The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

[JollyElm]

Take three cards from someone's career and point out one that is good, one that is bad, and one that is ugly...and, of course, explain your reasoning with some degree of humor, if possible.

Mine is the Say Hey Kid:

GOOD 1965 - A well-focused man ready to take on all comers. A warrior ready for battle!

BAD 1964 - Just as the photographer was about to snap the photo, did somebody suddenly tap his right shoulder?? If this was taken in the 80's, you'd think he was imitating Gary Coleman and saying, "What'chu talkin' 'bout, Willis?"

UGLY 1963 - Can someone say Fat Elvis? If you didn't know who this was, with that pudgy face and (for lack of a better term) the suggestion of a beer belly, wouldn't you think it was a 300 lb. middle aged man?? (No offense, of course, to any overweight middle aged men out there.)

maysgoodbagugly.jpg

[jchcollins]

Gasp! How dare you call one of my favorite Willie Mays cards "ugly"? J/K...

I get it though. His face did seem to age fast in comparison to other ballplayers. Was he a smoker? In fairness the '65 Mantle is also one of my favorite vintage cards, and that's a downright awful image of the Mick...

[OsFan]

I’ll give it a shot. Let’s face it there are very few if any bad Koufax cards, similar to Clemente. I don’t think Roberto has a single bad card. Anyway: (and remember I’m trying to keep it slightly humorous if I can)

The good - 1963 Topps - The perfect profile pose, great colors, good shot of his LA Dodgers uniform. The lightning is also great, looks almost like an old movie still frame. He straight up looks like a badass!


The Bad - 1964 Topps - First he has a “hurry up and snap the pic dude” look on his face. It’s a tight portrait so no view at all of the uniform or stadium surroundings. There’s not a great shot of the cap, you can’t see the LA, but what you can see is a gnarly sweat stains, ha! Also looks like he has a pimple on his forehead above his right eye.


The Ugly - 1960 Topps - This truly is my least favorite Koufax card. Problem number one is he looks like he’s trying to pass a deuce. Who snaps a pic of a guy passing a deuce? It just not right. But the biggest problem for me which is the cardinal sin of baseball cards, HE'S NOT WEARING A BASEBALL HAT!!! I hate that on baseball cards, even if it’s a traded card and the guys moving to a new team. Even then I hate it. But in this case Koufax was going nowhere! It makes no sense and looks like crap!
End of rant, I feel much better now.


Well there you have it, kinda fun. Now I challenge someone to try to do the same with Clemente.

[jchcollins]

Your “bad” is actually a ‘66 Topps - one of my favorite cards. 😬

[OsFan]

Originally Posted by jchcollins

Your “bad” is actually a ‘66 Topps - one of my favorite cards. 😬

Truth be told I'm a fan of the '66 as well. Like I said it's near impossible to find a bad Koufax card. With the exception of the no cap '60 Topps.

[cesarcap]

Good thread. Here’s my contributions on Johnny Bench, w/o pix as I’m traveling.

The Good: 69 Topps. As others have said, this card is nicer than his true RC. He’s alone, looking spry and ready to play. The trophy and background makes me want to grab a hot dog, beer and cracker jacks and settle into my seat.

The Bad: 73 Topps. A lousy attempt at an In Action card. It had potential. I actually like the graininess of the photograph as it fits into the era. But if he was just looking a bit more towards the photographer...

The Ugly: 78 Topps. Couldn’t the photographer ask him to just face the camera a bit? Or use a flash to brighten up his face? He looks more like a 3rd base coach w/o a bat resting on his shoulder.