AIR Hall of Challengers

A look back at the field of 32 in this, the AIR Hall of Challengers.

Airbrush Invitational Rodeo Results

EAST Bracket

Round 1
1. 1986 Dick Williams OVER 16. 1978 Terry Forster, 22-20
2. 1978 Dave Kingman OVER 15. 1975 Bill Hands, 444-327
14. 1975 Chris Cannizzaro OVER 3. 1978 Mike Paxton, 21-17
4. 1975 Rudy May OVER 13. 1978 Mike Phillips, 62-4
5. 1976 Tom House OVER 12. 1975 Bobby Murcer, 26-2
11. 1977 Dick Pole OVER 6. 1975 Elias Sosa, 23-5
7. 1975 Billy Grabarkewitz OVER 10. 1986 Tim Lollar, 39-27
8. 1978 Jose Cardenal OVER 9. 1978 Darold Knowles, 15-11

Round 2
11. 1977 Dick Pole OVER 14. 1975 Chris Cannizzaro, 22-18
4. 1975 Rudy May OVER 5. 1976 Tom House, 37-22
1. 1986 Dick Williams OVER 8. 1978 Jose Cardenal, 32-19
7. 1975 Billy Grabarkewitz OVER 2. 1978 Dave Kingman, 38-25

Round 3
4. 1975 Rudy May OVER 1. 1986 Dick Williams, 7-2
7. 1975 Billy Grabarkewitz OVER 11. 1977 Dick Pole, 9-5

EAST Final
4. 1975 Rudy May OVER 7. 1975 Billy Grabarkewitz, 141-58


WEST Bracket

Round 1
1. 1976 Juan Beniquez OVER 16. 1975 Sandy Alomar, 6-5
2. 1978 Greg Minton OVER 15. 1978 Oscar Zamora, 27-2
14. 1978 Lyman Bostock OVER 3. 1989 Brady Anderson, 307-11
4. 1976 Oscar Gamble OVER 13. 1978 Jim Todd, 39-4
5. 1980 Bert Roberge OVER 12. 1975 Darold Knowles, 30-14
11. 1978 Jim Dwyer OVER 6. 1987 Frank DiPino, 16-3
7. 1976 Don Kessinger OVER 10. 2007 JD Drew, 18-3
9. 1974 Willie McCovey OVER 8. 1986 Tom Seaver, 19-16

Round 2
2. 1978 Greg Minton OVER 7. 1976 Don Kessinger, 23-5
14. 1978 Lyman Bostock OVER 11. 1978 Jim Dwyer, 12-9
4. 1976 Oscar Gamble OVER 5. 1980 Bert Roberge, 31-2
9. 1974 Willie McCovey OVER 1. 1976 Juan Beniquez, 22-12

Round 3
14. 1978 Lyman Bostock OVER 2. 1978 Greg Minton, 256-126
9. 1974 Willie McCovey OVER 4. 1976 Oscar Gamble, 234-115

WEST Final
9. 1974 Willie McCovey OVER 14. 1978 Lyman Bostock, 169-37

AIR Championship
1975 Rudy May OVER 1974 Willie McCovey, 1337-1033

AIR FINAL

And the winner is... 1975 Rudy May.

We saw some great matchups in this, the First Ever Airbrush Invitational Rodeo, but none more heated than tonight's. The final score was a mind-boggling 1337-1033.

Makes one think Rudy May himself is sitting in front of a computer somewhere, madly clicking his name, over and over again.

Now I just have to find a spot for May to live on The Blog, so that we all may bask in his reflected glory.

Countdown #43: 1976 Topps Traded

If I let my romantic tendencies get the best of me, this set would be in the top twenty. The limited vocabulary newspaper headlines on the back, the unbelievably bad airbrushing on the front, plus the original torn-from-the-headlines look on the front of the card—it all combines for a breathtaking card, a venerable feat of design that accurately captures an era of gap-toothed ballplayers with big glasses, bad unis and even worse hair.

But this is a straight-laced countdown, one where I’m not about to allow a deep-seated love of bad airbrushing let this little set slip by unnoticed. It’s a loser, but only because Topps, still new to the whole ‘traded series’ game, made it so.

Let’s put all design issues temporarily aside and focus instead on checklist because it’s here where I think Topps really screwed up (plus I’m a fan of the overall 1976 design, and think it was on the strong side of the 1970s). Topps’ policy, if I have this correctly, was to include only those players who were traded during a brief span of the 1975 off-season, as it was assumed that the company wouldn’t have time to get a new card of the player into the regular 1976 set. But even this idea is problematic, as it kept Topps at least a step behind actual, real-time baseball personnel moves.

The classic example is Reggie Jackson. Jackson’s 1975 card has him on the A’s (correct), 1976 also has him on the A’s (incorrect), for some reason he’s not the main attraction of the 1976 Traded series, and then in 1977 he’s on the Yankees. So what happened to his year with Baltimore?

It was brief, but it did happen, and Topps had not one but two opportunities to show him in an Orioles uniform. Instead, there’s a ridiculous gap. What Topps should have been doing was extending production time until late June, keeping the presses out in Pennsylvania open at least a little while in the summer, and then releasing a true Traded series in late September. That way they would have players in the series who’d been traded anywhere from just before the season began to up to two months into the season. Sure, it’s a tall order to fill, but they owned their own press, so even if you factor in all the other jobs over the course of the year, from the other sports to non-sports to regionals to other small sets, I’m sure there was a couple days when they could’ve found the time.

Anyway, with all that backstory, here’s a list of players traded that would’ve made the 1976 Traded series a helluva lot more collectible. Those that are bolded were included in the real Traded series [team on actual Traded card]:

Willie McCovey, A’s
Nate Colbert, A’s
Don Baylor, A’s
Mike Torrez, A’s
Reggie Jackson, Orioles
Ken Holtzman, Orioles
Tommy Harper, Orioles
Rick Dempsey, Orioles
Rudy May, Orioles
Scott McGregor, Orioles
Tippy Martinez, Orioles
Darrell Evans, Giants
Gary Sutherland, Brewers
Bernie Carbo, Brewers
Bobby Darwin, Red Sox
Don Kessinger, Cardinals
Steve Renko, Cubs
Larry Biittner, Cubs
Larry Gura, Royals
Bill Sudakis, Royals
Tommy Davis, Royals
Fritz Peterson, Rangers
Bert Blyleven, Rangers
Terry Humphrey, Angels
Mike Easler, Angels*
Reggie Smith, Dodgers
Lee Lacy, Dodgers [Braves]
Andy Messersmith, Braves
Mike Marshall, Braves
Jim Dwyer, Mets
Andre Thornton, Expos
Del Unser, Expos
Cardell Camper, Indians
Rudy Meoli, Reds
Diego Segui, Padres
Pedro Garcia, Tigers
Roy Smalley, Twins
Blue Moon Odom, White Sox
Cleon Jones, White Sox
Ken Brett, White Sox [Yankees]
Carlos May, Yankees
Doyle Alexander, Yankees
Cesar Tovar, Yankees

*Easler’s first Topps card was in the 1978 set, featuring him on the Pirates. This would’ve been his rookie card.

Now, let’s get back to the design. I touched briefly on the idea of airbrushing, or more appropriately, bad airbrushing, and I don’t think I can stress this enough. There were sets put out at various times over Topps’ long and distinguished record with examples of bad airbrushing. Jose Cardenal comes to mind more than once. I think Eddie Mathews’ ear got lopped off on a managerial card. But this Traded series takes bad airbrushing to another level.

Let me put it this way: if you got into a drunken argument at a bachelor party where you were for some reason forced to equate baseball cards with their rightful mythological legend counterparts, you could win easily by saying that any twelve cards and Oscar Gamble would be the equivalent of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, simply on bad airbrushing alone. That’s not a claim—it’s a fact. There is simply no set that features more—and a higher degree of—badly airbrushed cards. Even those cards featuring players without hats are bad: Ken Brett’s pinstripes have been painted on.

I got an email from a reader that I reprinted on the blog not too long ago stating that because the 1982 Fleer was so bad, it was therefore great. It seems that the case could be made for this set as well, so to pre-empt this idea, I think that in this instance checklist and formulation of checklist greatly outweighs the unintentional comedy of the design and photography (and the fact that the Topps’ poor sap headline writer managed a minor victory by working ‘Le Grande Orange’ onto the Rusty Staub card). Especially for a 44-card set.

Why was it released at all? To scare the bejesus out of SSPC (or was it TCMA by now?)? The reasons behind releasing the set (besides selling more cards of a by-now stale set) are missing, and the cards included boil down to nothing more than Willie Randolph, Ferguson Jenkins, Rusty Staub, 41 others who could pass for commons and an unnumbered checklist.

I like this set as much as the next guy, but you could find more searching through Oscar Gamble’s hair.