to celebrate his selection by the blue jays from the indians in the expansion draft, o-pee-chee liberated rick cerone from his 4-in-1 rookie card prison, and gave him his very own card in their 1977 set. here is his 1977 o-pee-chee card:
here's the topps front:
now the o-pee-chee back:
and the topps back:
looks like o-pee-chee also smoothed out his 'fro as part of the airbrushing effort. as for the o-pee-chee back, they sure came up with some lame cartoons for the cards topps didn't produce. i don't think they took cartoons from topps cards that were not included in the o-pee-chee set, but i could be wrong.
anyway, cerone was the first ever starting catcher for the blue jays, going 2 for 4 with a double in their inagural game on april 7, 1977. he didn't play much more until august (not sure if he was hurt or just sent to the minors). he stayed with toronto until after the 1979 season (his first as the first string catcher) when he was traded to the yankees in the deal that sent
chris chambliss (for a very short stay) to toronto.
voici à vous, 1977 rick cerone!
I loved the nickname APBA put on his game card -- "Sponge Head"
ReplyDeleteyou can airbrush the uni.
ReplyDeleteyou can airbrush the cap.
but leave the poor man's fro alone!
I'd literally trade you my family dog for a '77 OPC Dawson done like this.
ReplyDeleteyes, a dawson card is probably the biggest and most befuddling omission from the 77 opc set.
ReplyDelete