Friday, December 17, 2010

Background Noise - 1988 Topps Billy Hatcher

This is the first in a new series dedicated to the everything people do not focus on when looking at a baseball card.  Therefore, this new series is aptly named Background Noise.

Well, it has been a long time since I last posted.  Many of you may have thought me a quitter, when in actuality I have been trying to not lose my job.  Government and budget woes have kept me quiet as I didn't think it prudent to blog during work hours, nor do I have the time to blog at home because I'm too busy playing husband and daddy.

Alas, I have a few spare moments and thought I would unveil a new series.  Three weeks ago I was finally able to get to my collection stashed in the closet.  My wife said goodbye to her side business/hobby of stamping and crafting, so I was able to claim the shelves and the accessible portion of our shared hobby closet.  Being able to access my collection, I have been furiously reorganizing my cards and consolidating three or four collections into one. 

During my consolidation process, I have been paying attention to the background of each card.  My first foray was working on 89 Topps.  Yeah, woo hoo.  I never realized how bad that set is until I focused on each card.  Not much background noise in there, but I will get to those later.

Today's subject is Billy Hatcher.  I knew that this one had to be my first post  in this series after reading Night Owl's Boogie Monster post.  Take a close look at the background of Hatcher's card. 


AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Three faceless Expos.  What's even more disturbing is that Topps found it necessary to blur out the leftmost Expo's hand.  The first thing that crossed my mind was of course Thing.

 
Also, EVERY Hatcher card I have from 1988 has the disembodied blur above Thing. Even all  the cards I've seen online (yes, I'm the only one searching for this card online) have this weird ghost blur.  

And why would Topps want to blur out Expos?  Plenty of players are shown in the backgrounds of other cards.  The only reason I could think of is that since this is obviously a spring training game, perhaps those were visually recognizable players that did not make the Show, or did not have a contract with Topps.  Just like Tootsie Pops, the world may never know.

So, I hope this doesn't give any particular blogger another nightmare about brain-eating Canadian zombie monsters.  At least these "Canadian" brethren are probably nicer than those Phillie-fan zombies.  Don't-cha know, eh? 

PS - Does anyone need any 88 Topps?  I may post a want list for 88 Topps (ugh, why you ask?) because apparently I only need about 50 cards to complete four more sets.

4 comments:

Johngy said...

Love this new series. If it's not too much of a pain, shoot me your 88 want list when it's done (or shoot me an email to make sure I see it posted). I am sure I can help with it. Not looking for anything in return.

Anonymous said...

I have a bunch of 88 Topps extras, and only need 2 or 3 (not sure which...I'll have to pull the binder out and go through it again next week).

I think I only need #'s 279 and 778 (error version).

Send me your list and I'll shoot you whatever I have before I send them off to some other unsuspecting victim.

BrerSkwerl said...

Maybe the Expo players asked to have their faces blurred out, given how they often seemed to be cellar dwellers (although they did end up 81-81 in '88...). If they were Nats, I could guarantee they'd want their faces blurred...

OfficialBaseballcards said...

Woohoo go Astros! :P

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