Same Player, Same Pic...Different Team?

[JollyElm]

Topps was certainly the (new word?) Reusement King when it came to the multi-purposing of photos on cards across multiple seasons.
The high (let's be honest, LOW) water mark came in the late 1960's with all of the contractual issues regarding the player images (plus expansion, etc.), but Topps usually used the same (differently cropped/laid out) picture of the same player on the same team.

However, an odd disparity exists with the use of the same photo on Dick Allen's 1970 and 1972 cards.

They originally cropped out his attachment to the Phillies by zooming way in and then, for good measure, giving his hat a crude airbrushing when the card was released in 1970...because RED means Cardinals, right, silly kids??
But when Allen was on yet another team (from the Phils to the Cards to the Dodgers to the Sox in a short span), the lazy art department decided to breathe new life into the same (relatively awful) close-up image.

The sad thing is Dick Allen won the MVP in 1972, so forevermore that 'duplicated' card is forced to occupy a special place in the pantheon of prestigious baseball cards.
(It's a shame he didn't win the 1971 MVP, so that cool card would've been the face of his accomplishment.)

dickallensamepiccomp.jpg


What other cards use the same photo while showing the player on a different team in a different season?
Did it occur often?


(Side note: I know that Hank Aaron's 1974 All Star card shows him on the Braves, while a photo from the same shoot — but not actually the same shot — is airbrushed to put him on the Brewers in 1975...but that doesn't count.)

[Cliff Bowman]

This guy popped in my head immediately.

[JollyElm]

Originally Posted by Cliff Bowman

This guy popped in my head immediately.

When Topps sent his uniform to the cleaners, they requested extra bleach.

[nolemmings]

I don't have the scans available, but Tommy Davis was shown for the Mets in 1967 and Pilots in 1969 using the same photo. Tommy is my go-to guy when team change questions like this come up, as he is shown on Topps cards for seven different teams in seven consecutive years-- then a year with no card followed by an 8th different team.

[Gr8Beldini]

I know a guy... but he's a football card. Bubba Smith... same photo in '70 (Colts); '75 (Raiders); and '76 (Oilers).

[JollyElm]

Originally Posted by Gr8Beldini

I know a guy... but he's a football card. Bubba Smith... same photo in '70 (Colts); '75 (Raiders); and '76 (Oilers).

Yeah, you got that right!! I started a thread about it awhile back...
https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=313253

What's odd is, in doing a search of Net54 recently, I ran across someone else who had talked about the Bubba duplication (I believe) years before my thread even appeared. Whoops!

[Cliff Bowman]

.

[mckinneyj]

Who knew that Haney was ambidextrous...

[Elberson]

Sweet Lou……his real RC is 1964 topps

[Cliff Bowman]

.

[whiteymet]

Hi Gang:

Here is an odd one. Same photo two different teams on two different company cards!

Bob Miller Phillies 1950 Bowman

Bob Miller Phillies 1952 Topps

Bob Miller Cardinals 1959 Topps

[akleinb611]

That Bob Miller card is even stranger than you realize. The Bob Miller who pitched for Philadelphia never pitched for the Cardinals. There is some evidence that Topps was trying to depict Bob L. Miller, (a righty, in spite of his middle initial) who later played for the 1962 Mets and had a career with the Dodgers, Twins and other teams that lasted well into the Seventies. THAT Bob Miller did play for the Cardinals in 1959, but someone at Topps pulled the photo showing Philadelphia Bob, and also used his stats on the back. Then there's Bob G. Miller, a lefty pitcher who played for Detroit from 1953 to 1956 and had several cards issued by Topps (all using the same photo). By 1959, Bob G. was either in the minors or out of baseball entirely, but he later made a brief comeback - with the 1962 Mets, where he shared the bullpen with Bob L. Casey Stengel distinguished between his two Bob Millers by calling Bob L. "Sherman." You can't make this stuff up.

[frankhardy]

Originally Posted by akleinb611

That Bob Miller card is even stranger than you realize. The Bob Miller who pitched for Philadelphia never pitched for the Cardinals. There is some evidence that Topps was trying to depict Bob L. Miller, (a righty, in spite of his middle initial) who later played for the 1962 Mets and had a career with the Dodgers, Twins and other teams that lasted well into the Seventies. THAT Bob Miller did play for the Cardinals in 1959, but someone at Topps pulled the photo showing Philadelphia Bob, and also used his stats on the back. Then there's Bob G. Miller, a lefty pitcher who played for Detroit from 1953 to 1956 and had several cards issued by Topps (all using the same photo). By 1959, Bob G. was either in the minors or out of baseball entirely, but he later made a brief comeback - with the 1962 Mets, where he shared the bullpen with Bob L. Casey Stengel distinguished between his two Bob Millers by calling Bob L. "Sherman." You can't make this stuff up.

Being a Cardinals autograph collector, I ran into this several years ago. The Bob Miller on the 1959 Topps card (born 1926, but card says 1927), and the Bob Biller on the 1960 and 1961 Topps cards (born 1939), have very similar autographs. Once I realized they were different players I started studying their autographs. Once I knew the differences, I noticed that the 1961 card had the wrong Bob Miller's signature. He must have not noticed himself....or maybe he was just being nice....or mischievous! I ended up finding the correct signature for the 1961 Topps Bob Miller.

[Chris-Counts]

I've long admired the excellent artwork Bowman did on their 1950-52 cards. When someone got traded, they just painted a new cap and uniform. Topps couldn't achieve this level of artistic quality until the advent of Photoshop.