This one isn't shocking per se, but interesting if you know the story. I worked for the Birmingham Barons from 1997-2004 and the team card set was my project each year. In this set, we decided to create our own design instead of using the stock designs from Grandstand, which most Minor League teams did. I worked with my friend Brad, who was a graphic/web designer and did some graphics work for the team.
I would go through all of the photos we had collected and tried to use the best ones of each player we had. Brad and I saw this photo and thought it was great but there was one problem... the baseball was too far to fit into the frame without turning the card horizontally and that didn't fit the design. This was my 2nd favorite design we did. Brad said he could fix it, and cut the baseball and pasted it back so it would fit into the frame. We adjusted it several times to try to get the right angle and clarity of the ball, so no one would notice. No one ever did and it became one of my favorite action shots! It just so turned out that it was of a player that went on to play 12 years in the Majors.
Mike Morse.jpg