Here's a head-scratcher for you: why is Jim Palmer's Floating Head superimposed on this team photo? Presumably the very orange main photo was taken at some point during the 1976 season. My first thought was that Palmer could have been injured, and was off on rehab at the time. But ol' Cakes actually made a career-high and league-leading 40 starts that year, so that's not it. With my only plausible theory out the window, it's time to resort to my old standby. Let's get silly!
-Perhaps Jim was double-booked, flipped a coin, and it landed on 'heads'. That meant that he went to the Jockey Underwear photo shoot instead.
-Earl Weaver made fun of Palmer's hair that afternoon, and the pitcher threw a hissy fit and refused to leave the clubhouse.
-He stopped outside of the ballpark to sign a few autographs and a young boy mistakenly recalled the time that he saw Jim give up a grand slam. The righthander got sidetracked explaining the boy's error to him in great detail.
-He was moonlighting as a bartender at the Dundalk VFW.
-Palmer made a fatal misstep; he looked at Lee May sideways. The massive first baseman crammed him in a locker and left him there.
Further guesses will be accepted in the comments.
I'm surprised that Topps didn't try to cram Palmer's photo between the heads of 2 guys in the back row, rather than leave him floating out there all by himself.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was collecting cards as a kid, it was my sister who got this card in a pack, not me. Unfortunately, by the time she lost interest and gave me her cards, our dog had gnawed on this one quite a bit.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't until about 20 years later that I finally upgraded to a full version of the card.
Jim - I guess he stood apart from his peers?
ReplyDeleteTim - Better late than never!