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]

errors on cards

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]

wrong face on card

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?