The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
 

Take three cards from someone's career and point out one that is good, one that is bad, and one that is ugly...and, of course, explain your reasoning with some degree of humor, if possible.

Mine is the Say Hey Kid:

GOOD 1965 - A well-focused man ready to take on all comers. A warrior ready for battle!

BAD 1964 - Just as the photographer was about to snap the photo, did somebody suddenly tap his right shoulder?? If this was taken in the 80's, you'd think he was imitating Gary Coleman and saying, "What'chu talkin' 'bout, Willis?"

UGLY 1963 - Can someone say Fat Elvis? If you didn't know who this was, with that pudgy face and (for lack of a better term) the suggestion of a beer belly, wouldn't you think it was a 300 lb. middle aged man?? (No offense, of course, to any overweight middle aged men out there.)

Attachment 300096

Gasp! How dare you call one of my favorite Willie Mays cards "ugly"? J/K...

:o I get it though. His face did seem to age fast in comparison to other ballplayers. Was he a smoker? In fairness the '65 Mantle is also one of my favorite vintage cards, and that's a downright awful image of the Mick...

I’ll give it a shot. Let’s face it there are very few if any bad Koufax cards, similar to Clemente. I don’t think Roberto has a single bad card. Anyway: (and remember I’m trying to keep it slightly humorous if I can)

The good - 1963 Topps - The perfect profile pose, great colors, good shot of his LA Dodgers uniform. The lightning is also great, looks almost like an old movie still frame. He straight up looks like a badass!
https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4688/3...73653c52a3.jpg

The Bad - 1964 Topps - First he has a “hurry up and snap the pic dude” look on his face. It’s a tight portrait so no view at all of the uniform or stadium surroundings. There’s not a great shot of the cap, you can’t see the LA, but what you can see is a gnarly sweat stains, ha! Also looks like he has a pimple on his forehead above his right eye.
https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4598/3...3e7cdbae26.jpg

The Ugly - 1960 Topps - This truly is my least favorite Koufax card. Problem number one is he looks like he’s trying to pass a deuce. Who snaps a pic of a guy passing a deuce? It just not right. But the biggest problem for me which is the cardinal sin of baseball cards, HE'S NOT WEARING A BASEBALL HAT!!! I hate that on baseball cards, even if it’s a traded card and the guys moving to a new team. Even then I hate it. But in this case Koufax was going nowhere! It makes no sense and looks like crap!
End of rant, I feel much better now.
https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4598/3...3d7599e46c.jpg

Well there you have it, kinda fun. Now I challenge someone to try to do the same with Clemente.

Your “bad” is actually a ‘66 Topps - one of my favorite cards. 😬

Truth be told I'm a fan of the '66 as well. Like I said it's near impossible to find a bad Koufax card. With the exception of the no cap '60 Topps.

Good thread. Here’s my contributions on Johnny Bench, w/o pix as I’m traveling.

The Good: 69 Topps. As others have said, this card is nicer than his true RC. He’s alone, looking spry and ready to play. The trophy and background makes me want to grab a hot dog, beer and cracker jacks and settle into my seat.

The Bad: 73 Topps. A lousy attempt at an In Action card. It had potential. I actually like the graininess of the photograph as it fits into the era. But if he was just looking a bit more towards the photographer...

The Ugly: 78 Topps. Couldn’t the photographer ask him to just face the camera a bit? Or use a flash to brighten up his face? He looks more like a 3rd base coach w/o a bat resting on his shoulder.

Here's my Johnny Bench choices:

The Good: 1976 Topps - one of my favorite baseball cards of all time. Classic photo; looks like something that would fit right in a Clint Eastwood movie.

The Bad: 1977 Topps - could the photographer have cropped it any closer? I can see the pores in his skin.

The Ugly: 1983 Fleer - really Fleer - is that the best photo you have of the greatest catcher of all time? Johnny looks like he's annoyed at something.

Tom,

It was hard for me to take Fleer and Donruss seriously when they showed up in the 80's due to a lot of their poor photo choices. Some are just goofy.

Bench is just winding up to nail the Fleer photographer......

How about B-Robby:

GOOD 1976 - Some people don't appreciate this card, but I friggin' love it. Granted, the blinding glare of the sun is off-putting, but it is surely a unique, playful shot that shows the nice guy we know him to be.

BAD 1958 - For the love of criminy, it looks like Brooksie's about to sneeze!!!!!! We know he's quick with the glove...sure hope he's quick with the Kleenex. Come On, Topps!!!!!!!!!!!!

UGLY 1975 - Can someone say mini brim? What in high heck is going on with that ultra short helmet bill?? (No offense, of course, to anyone who fancies helmets with truncated brims.)

Attachment 300817

Brooks Robinson
 

Darren,

Of course you should already know that there are “almost” no bad or ugly Brooksie cards (well...I may possibly, begrudgingly, give you the ‘58). All of his cards are the BEST. :D The 1975 card is one of my favorites. How can you not LOVE the shot they used and the overall coolness of the ‘75 style. Gotta love the short, mini brim.

What’s kinda funny is someone asked the question about his helmet not long ago and this was my reply:

In the early ’70s, the Commissioner’s Office made it mandatory for anyone entering into MLB to wear an ear flap on your helmet. Exsisting players had a choice, but Brooks stated he liked the safety aspect, since he had been beaned in the head several times over the years, and chose to wear the ear flap. Brooks stated, “When I got the helmet with the flap and put it on, it seemed like the bill was a little longer than my normal hat. The flap was a little longer and consequently when I went up to hit I could see the brim and part of the flap. It made me lose my concentration. I took care of it by taking a hacksaw blade and cut off about 1 ½ inches off the brim and about ½ off the flap. That’s how I got my short brim."

See, possibly ugly to an untrained eye, but COOL at the same time. ;)

Mark,
Hee hee. Do you really think that you didn't instantly come to mind when I thought of posting about B-Robs? :D

Whenever I see that '58 card of Brooksie, for some reason I think of Gomer Pyle.

Now try not to think of that the next time you see the card.

This is an enjoyable thread. I agree with Tom the 1976 Bench is one of the iconic cards of Bench and the modern era. And Darren is right that the 1958 coughing Brooksie is just awful. I kinda like the 1975 short-bill card, however. Here's my take on Hank Aaron --
GOOD: So many great Aaron cards to choose from, but I think the 1965 Topps is one of the nicest. Tightly cropped, showing his powerful hands and legendary wrists gripping the bat. Just a great baseball card -- if NASA had to put one card into a capsule to show other civilizations what baseball cards are, this would be a contender for the honor.
BAD: I remember being disappointed in the 1973 Aaron card from the moment I first ripped it from a wax pack as an 8-year-old. Here's a guy on the verge of breaking one of the most hallowed records in sports, and Topps chooses a photo of him looking up at a pop fly?
UGLY: The 1975/76 SSPC card of Aaron captures some of his end-of-career paunch maxing out his blue doubleknits. The 1976 Topps highlight card also shows Aaron's middle-aged gut, but it's a pretty decent action shot of him swinging the bat

It's a pretty standard profile shot, but I've always loved the pop of the green on the '58 Topps Aaron. Also that was one of my first old cards I had as a kid, and something about the nostalgia of those always make them special.

1969
 

Darren,

I figure you had to take at least a day off and possible two, to think constantly with no interruptions, long and hard, using all of your mental capacity to find any Brooksie cards that weren’t totally awesome. (As a side note I still can’t believe they used that photo for the ‘58). I think Brooks didn’t feel that well that day and it was after a run in spring training when the photographer snapped the photo. It was originally a B&W photo that was colorized. In fact the flexichrome artwork for the 1958 Topps is for sale on eBay. The card would have looked a tad bit better if they did a landscape card with more of his uniform present as well as make him farther (no farther than that...) away. By the way, Brooks doesn’t like the card as well (if you were wondering). Love the setup on the ‘58 Topps; would have been a great looking card with a different pic.

Tom,

Wasn’t it bad enough that the ‘58 Brooksie card was not quite the best looking card out there. Garsh; now I have to think of Gomer Pyle every time I see it (at least you didn’t mention Goober Pyle).