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Bench
There's no evidence Topps photographed the Reds in Spring Training, 1967 - the last year they wore the baker's caps before switching to the solid red - otherwise they would've had an image of Gary Nolan for use on a 1967 rookie card. Thus, 1966.
Bench is shown on the '68 card in essentially the same pose, cap backwards. His 1969 card is from the same shoot - a catching pose. The image above is his 1969 All-Star card (might explain the apparent adhesive stain in the image, upper left). It was reused in a throwback set about a decade ago.
This also provides an opportunity to explain why so few "star" players turn up in the Topps Vault files or auctions. They were kept in a separate set of filing cabinets for easy access, which had the added consequence of making them much easier to pilfer. By the time I first saw the archive room in 2001 some files like Mantle's were virtually empty and I don't think the Seaver folder had anything older than 1977 (which is especially bad because as a brash rookie in his first shoot for his first baseball card, hd posed left-handed). The few star transparencies that have been sold off (like the 1957 Koufax grouping) were in fact found inadvertently by me as they let me rummage through the unfiled stuff.
Anyway, the majority of remaining images were filed elsewhere. This Bench was probably found among the production materials for the 1969 4th Series.
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