Willie McCover-up

[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by JollyElm

"It's a mystery! It's a mystery wrapped in a riddle inside an enigma! The fuckin' photographers don't even know! Don't you get it??!!"

Maybe the CIA blurred everything??

LOL now I'm picturing Joe Pesci going through a pile of '73 Topps...

[D. Bergin]

You'd think they'd have just found a nicer shot of McCovey, so the photoshop guys didn't have to work overtime just to create such a weird shot for a baseball card.

Looks like the umpire was just laid in there from a completely different photo, for some reason.

[JollyElm]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

Looks like the umpire was just laid in there from a completely different photo, for some reason.

1973mccovey410.jpg


Yup, look at the size of the ump's tiny little G.I. Joe hand when compared to Bench's or McCovey's. We know they're big guys, but come on now!! And the umpire is in the 'foreground,' for cripes (or is it the possessive "cripe's"?) sake, so his hand should appear even larger. Plus, how tall does 'Mini Me(diator)' look in this shot, as he is standing, but barely clears the top of the crouched/basically seated Johnny Bench (and again, he's in the FOREGROUND, so his head should be way up there towards the top border of the card)???

I cry foul!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I won't even mention the incongruity of his body positioning, as he seems to be involved in an entirely different play, looking down to watch a pitch in the dirt or something.

The Magic 8 Ball says, "All signs point to a cut and paste job."

1973mccovey410-isolatedump.jpg

[ALBB]

I dont know...did Topps really care that much in 73 about " trying to keep it real "..did someone in the art dept. feel the card wouldnt look right without an " ump" pasted in ?

I realize 73 T set had loads of brush work, awful photos etc..but seems to me its nothing more then sloppy , blurry, distant shooting photography .

[JollyElm]

I agree that it very well could be a bit of a nothing burger, but just look at the effort put forth in pasting in an entire background of fans looking the wrong way to the George Scott card, and you have to wonder what the heck was going on over there in Duryea, PA...

1973georgescott.jpg

[nolemmings]

It's an odd shot for sure but it doesn't look to me like there's anything wrong with the ump. His hand is only showing the first two knuckles and thus his fingers are not elongated but rather gripped, and he easily could have been coming out of his crouched stance and thus not at full height. I also believe he could be looking in the same direction (mostly), although the odd thing to me is 1) seeing Willie McCovey swinging that late so as to foul the ball off basically behind the on-deck circle and fairly deep into the stands, and 2) all of these guys caring enough to look (obviously well out of play or Bench would have chased it and the ump would have followed). The outfield portion of the card looks weird though. Strange indeed.

[steve B]

Looking at the card along with the picture of the park, I think the photo may have had the background swapped out.

Using that pic, and the info about the ramps, to me the angle to pick up the ramps would be along the red line I've drawn (Poorly) That would leave the photographer in a prime spot to get clobbered by a ball fouled back.

But the players look like they were pictured from surprise surprise.. the area that's often a photographers area near the outfield end of the dugout. Blue line, also poorly drawn.