1977 george foster

leave the sideburns and the glare, but take the all-star banner and move the facsimile autograph were the orders given regarding george foster's 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

i am guessing that lindblad's streak mentioned in the cartoon was not an active streak, but rather an all-time longest streak.  he made an error in 1966 but didn't have another miscue until 1974 - a streak of at least 368 games.  he also had 3 errors in 1974, and committed the final error of his career in 1976.

this post, however, is supposed to be about george foster, who earned that all-star banner as the 1976 all-star game mvp and had it stripped off of his o-pee-chee card for some unknown and most likely arbitrary reason.  foster followed up his 1976 campaign with another all-star appearance in 1977 as the national league's starting center fielder.  and, while he didn't homer in the game or win the game's mvp award (hello, don sutton), foster did hit 52 home runs during the regular season and took home the league mvp award for his efforts.

voici à vous, 1977 george foster!