[brobby05]

Originally Posted by Merkle923

Some of this is speculative, some of this is from my own recollections from the time as part of the then-tiny baseball memorabilia hobby, and some of this is from talking to Topps people then and later.

Firstly, it's important to remember that the dates put on the Topps negatives by the folks at Topps Vault are not necessarily correct. At the moment on eBay they have a shot of Dave Roberts, an outfielder with the '62-'64 Colt 45s. It's marked "1962" even though the background would be obvious to seemingly anybody as Shea Stadium, which replaced the Polo Grounds as home of the Mets in 1964. And yet it's being sold as "1962."

So one simple explanation for not using what seems to be a superior image on a given year's card is - the photo hadn't been taken yet. Although those Crosbys are probably from 1972, they could just as easily have been taken in 1973. 1973 would've been the first year Topps prepared all its cards for simultaneous distribution (it was an experiment limited to Florida and other selected regions, then became the nationwide method starting in 1974 and lasting until 1993). There are no 1973 images on 1973 Topps cards - the first year that was true.

Secondly, Topps apparently felt a lot of pressure to use more game action and "candid" shots in the early '70s. Other than special cards and background images, no photos actually taken in a game or even taken before a game without the player posing for it, were used until the 1971 series. The photography (especially the game action - see below) was so uneven as to be laugh-out-loud funny. In '72 Topps pulled back on the game action and gave those images a separate subset of cards ("In Action").

So in 1973, that candid Ed Crosby shot, taken through the side of the Cardinals' spring training batting cage the year before, was cutting edge. Also it's possible that's all they had of him and those nice posed Crosbys weren't taken until 1973.

Here's the state of non-posed Topps photography as of 1971. It's Bud Harrelson's card, but I remember even as a kid we thought it was bizarre that we had to pick him out of a crowd of two infielders, the baserunner, the ump, and Nolan Ryan in the foreground.

I would agree that the posed ones are 1973. They got a new polyester uniform before the 1973 season that would then have a V-neck jersey versus the crew necks that were from 1971-72. Also the outseam stripes were changed in order. The 1971-72 had the red ones in front and the 1973+ had the dark blue ones in front. In Spring Training, I was told, they could mix and match and wear previous years' ones. I got my info from Bill Henderson's Game Worn Jersey Guide, Version 6.


Thanks,


BRobby05