Maybe the clubhouse guy accidentally put Mike's jersey in with the underwear and it got bleached.
Laga, after 5 unspectacular years with the Tigers (he appeared in 72 games in that time), was a throw-in guy when the Tigers traded Ken Hill to the Cardinals for Mike Heath in September 1986. I don't know when 1987 Topps went to the printer but apparently too soon for them to get a photo of Laga in a Cardinals uni.
So I have a couple of questions:
1. After doing a pretty good job turning his Tigers cap into a Cardinals hat, why did they throw in the towel on the jersey? I mean, here's what this card could have looked like.
2. Laga appeared in 18 games for the Cards in 1986, for a total of 90 games in 6 seasons. His lifetime batting average was hovering around .200. He did have a little pop in is bat, almost 20% of his 84 career hits were home runs, but clearly, he was a marginal player at best. Why did Topps decide to even include him in the 1987 set, especially since they had to doctor a photo?
One more fact about Mike Laga. According to Wikipedia, he is best known for once hitting a foul ball out of Busch Stadium (9/15/86).
3 comments:
Topps does some mysterious things.
And doesn't he look a lot like Paul Simon?
This is likely the most mystifying airbrushed card of all-time. So many questions.
I was 8 years old when this card came out and I truly knew then, at that age, that something was terribly wrong with the card. Just brutal.
Post a Comment