1977 larry bowa

larry bowa got an autograph placement variation from o-pee-chee in 1977.  here's his 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

you will also notice a slightly different crop to the photo on the o-pee-chee card.  i think i should have created a "cropping variation" label at the start of this thing.  oh well, photo variation can be a catch-all.  you'll notice as well that bowa appears to be holding gene richards' rake.  seriously, how big were these bats that these little punch and judy hitters were using back in the 70's?

when i see larry bowa's 1977 card(s), i think of 'black friday'. no, not the day after thanksgiving, but rather game 3 of the 1977 nlcs between the phillies and the dodgers.  with the series tied one game apiece and the phillies leading by two runs in game 3, the dodgers rallied for 3 runs in the top of the 9th inning after having two outs and an 0-2 count on vic davalillo.  davalillo reached on a bunt single; manny mota reached (and davalillo scored) when greg luzinski couldn't quite track down his liner to left, and then mota scored when davey lopes' shot to third bounced off of mike schmidt and was grabbed by bowa who appeared to throw to first in time to get lopes, who instead was called safe.  lopes then scored on a bill russell single after going to second on an errant pick off attempt.  to bring it all full circle, in 2010 lopes replaced bowa as the dodgers' first base coach.

voici à vous, 1977 larry bowa!