in december of 1976, jeff burroughs, the number 1 pick in the 1969 draft and 1974 al mvp, was traded from the rangers to the braves for 5 players and cash. here's his 1977 o-pee-chee card, a seemingly straight forward team variation that, when more closely inspected, turns out to be more than that:
here's the topps front:
now the o-pee-chee back:
and the topps back:
it's almost as though topps knew he was not going to return to texas as they used a hatless, closely cropped photo. still, o-pee-chee didn't just stop with a team variation. no, they also modified the photo by darkening it, airbrushing out the striping around his neck, and changing the shadowing on burroughs' shoulder. then, just for good measure, they moved his autograph around. in a rare move, they put it in a darker spot than it had been on the topps version of the card.
anyway, burroughs enjoyed his first season in the national league. he scored 91 runs, hit 41 home runs, had 114 rbi and even stole 4 bases. still, the braves stunk and lost 101 games that year. burroughs spent the next 3 seasons in atlanta before he was traded to the mariners during spring training in 1981.
voici à vous, 1977 jeff burroughs!
