of the jersey in either pic. But then take a closer look at the grey jersey. The piping is perfectly straight but there are NO buttons running down the jersey. Moreover, it makes Gordy's right side WAY off in proportion to the left given that the front is perfectly straight. There'd need to be a good bit of extra fabric around to make that happen.

Despite being the only BB player ever photographed for a bb card while in a locker room, Coleman actually had a solid 9 year career for the Reds during which he posted a lifetime 107 OPS+, his best year perhaps being 1965. Redlegs fans think enough of Gordy that he's in the Reds HOF, which is a pretty great honor for a guy whose career started out fairly inauspiciously. 

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