SHARP-DRESSED MAN
Some cards just stick with you. You know what I mean. Maybe it’s a favorite player. Maybe it’s the last card you needed to finish off a set. Maybe it’s the perfect photo … or even something that ruins a photo. For me, it was Phil Esposito’s pants.
e 1971-72 O-Pee-Chee set leaned heavily on studio shots and, for the most part, the players seemed to play along with the process. Gear up. Mix in a couple of poses. Head back to the golf course. Simple.
But not Espo. Coming off a season in which he led the league with a record-smashing 76 goals and 152 points, the Boston center put in the absolute bare minimum effort. He slid on his own jersey, grabbed the gloves of teammate Fred Stanfield and said cheese.
It’s possible none of this would have amounted to much except for one thing: the eventual cropping of the photo. e final result used by both Topps and O-Pee-Chee made it clear that Espo was wearing a pair of stylish plaid trousers instead of his hockey gear. Sort of the ‘70s equivalent of being caught today wearing a shirt, tie and shorts in a Zoom meeting.
Other Bruins got geared up. But Espo wasn’t having it. And for some reason, my young mind could never get around the fact that Phil’s card showed him wearing street clothes.
e card made me crazy. I literally traded for every copy I could find. And when Topps used the same photo (with a slightly different cropping) again in 1972-73, I was all over those as well. (O-Pee-Chee, wisely, used a different image).
Such was my mania for this card that when I had to do a photo shoot for a corporate publication during my first run with Beckett, I posed in a Bruins jersey, black gloves … and plaid pants.
Yes, it was awesome. And even better when one of my old workmates, the great Mike Hersh, got the joke.
e card remains one of my all-time favorites, so naturally it came to mind while putting together this ‘70s-themed issue. Unfortunately, I was outvoted when I suggested it for Card of the Decade.
I’d love to hear what you think about our favorites from the Swingin’‘70s, as well as our big reveal on the mystery star of the 1974 dra , Taro Tsujimoto. Drop me a line at the address below.
Al Muir • amuir@beckett.com • @almuirsi on Twitter