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C.A.: 1970 Topps Ron Stone

(Greetings on National Eight-Track Tape Day. Although I have a fondness for many things '70s, the eight-track tape is something I never played in person or even saw. I think of it as an "early '70s" fad as I went straight to smaller-sized cassette tapes. Anyway, it's time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 280th in a series. Have a nice day!):


Have you ever gone through your collection, stopped on a card and said to yourself (because saying it to the people in your house would be pointless), "that looks nothing like a (your choice of team here) card."

I've done it with this card. Repeatedly. So much so, in fact, that I don't think there is any card that looks less like a Phillies card, while saying "Phillies" on it, than this one.

Gold and green are completely foreign to the Phillies' color scheme (well, except in 1938). I don't know who Topps thought it was fooling here, although I'm sure they didn't think much about it.

Ron Stone did appear in a green-and-gold uniform at one point. It was likely in 1966, the last time he played for a green-and-gold team. He appeared in 26 games for the Kansas City A's in 1966, then didn't show up in the majors again until 1969, with the Phillies. He played in the Orioles minor league organization in 1967 and 1968 (they don't wear green-and-gold either).

For my money, and excluding all those "now-playing-for" O-Pee-Chee cards, this is one of the more obvious "wrong uniform" cards of the vintage era (there are way too many "wrong uniform cards" of the modern era, thank you very much Upper Deck relic cards).

It has to be a little jarring for a Phillies collector to display this proudly among all the other crimson-clad Phillies players.

Then again, I can feel their pain. This card is in my Dodger binders:

Comments

Old Cards said…
I submit for your consideration under this category the Topps 1960 Norm Cash, 1964 Willie Kirkland and 1964 Gus Triandos.
Oh man, I was still buying 8 tracks in the early 80's. (80/81)
Mark Hoyle said…
I still have 8 tracks with a working 8 track player
defgav said…
I think I've got a Beatles Magical Mystery Tour 8-track I bought at a thrift store in the 90s because it was the Beatles. When I was a kid, my grandparents had a few 8-tracks in the garage they let me mess with, including a blank one (like for recording from vinyl or the radio?) which I thought was cool because it had a clear part where you could see inside.
Nick Vossbrink said…
1970 Topps Bob Heise in that blue cap is the first one I think of as being out-of-place in my Giants binder. But there are others like the 1960 Joe Amalfitano where he's wearing pinstripes (from the minors) despite being a Giant.
Fuji said…
Seeing guys in old uniforms isn't that strange... but the fact that he hadn't been with the A's in four years is super weird.
What's super weird is that Stone played for the Phillies for all of 1969, and is still capless here even though Topps did a better job with their 1970 cards than with the '68 and '69 sets. Among Phillies, Woody Fryman, Deron Johnson and Mike Ryan are finally shown in Phillies' gear, after being capless for the previous 1 or 2 seasons. I wonder why Stone didn't get the same update?
Matt said…
A long time ago I was at a yard sale and someone was selling blank 8-track tapes! I never knew such a thing existed, and I bought them just because it was cheap and interesting. I may have sold them on Ebay, but I'm pretty sure I still have them in a box somewhere.
Robert said…
My appreciation for Johnny Cash came from my dad's 8-track collection. Listened to One Piece at a Time over and over until the 8 track tape wore out.

Also I don't have either of the cards you pictured for my 69 & 70 sets. Maybe those are something to hunt for at this weekend's show.
BaseSetCalling said…
Maybe it is a Time Travel error card of some sort. The "Athletics" started out in Philadelphia.
Stone is lucky George Steinbrenner didn't own the Phillies, otherwise his nickname would have been "Mr. March 1969".