12 Comments
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Chris Flanders's avatar

Very enjoyable read!

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Bob Peterson's avatar

That’s really cool Brian. I was looking at the picture before I read through the article and thought it was an actual produced card. I didn’t recognize the name of course, so it had me searching the far reaches of my memory until I read everything. Great story.

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Brian Joura's avatar

Thanks Bob!

I think Lumpy could have hit for more power if he put his hands together on the bat.

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Bob Peterson's avatar

Lumpy was the next Ty Cobb with that grip.

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Brian Joura's avatar

I was thinking he was like Ichiro - he could have hit HR if he wanted to.

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Texas Gus's avatar

You guys don’t see he’s squaring to drop a bunt?

Cool gift from your brother Brian, ans a great read.

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Steven Shrager's avatar

Thanks for the fun read.

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Jack Susser's avatar

Would love to see the back of the card !!

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Brian Joura's avatar

I transcribed everything that it said. There was his first draft of the text that was scribbled out. That's the only thing you're missing.

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Jack Susser's avatar

Ok

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Mark Warner's avatar

The only thing wrong is that he should be in an airbrushed Cubs uniform…

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Brian Joura's avatar

When I read your comment, the first thing I thought was: Did they airbrush in the 1965 set? I know they did in 1968 but I couldn't swear that they did before that. And the 1964 set had Charlie Smith in full White Sox uniform, including hat, with Mets in capital letters on the card. Surely that would have been one to airbrush.

So, I got my 65s out and they did indeed airbrush in that set. The most notable ones were the caps, where mostly they just blacked out the logos. There were a handful where the player was visible from the shoulder up, with just a white jersey where they likely airbrushed out the pinstripes. But no full-blown airbrush jobs like they did in the 70s.

Thanks for reading and commenting! And thanks for giving me an excuse to look at my 1965 set. The Mantle is in very nice shape!

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