1977 claudell washington

claudell washington was traded from the a's to the rangers in march of 1977.  here's his 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

by using a more closely cropped image, o-pee-chee prevents the extreme vertigo of the topps card, which seemed to affect washington's signature.  the trade that created the need for the text portion of this variation was the beginning of a vagabond career for washington.  he played for 7 different teams over the course of his career (8 if you count each of his two stints with the yankees separately) and didn't really have any stability except for his 5+ seasons in atlanta.

his 182 hits in 1975, an oakland record as the back of the cards tells us, was also washington's career high.  he started his time in texas with an 8-game hitting streak and wound up with a .284 average as the rangers' everyday rightfielder.  by mid-may of 1978, however, he was sent to the white sox for bobby bonds.

voici à vous, 1977 claudell washington!