How Topps Picked The Pictures

[ALR-bishop]

....is the title of an article by George Vrechek in the latest issue of SCD (8-7-15). It discusses his interview with Butch Jacobs who spent most of his
30 + years with Topps selecting photos to be used on baseball cards.

There is some discussion on 50s and 60s cards, but most of the focus in on the 70s. Jacobs discusses how the pictures were taken in Spring training and later in the season, the selection of numerous shots, including "action" shots and portraits both with and with out hats to cover trades, card backgrounds in season versus spring training,and the development and improvements over time to "in action" cards.

There was an earlier article that focuses on card backs...here

http://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=AwrT6...MET3p6AzjjWU0-

I have not found the Jacobs interview on line yet but they usually do show up. We have had some threads discussing the 71 action shots and others discussing particular card front photos, backgrounds and backs. The article also discusses how pictures improved with improvements in camera and film technology.

Pretty interesting read. I will post it if I can find it on line.

There is a discussion of how on many action cards the player is looking at the photographer and not the ball, how the pictures were picked, why in many photos the players seem to be on an inclined field, and how expansions affected set sizes. There is also a discussion of why Topps itself rarely corrected cards creating true variations after 1973

Several Individual cards are discussed, including the 73 Bob Locker card with no name or number on the back of his Oakland uniform after a trade to the Cubs, the 85 Gary Pettis card which pictures his brother, the Al Leiter 87 cards that pictures either Leiter or Steve George who never made it to the majors , the 77 card observing Bob Keegan's 57 no hitter ( he was college buddy of Sy Berger), and the odd 82 horizontal vertical card of Carlton Fisk.

But the main focus is on cards from the 70s,

George Vrechek is a real hobby enthusiast...and a variant junkie to boot :-)

[ALR-bishop]

http://oldbaseball.com/refs/Butch_Jacobs.pdf

[grainsley]

George has done a LOT of interesting research, and uploads his articles to our OBC site......... Just click on "Library" for examples.....

http://www.oldbaseball.com/

[MCoxon]

Reading what Butch Jacobs got to do for a living at Topps makes me wonder if I'm in the wrong career field. What an amazing thing to do for over 30 years - and get paid for!

Also, what a great story about Jacobs working his way from the mail room to become head of Topps photography.

Thanks for posting this