Looking through my 2008 Topps cards, I came across this fellow:
Luis Mendoza is a rookie pitcher who might have a shot to crack the Rangers rotation. Ok, that's cool, it's nice to see a MLB Rookie card that is actually a real live rookie card (oops,
maybe not) and might have some sort of impact in the league this year. The picture struck me though. I've seen a lot of cards from Topps with the lame Olan Mills backdrop or stood up against the firing squad wall, but this was the most nondescript photo yet. I've seen more interesting passport photos. Then I saw this card from that
other set...
What the? ... Same lousy photo! Yet something sees amiss. What could it be?
Not only did Topps use the same stock photo of Luis, but they actually photoshopped the Rangers uni on him! They didn't bother to photoshop the Braves new AAA centerfielder Josh Anderson out of his Astros jersey, but they did the paint job on this guy. On top of that, according to his Transactions section on
Baseball-Reference.com he was traded from the Red Sox to the Rangers in July
2006. Does this mean both major card manufacturers are incapable of finding a picture of this guy that isn't almost 2 years old? What the hell happened to the vaunted Topps picture vault? Apparently their photo staff now consists of some guy from
Levittown armed with a cameraphone who tries to go to a
few games each year and they scrounge through the leftovers at Glamour Shots for the rest. Maybe that's being unfair to Topps. It could be that Luis is just very
hard to find.
Luis Mendoza is a rookie pitcher who might have a shot to crack the Rangers rotation. Ok, that's cool, it's nice to see a MLB Rookie card that is actually a real live rookie card (oops, maybe not) and might have some sort of impact in the league this year. The picture struck me though. I've seen a lot of cards from Topps with the lame Olan Mills backdrop or stood up against the firing squad wall, but this was the most nondescript photo yet. I've seen more interesting passport photos. Then I saw this card from that other set...
What the? ... Same lousy photo! Yet something sees amiss. What could it be?
Not only did Topps use the same stock photo of Luis, but they actually photoshopped the Rangers uni on him! They didn't bother to photoshop the Braves new AAA centerfielder Josh Anderson out of his Astros jersey, but they did the paint job on this guy. On top of that, according to his Transactions section on Baseball-Reference.com he was traded from the Red Sox to the Rangers in July 2006. Does this mean both major card manufacturers are incapable of finding a picture of this guy that isn't almost 2 years old? What the hell happened to the vaunted Topps picture vault? Apparently their photo staff now consists of some guy from Levittown armed with a cameraphone who tries to go to a few games each year and they scrounge through the leftovers at Glamour Shots for the rest. Maybe that's being unfair to Topps. It could be that Luis is just very hard to find.
5 comments:
Luis was my first 08 Topps card this year. I noticed that his picture looked nothing like the picture the Rangers have on their website for him.
Did Topps photoshop the milk carton also?
odd... when I first saw this card I thought it was another Topps "joke" card. I just figured that they had inserted the Rangers I.T. guy into a uni....
According to baseball-reference.com, this guy only appeared in 6 games with the Rangers. Totaling 16 innings.No wonder there aren't any pictures of him.
Laugh out loud funny!
Great post.
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