At the beginning of the 1957 season, Paul Smith was returning to the majors after three years in the minors. He had spent 1953 with Pittsburgh and then went back for more seasoning.
Because of his position in the set as a tough series card I suspect Topps saw he would make the team out of spring training and just used the photo recently posted as their image,
Without knowing the Topps release dates, I suspect this series was produced before any chance to get an updated Smith photo was completed, thus a stock photo was used.
And while we don't know these dates, if you consider the final series, there are so many rookie cards and young players just getting their foot into the major league door, that such scenarios make sense.
Regards
Rich
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