1977 jose cardenal

jose cardenal's facsimile autograph got adjusted slightly by o-pee-chee in 1977, but thank goodness they left his afro alone.  here is his 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

the difference is kind of hard to see, but if you look closely at the end of his last name, you'll see that the last 'a' in his name is in a different spot.

now the o-pee-chee back:

thanks to all the french and the length of cal mclish's full name, part of the cartoon is cut off.  that in itself is not unusual, but in this case, it almost loses the intent.  you can "call me cai?"

and the topps back:

cardenal's playing time was reduced in 1977, as he appeared in only 100 games for the cubs while batting just .239.  he lost most of his playing time that year to greg gross, but it was dave kingman who replaced cardenal in the cubs' outfield in 1978, as jose was traded to the phillies after the 1977 season.

cardenal spent 1978 and most of 1979 with the phillies, but finished the '79 season with the mets before playing in kansas city in 1980, his final big league season.  cardenal's last at bat as a major leaguer came in the 9th inning of game 6 of the 1980 world series.  he singled off of tug mcgraw to load the bases with one out and the royals down by 3, but was stranded when frank white's foul pop up was famously caught by pete rose (with an assist to bob boone) and willie wilson struck out.

voici à vous, 1977 jose cardenal!