1978 Topps Image Inventory

[deweyinthehall]

Wow - this image complicates things a bit.

As best I can tell, these are the players, starting with the back row, l to r:
Blyleven, Fahey, Lindblad, Moret, Umbarger, Barker, Devine, Perry, ?
Mason, Henderson, Grieve, ?, Dock Ellis, Beniquez, Harrah, Hargrove
Ziegler, Miller, Ryan, Corrales, Hunter, Koenig, Hudson, John Ellis, ?
BB, Sundberg, Bevacqua, Wills, Briles, Campaneris, May, BB

This gives us 24 players, 1 below the limit. According to work I did previously, the Rangers never went below the 25 man line on their active roster that year, so someone is missing. I can't account for four guys who should have been there all year - Doyle Alexander, Sandy Alomar, Claudell Washington and Willie Horton (who arrived in April).


I have the Rangers yearbooks from 77 and 78, but I cannot ID the players denoted with ?

So what is clear is that Bevacqua arrived from Tucson on 7/25 when Henderson went to the DL.
Barker went to Tucson on the 29th to accommodate Grieve's return from the DL
Beniquez went to the DL on 7/31 and Keith Smith was brought up, but they passed each other going the other way on August 15.
Kirkpatrick went to Milwaukee and Barker was recalled on 8/20.
Umbarger was purchased from the A's on 8/25, and reportedly sent to Tucson. However, he never pitched for them, and was recalled allegedly on 9/1. So to were a good number of others, yet none are in this image.


Based on all of this, I am tempted to say the image was snapped on or about 8/31.

This would give us 24 players in the image with 2 - Henderson and Umbarger inactive, for a total of 22 active.

We're still missing Alexander, Horton, Washington and Alomar, none of whom, I'm convinced could be the 2 ? players in the image above.

So, while some things have been cleared up, there is still a mystery.