1977 manny sanguillen

after the 1976 season, pirates' catcher manny sanguillen was traded to the a's for manager chuck tanner and cash.  the trade happened in plenty of time for topps to make sanguillen an athletic in the 1977 set, but o-pee-chee apparently figured that they could out-airbrush topps when it came to getting manny sanguillen into oakland a's gear.  they used a different photo and stacked his facsimile autograph, but kept the unadorned crew neck.  go figure.  here is manny sanguillen's 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

sanguillen appeared in a career high 152 games in 1977, thanks in large part to being able to dh when not behind the plate.  he also spent some time at first base for the first time in his career, as well as right field.  at the plate, sanguillen hit .275 with 6 homers and 58 rbi.

sanguillen was traded back to the pirates at the start of the 1978 season, and he later became one of the few pirates to be a part of both the 1971 and the 1979 world championship team.

voici à vous, 1977 manny sanguillen!