The beauty of having two photos on a single baseball card is the yin and the yang of it all. An action shot, then a posed head shot. It's a great combo. Here we have two extremes. On the front, we have one of the strongest guys in the pre-steroids era of baseball looking like he's about to totally pulverize a baseball. I don't know if that ball is going to hit the sweet spot or not, but it's a great photo. Now flip over to the back. Balboni looks like such a sweet little puppy!!
As an aside, I noticed that on the front, Balboni's helmet has his number on the bill. That was also true on the last card (Dernier) but not the one before that (Kittle.) Did some teams put numbers on the bill and some not?
My understanding is that it is just a simple solution for "whose batting helmet is that?" not a "part" of the uniform per se.
ReplyDeleteMost likely Bye-Bye is going to swing and miss that curve ball. If he hits it, he looks like he's far enough out in front that some fan sitting on the third base side is going to get a souvenier.
ReplyDeleteI think some teams put the number on the back of the helmet. Maybe I'm wrong but to me it looks like Balboni already hit the ball.
ReplyDeleteLooks to me like he already hit the ball as there is a bend in the bat where the ball made contact.
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