Friday, March 02, 2007

Friday Fun Stuff--What is wrong with this picture?

This is going to be fun. Let's start with a question of what is wrong with this picture?

New Topps baseball card. From Yahoo News.

Give up?

Here's the Yahoo News caption:

In this undated digitally altered image provided by the Topps baseball card company President Bush smiles and waves from the stands, right, and Mickey Mantle looks on from the dugout at left, as Derek Jeter swings his bat. A spokesperson for the Topps company said that somewhere between the final proofing of the card and its printing - when it was too late to stop it - someone within the company played a joke and inserted Bush and Mantle into the photograph. (AP Photo/Topps)

So not only has President Bush been digitally placed into the seating, but Mickey Mantle is looking out from the dugout. The card was printed--it is in the Topp baseball card sets and packages. It is an error card, on the manufacturer's part--yes, even if it is considered a joke by one of the Topps employees. This card will be worth some money, depending on how many cards have been printed and packaged into the Topp sets.

MSNBC News has more of the background story here:

NEW YORK - Derek Jeter drew quite a crowd for this at-bat — President Bush waving in the stands, Mickey Mantle studying from the dugout.

Made for a perfect picture on Jeter’s new baseball card. Of course, the game never happened.

Instead, this Topps triple play was just someone’s idea of a visual gag. It was a card trick — somebody at the company produced it through digital manipulation.

“We saw it in the final proof and we could have axed it,” Topps spokesman Clay Luraschi told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “But we decided to let it run, we wanted to print it. We thought it was hilarious.”

The card will be changed when Topps issues a complete set at midseason, Luraschi said.

Jeter said he had not seen the card, which shows him swinging at Yankee Stadium.

“I don’t know anything about it,” the All-Star shortstop said after New York’s workout Tuesday in Tampa, Fla. “I can’t tell you anything.”

Luraschi did not identify the person at Topps who made the alteration on Jeter’s card, No. 40 in the set. Luraschi said that fixing it before it was released would have caused shipping delays.

It’s not the first card to have silly errors or odd prints, said T.S. O’Connell, the editor of Sports Collector’s Digest.

“For collectors, there’s a real giggle factor for something like this,” he told the Daily News.

The Daily News put the picture on its front page Tuesday and Newsday also reported the story.

The Jeter card could join other famed oddball cards, like the 1969 Topps of Aurelio Rodriguez. That one featured a photo of a bat boy instead of the infielder.

Another collector said the joke would raise the price of the card, which currently goes for $2 on eBay.

Topps will issue 660 cards in this set, and Luraschi said they were all getting a close look. So are any other strangers showing up?

“Not that I know of,” he said.

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