New paint job

 

I don't have a lot of time today. I've been squeezing in the last few day trips before vacation ends. Also, we added a new roommate yesterday.

 

That's Francesca, a.k.a. Fran, a.k.a., she'd be adorable if she'd sit still for a second.

So after swearing off pets a couple years ago, there's another one to rule the roost. These things are never my idea but I do like my pets.

Anyway, here's a quick thing I noticed a week or so ago that may not interest anyone but I thought it was interesting.

When I completed the 1977 Hostess set, I noticed something about the back of the set. (This is why you sort your cards by number):

These are the final pages of the 1977 Hostess set, cards 118-150 (sorry about the reflections, I was rushing). 

If you review all the cards after the Ray Fosse card, card No. 122, you will note that they all feature airbrushed hats and uniform tops. The final 28 cards in the set are airbrushed.

I'm not sure what this means, but I think Topps or Hostess (Topps supplied the photos for Hostess) waited until the 1976 transactions were made and then let the painter go to work. As I've mentioned prior, the 1976 offseason was chaos with the first major free agent class and expansion taking effect with the Blue Jays and Mariners. They probably had all they could handle, and saved the guys who changed teams for last.

It makes for an interesting presentation in the binder because virtually the whole rest of the set shows players in actual uniforms with no embellishments.

There is just one other airbrushed card in the set. You saw it at the top of the post.

Reggie Jackson shows up early in the Hostess set yet got the airbrush treatment. You can see that is hanging out with the Oakland A's -- his team in 1975. Someone on Twitter speculated that the player behind Jackson is Bill North, who wore No. 4. But a closer inspection shows a white person and that there is a second number on the jersey.

I think it might be a coach but which one I don't know. In 1975, the A's coaches were Dal Maxvill (No. 41), Wes Stock (No. 42), Bobby Winkles (No. 43) and Bobby Hofman (No. 44). I thought at first it might be Hofman (wouldn't it be great if the number behind Jackson was his future number?) but the name doesn't look like Hofman. It doesn't look like any of the coaches names.

So I don't know who that is, and that is a tangent anyway.

The point of the post is Jackson is card No. 3 in the set, nowhere near the back with all the other airbrushed players. He is actually on the very first page, if you order it by number.

 

Again, speculation on my part, but I think Hostess wanted the first 10 cards to feature the most star power possible at that time. Jackson was in place at No. 3 (maybe as an airbrushed Oriole?) but then I bet someone had to scramble to get Jackson in an airbrushed Yankee helmet with the checklist already in place.

 

Anyway, that was a kind of a nifty thing to discover when I was paging the set. (P.S.: Yes the cards are double-bagged. Hostess, of all sets, should be double-bagged).