1961 Topps #65 - Ted KluszewskiThis card eluded me for many years. Why? Technically, it's an Angels card. Yes, even back in 1961, card companies were putting pictures of players in their former uniforms, while listing them on their current teams. Welcome to the confusion of a team collector.
What better reason to spotlight this card than the release of 2010 Topps Heritage which celebrates this set. Topps had a pretty tall order for the 1961 set. The Angels were a brand new team and many players were taken in the December 1960 expansion draft.
Topps solved most of these problems by showing a close up of the players face without a cap. Some of these photos can clearly see the uniform striping or colors of another team, but for the most part were believable. Topps did the same for "Big Klu" on his card, except there a gigantic White Sox logo on his hat.
Could Topps have chosen a different photograph? Probably. Could they have airbrushed the logo out. Certainly. Did Topps know what the finalized Angels hat logo looked like at press time? Maybe not. Which could be more potentially embarrassing... another team's logo on a hat or a correct team's wrong logo on a hat?
If Topps did any tampering with this card, it wouldn't be in my collection today. So hats off to Topps for making me chase another non-White Sox card for my White Sox collection.
4 comments:
How are you handling all the Griffey cards that show him either in White Sox gear (as Mariner) or White Sox name (as Red)? Buy 'em all? :-)
Pretty much. :-)
More embarrassing: right team's wrong logo on the hat, for sure.
Big Klu was one of my dad's favorite players, and one of mine as well. I've written about him on several occasions and have been fortunate enough to track down some of his cards at a reasonable price. Don't think I have this one yet, but I will someday. :)
Great post!
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