Appreciation: 1984 OPC #149 Dave Beard

While Topps was busy screwing up team names, airbrushing the hell out of caps and uniforms and generally messing around, its Canadian counterpart was all about practicality. When a player was traded right before the cards went to press and the company didn’t have enough time to get in a new photo, it printed a card with a quick little explanation on the front, like Beard’s card here, along the lines of “Now with Mariners”. Simple, to the point. No embarrassing airbrush involved.

And really, this format should’ve been used for every guy who had a change during the year, like with Johnny Damon when he signed with New York: “Now without beard” or a photo of Paul lo Duca on the field at Shea with a little blurb that says “Now with Strippers”. This could’ve been a lot of fun, and hopefully we can convince Topps to roll it out as a bonus in the 2007 set (along with the return of merit-based numbering).