Baseball Card Errors

[0077]

Each year when Baseball Cards are printed there are glaring errors made... some deliberately and some by accident. Can you recall a Baseball Card that fits this category?

[Mulliganfan]

Good topic, 0077!
I remember the 60's baseball card of Aurelio Rodriguez of the California Angels, who was so unknown at the time that they took a picture of the batboy and printed the card as his.
A classic from the '80's showed Billy Ripken with the words F**K FACE on the bat knob, where the # usually goes.
Lew Burdette of the Braves posed as a lefty in a '50's Topps card.

[Markus58]

I use this example at my job as a visual aid to show what happens when Quality Control is allowed to slacken:

The Cubs had a promising young 22 year old infielder in 1962 and 1963 named Ken Hubbs. Hubbs was the 1962 NL Rookie of the Year, great glove and good hitter. Hubbs also held a private pilot's license, and tragically was killed in Utah while flying his plane in cold weather just before spring training in 1964.

Two years later in 1966, Topps issued the card of Cubs pitcher Dick Ellsworth, but used the image from Hubb's card in 1963. It was never corrected, and to this day remains a collectable error card.

[The Commissioner]

I remember as a kid turning over my 1981 Donruss card of Leon Durham only to discover that it listed him as having collected something like 926 career homeruns. I don't recall if that's the correct number, but I do remember it had him surpassing Aaron.

[Captain Cold Nose]

1979 Topps--Bump Wills as both a Blue Jay and Ranger.

1974 Topps-Just about all the Padres, save one Dave Winfield, also had cards saying they played for Washington National League.

[Markus58]

Then there's that treasured 1972 Billy Martin card when he was managing the Tigers. Apparently the photographer was REALLY getting on Billy's nerves that day, as his face gives away that he is a torrent of controlled rage. But the giveaway is the upsidedown bird that Billy is flipping on the handle of the bat!

[Steffo]

A 2001 Andruw Jones card I have says he has a total of over 1000 stolen bases.

[Captain Cold Nose]

I don't know if it was so much a prank as it was a teammate displaying what he thought of Ripken, the manager's son. As the team star, Cal Jr. could be expected to get preferrential treatment, but I have heard a few stories of resentment toward the second sacker.

I always liked the two big errors that happened in 1982. Pascual Perez with no position on the card, and John Littlefield with his photo reversed. I don't think I've seen eother one of those errors.

And both Fleer's and Donruss's first issues (1981, or a comeback in Fleer's case) were so loaded with errors the error cards didn't hold much value over the corrected versions.

[0077]

Tommy John, 1969 when he was with the CWS, Topps Card#465 shows him completing his follow-through on a pitch. The only problem was you could clearly see the Baseball still lodged in the glove on his right-hand.


As mentioned earlier, Lew Burdette posed as a lefty, without a baseball in the pitching move. Also his name on the Topps Card #440 in 1959 was printed "Lou"

[statman]

the all time classic is al lieter when he played for the yankees the picture wasn't leiter but the batboy!

[Retire21]

The "True Story" behind the Ripken error is this:
In a spring training game, Ripken was given the bat with the dirty word on it by Mike Greenwell as a joke (The O's were playing the BoSox). It was never intended for anyone other that the players on the field to actually see the bat.

As for an error, how about the 1989 Score card that proclaimed Wade Boggs had a career .364 batting avg? If that were true, he would have retired then second all time.

And who can forget the 1990 Topps card of Frank Thomas where the company forgot something unimportant like Thomas' name!

[brihev]

I have two baaseball cards that fit:
a mid 60's card of Twins pitcher Jim Katt (front) but Topps spelled it Kaat on the back.
a 1977 Rod Carew card with Willie Stargell stats on the back.
it wasn't cut perfectly but still a cool card. 2 HoF'ers!!

[Hammerin Hank]

Here's where you can see the infamous Billy Ripken card:

http://snopes.com/sports/baseball/ripken.htm

[LetsGoBucs]

I own a Roberto Clemente card that reads his birthplace as New York City, NY

[dave bird]

My son has a 1997 Carlos Delgado Pinnacle #119. On the back it has a photo of Carlos but on the front it is someone else. I have tried to find info on this but with no luck. Can anybody help?

[uthminsta]

Originally posted by dave bird
My son has a 1997 Carlos Delgado Pinnacle #119. On the back it has a photo of Carlos but on the front it is someone else. I have tried to find info on this but with no luck. Can anybody help?

1997 Pinnacle card #119 is Troy Percival... so I'm assuming you mean the 1997 New Pinnacle set, which lists Carlos Delgado as card #119.

The Beckett Almanac of Baseball Cards and Collectibles (the BIG book) lists 1997 New Pinnacle Carlos Delgado card #119, but has no mention of the card portraying the wrong player. I've personally never seen the card, but I consider this book to be the most reliable source of information available. It's possible that in a future edition of the Almanac, they will include the information you seek; I have the 7th edition, which I believe to be the latest (c 2002)...

[metsfan001]

I have a couple of cards like those.

The 2001 UDMVP spells Kenny Rogers' name "Rodgers."

The other one I have is a Topps Stars (1999?) of Mike Lansing without his name on the front.

[Biggtone23]

I have a card from i belive it was the 1992 or 93 fleer ultra set that has a picture of Bernie Williams on it and has his name on the front but says Gerald Williams on the back.

The 1991 score set has Red Sox reliver Greg Harris pitching Lefty when hes a righty and Cubs outfielder Doug Dacenzeo pitching.

The 1991 Bowman set has both Ken Griffey Sr and Jr with the same card number

[dkpiatt]

My favorite is the 1990 Upper Deck Bill Buckner card. The First time I saw it the card I noticed right away, as I think any Young Red Sox fan would (still being distraught over 1986), something very funny about the image. There is Buckner on the field with his hands on his knees waiting for the next pitch. His legs are slightly bowlegged and in between them is the tarp rolled up and the opening of the tube is placed so perfectly at this bowlegged opening that it had to be done on purpose. I always laugh at this picture.

And then I cry about '86.

[uthminsta]

I think the Buckner card HAD to be done on purpose. In my opinion, Upper Deck has always had top-notch photography on their cards. They had plenty of other shots of Buckner to choose from...

And I think that's one of the funniest cards I've ever seen.

Wish I had a scanner. I have a 1972 card depicting an angel (forget right now who it was) and the guy's standing right in front of a huge halo from the stadium, which appears to be hovering right over his head.

[4-Man_Rotation]

The 1991 score set has Red Sox reliver Greg Harris pitching Lefty when hes a righty and Cubs outfielder Doug Dacenzeo pitching.

Dascenzo pitched in one game for the Cubs in '90 and one in '91. It was some crazy move where the Mets were up by like sixteen runs and they put then-Cubs reliever Les Lancaster in left so Dascenzo could face one or two hitters and then they could bring Lancaster back in.

Something like that ... I was like 12 ...

I do remember he pitched though.

Gracie threw one inning for the D'backs last year.

John Olerud's 1990 Score RC has him listed as a pitcher and 1B ... kinda glad he stuck with a position that offers more ABs, 'ey?

[metsfan001]

Originally posted by 4-Man_Rotation
John Olerud's 1990 Score RC has him listed as a pitcher and 1B ... kinda glad he stuck with a position that offers more ABs, 'ey?

The Score card actually has him as OF-P. Ironically, he ended up at neither.

[0077]

The info was probably because of what he did at Washington State.

Olerud showed promise early on at Washington State, where he was named Baseball America's NCAA Player of the Year in 1987 and '88. His senior year, he recovered from a frightening brain aneurysm in January to hit .359 with 30 RBIs in 27 games that spring. The scare would always be with him though, and he began wearing a batting helmet on the field for safety.

Olerud was so promising in college (he set single-season Washington records with a .462 average and 23 homers, and even sported a 15-0 record as a pitcher) that once he was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays in 1989, he became the 16th player since the amateur draft's inception to skip the minors entirely and go straight to the big leagues. After notching three hits in eight at-bats in the end of that season, the first baseman showed promise with his sweet swing in his rookie year of '90, when he batted a respectable first-year .265.

[Utter Chaos]

I am an avid baseball card collector and could mention many more errors but I'll just list some of my favorites.

On the back of the 1964 Rookie card of Dave Bennent it says "the 19 year old curve baller is just 18 years old"

The 1969 card of Larry Haney used the same photograph as his 1968 card. The only problem is the negative was reveresed so in 1968 he's catching right handed and in 1969 he's catching left handed.

The 1957 card of Hank Aaron shows him batting left handed because of another reveresed negative photo.

The 1966 (and 1967) cards of Claude Raymond show where he forgot to zip himself up before the photographer arrived. (see photo)

[Atlanta Braves Freak]

Sorry to bring this year old post back to life, but I couldn't resist telling you guys about this mishap on a card. As I was looking through my extinsive card collection I saw a Cory Aldridge card, for those of you who don't know who he is he's a Braves minor league outifielder, and so I looked at the card and read his stats and how he was injured in 2002. Then I looked at the front of the card and studied it and I didn't remember him being called up in '02 when the Braves wore the 70's throwbacks and I never remember Cory Aldridge being white, so I figured out that Topps made an error in putting Darren Bragg on the front instead of Cory Aldridge. If anyone could find a picture of this card I would be happy, it is Topps Total 2002 Card number 68.