1977 sal bando

sal bando joined the brewers as a free agent after the 1976 season. here is his 1977 o-pee-chee card.

it's not too different from the topps version:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

for whatever reason, o-pee-chee reversed the negative. or, at least, reversed the image used on topps' card. maybe they corrected it, who knows. thanks to the reversible 'm' on the hat, we may never know. if only the 'mb/glove' logo had been used! they also moved the autograph around to correspond to the movement of his shoulder.

bando was coming off a solid season in oakland (13th in the al mvp voting in 1976) when he joined the brew crew. he put up a couple of decent years there before things started to decline. he even pitched in a game for the brewers in 1979, going 3 innings and allowing 2 earned runs on 3 hits. still, by 1980 he was a part time player and appeared in only 78 games. in 1981, he played in just 34 games but did make the postseason roster as the brewers lost in the alds to the yankees in their first postseason appearance. that was his final appearance in the majors, as he retired after the season.

voici à vous, 1977 sal bando!