Card Corner--Joe Rudi

In 1973, I was eight years old--and hellbent on collecting every one of the 660 cards in the Topps set issued that summer. I wouldn't achieve that goal until years later, when I realized the best way to complete a set was to bring a written list to a card dealer.

One of the cards that I missed the first time around was this one. It's become one of my favorite cards of all-time, because of its against-the-grain horizontal layout (which I've always loved), the presence of three players "in action" against a busy backdrop of fans in the stands, and this writer's unceasing admiration for Joe Rudi, one of my favorite players of any era.

There's just one problem with the latter bit of reasoning in describing Topps' 1973 card (No. 360) of "Gentleman Joe:" Joe Rudi isn't any of the three Oakland A's players shown on the face of the card. The player in the middle is supposed to be Rudi, who is being congratulated by two teammates after hitting a home run against the California Angels. The player who is actually being congratulated is Rudi's teammate, Gene Tenace, who has just hit one of his mere five regular season home runs in 1972. (Tenace hit four more in that fall's World Series against the Reds, completing the transition from obscure backup to nationwide star.) The confusion of Tenace being mistaken as Rudi is actually quite understandable, given that almost all of the A's players had grown mustaches during the 1972 season, a trend that tended to make some of the white players look like one another. Identifying the other two players on the cards becomes a bit more problematic, in part because neither was a particularly well known player--certainly not as well known as a Tenace or a Rudi--and in part because the A's used 47 different players in 1972.

Yet, thanks to a faithful Internet reader, I've been able to come up with some answers to this card's riddles. The reader informed me that the photograph for the Rudi card was taken during a Sunday afternoon game at the Oakland Coliseum, because Sunday afternoons were the only time the A's wore their all-white uniforms during the regular season. More specifically, we know the photograph was taken the day of June 25, 1972, when the A's hosted the Angels in a doubleheader at the Coliseum. Batting in the bottom of the second of game two, Tenace ripped a three-run homer against Angels left-hander Rickey Clark, scoring Bill Voss (who had singled) and Sal Bando (who had walked). And who, you might ask, is Bill Voss? A journeyman outfielder acquired only five days earlier from the Brewers, Voss was in the midst of a stretch of games in which manager Dick Williams used him as Oakland's starting right fielder. (Voss wouldn't last the season in Oakland, as he was traded to the Cardinals on August 27 for Matty Alou.) Voss happens to be the A's' player pictured on the left of the card, offering Tenace a congratulatory handshake. As for the other player on the card, the one giving Tenace a pat on the backside, I first thought it was starting pitcher John "Blue Moon" Odom, who pitched eight shutout innings that day in earning a 6-0 victory. Actually, it is not Odom, but utility infielder Orlando "Marty" Martinez, the on-deck hitter and Oakland's starting second baseman that day. Like Voss, Martinez didn't last much longer with the A's, traded to the Rangers less than one month later as part of the deal that brought Don Mincher back to the Bay Area.

As for the mistaken identity of Tenace over Rudi, it unfortunately doesn't make the card any more valuable than most other common cards from the 1973 Topps set. Still, it's an intriguing error involving a well-known, All-Star player like Rudi, and one that Topps didn't catch until well after the card set had been issued. Unlike some other Topps error cards, the mistake was never corrected, so if you're looking for a 1973 Topps card that actually depicts Joe Rudi, you're not going to be able to find it, not even amongst the playoff or World Series cards issued that year.