1974 Topps Dick Green
 

If I'm asking a question which has been answered elsewhere, apologies - is this really Dick Green turning the double play?

I am going through the 70s sets trying to pinpoint dates for specific cards with action shots.

I believe that the baserunner is Ben Oglivie of the Red Sox and that this is a 1972 game in Oakland, NOT 1973.

But, in all of Ben's games that year in Oakland, including more than one where he was at the leading end of a DP, the second baseman was either Tim Cullen or Larry Brown.

Is it not Ben? Is it not Oakland? Is it not 1972? Is it not even Green??

I think this has been discussed before and it was determined to be Ted Kubiak and Ben Oglivie and it was a double play, unless I have this mixed up with another card. ETA, I might be conflating this card with the 1975 Topps AL Playoff card.

It looks like Kubiak to me......the cheek to the chin.....

If it is Kubiak, the only date it could be is 7/22/72 in Boston - Oglivie PH for Monty in the bottom of the 9th and got a 1-out single, but Tommy Harper grounded into a DP to end the game and the Sox took the loss, 5-3 in the first game of a double header - they played 6 games in 4 days in Boston, two dates having double headers.

Looks like the conclusion of their chat agrees with Kubiak and Oglivie in '72

Yes, you nailed it. Now can you impress me further by identifying the game action shown on Dick Green's 1973 card? :) (Borrowed scan from ebay--someone can show a smaller one and I will delete this if too large)
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/ZjQAA...xb/s-l1600.jpg

We can say two things about this image - 1) it was taken in Oakland, and 2) it was taken before 1972.

Other than that, your guess is as good as mine....

A 3rd: how embarrassing to have that as your Topps card for the year.

IF he committed an error in the picture he only made 5 errors in Oakland in 1971....11 overall:

April 30 Cleveland
June 27 Kansas City
July 11 California
August 22 Boston
September 12 Minnesota

but if he ended up throwing out the runner after the picture was taken...disregard this post.

We can also tell that it is a day game.

Interestingly, Marc Okkonen's resource on uniforms, while not 100% accurate, tells us that the A's did not wear this color combination at home in 1969-72, and while they did in 1968, both home and away uni's said Oakland. He seems to be wrong on this one, unless this is game action from the road (unlikely).

Bob, I'm not sure there was an error on the play. Seems to me that he is handling a throw, either from home or more likely first, because he is covering the bag and is not likely to have been fielding a grounder there. It doesn't seem like the ball got away from him very far, and it may be that if there was an error it would have been charged on the throw. It could also have been something as innocuous as a throw down to second after warm-up pitches. My two cents.

You're right....the more I look at it....it could be any type of play you mentioned.

My bet is he was taking a throw from the catcher on a stolen base. As someone mentioned earlier, he would not have been set like this on second base on a batted ball. And if the throw bounced, which it looks like this one may have, and he mishandled it, there would not have been an error on him on the play.

But what really pokes at me is the guy in the upper left with the blue shirt seemingly taking a leak from the first row of the outfield bleachers.

Well, even after 5 months preparing for this intense venture/video, this youtuber is still puzzled by the Dick Green card's image...one of the few action shots he could not narrow down and identify a date for based on the image used in the 1973 set. Did the youtuber mistakenly think an error was made?

Overall, an awesome video and well worth watching the entire video. The link will take you to the chapter where the Green card is discussed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GG_bIHpsUo&t=2159s