1977 john lowenstein

today, let it be lowenstein.

this one hits all the bases as far as basic o-pee-chee variations go: team variation, text variation, photo variation, autograph placement variation.  the only thing missing is the position variation, but john lowenstein was primarily an outfielder, so there was no reason for o-pee-chee to make that change.  they changed pretty much everything else, however, as they caught lowenstein in blue jays' attire during spring training in 1977.  he had been traded by the indians to the blue jays with rick cerone for rico carty in december of 1976, but the jays dealt him back to the tribe towards the end of spring training.  luckily for us, o-pee-chee didn't slap his topps photo back on the card, but instead chose to use their photo with some good ol' traded text.  of course, they also unstacked his facsimile autograph and put it somewhere that made it legible.  here is lowenstein's 1977 o-pee-chee card: 

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

lowenstein hit .242 in 81 games for the indians in 1977, and was traded again prior to the next season.  this time, he went to texas where he played just one year before heading to baltimore.  there, he helped the orioles reach the world series in 1979 and again in 1983 when they won it all.

this is the last of the blue jays to be featured here on the blog from the 1977 o-pee-chee set, by the way.  we are really getting close to the end of the o-pee-chee variations.

voici à vous, 1977 john lowenstein!