(July is my favorite month of the year for the following reasons: 1. July is the easiest month at work; 2. My birthday is in July; 3. Those two factors lead to VACATIONS! So I definitely appreciate July. And baseball cards. It's Cardboard Appreciation time. This is the 38th in a series):
Listen, nobody's perfect. And that includes card companies. It especially includes card companies who have been out of the game for awhile and are trying to compete with industry behemoth Topps.
You've got to hand it to Fleer in 1982. They let all of their flaws hang out that year in what can only be described as the worst sophomore slump in history. And somehow, despite all of the errors, the criticism and the derision, they found the strength to proceed and keep producing sets all the way until Upper Deck swallowed them up.
I've already mentioned how much I enjoy the ineptness of the '82 set. But this might be my favorite card of the entire disaster. The McRae card has been written about before, and with good reason. Because how on earth do you let this card reach the collecting public?
Do you think they were looking at photo proofs, or negatives, or whatever they looked at in 1982, and came to the McRae photos and said, "Let's go with the off-center one. No, not that off-center one. The really off-center one. Yeah, that's perfect."
I mean look at McRae's expression in the photo. He looks as if he's saying to the guy off to his right, "Man, this joker ain't even got me in the frame."
The only explanations that I can think of for letting this photo make the set is it was the only photo they could find of McRae (which is highly unlikely given how many photos were taken of the Royals back in the early 1980s). Or that someone off-camera on the left side was doing something objectionable, and it was the only photo they could find of McRae.
Nowadays, if a card like this made the set, we'd howl about it. Look how many times the Michael Young O-Pee-Chee card has been shown so far already. Yet, somehow a card from 1982 seems amusing and quaint.
I'm glad this photo of McRae ended up making the set. And maybe 25 years from now, we'll be glad the Michael Young OPC card made the set. Like my family always says after someone endures an embarrassing or awkward experience: at least you have an amusing story to tell for years to come.
You've got to appreciate that.
Listen, nobody's perfect. And that includes card companies. It especially includes card companies who have been out of the game for awhile and are trying to compete with industry behemoth Topps.You've got to hand it to Fleer in 1982. They let all of their flaws hang out that year in what can only be described as the worst sophomore slump in history. And somehow, despite all of the errors, the criticism and the derision, they found the strength to proceed and keep producing sets all the way until Upper Deck swallowed them up.
I've already mentioned how much I enjoy the ineptness of the '82 set. But this might be my favorite card of the entire disaster. The McRae card has been written about before, and with good reason. Because how on earth do you let this card reach the collecting public?
Do you think they were looking at photo proofs, or negatives, or whatever they looked at in 1982, and came to the McRae photos and said, "Let's go with the off-center one. No, not that off-center one. The really off-center one. Yeah, that's perfect."
I mean look at McRae's expression in the photo. He looks as if he's saying to the guy off to his right, "Man, this joker ain't even got me in the frame."
The only explanations that I can think of for letting this photo make the set is it was the only photo they could find of McRae (which is highly unlikely given how many photos were taken of the Royals back in the early 1980s). Or that someone off-camera on the left side was doing something objectionable, and it was the only photo they could find of McRae.
Nowadays, if a card like this made the set, we'd howl about it. Look how many times the Michael Young O-Pee-Chee card has been shown so far already. Yet, somehow a card from 1982 seems amusing and quaint.
I'm glad this photo of McRae ended up making the set. And maybe 25 years from now, we'll be glad the Michael Young OPC card made the set. Like my family always says after someone endures an embarrassing or awkward experience: at least you have an amusing story to tell for years to come.
You've got to appreciate that.
Comments
that mcrae is pretty great. either he has too much hair for his helmet to fit, or he likes to wear it that way.