In the history of baseball cards there are a lot of notable errors. Some, like the occasional blank, or wrong backed cards seem to be mechanical. Others like the notorious (multiple) Billy Ripken versions or the 1990 Donruss All-Star subset (with the black line through the star) have long been rumored to be intentional, aimed at drawing attention or value to a set. For the most part, the Phillies have been spared in this area - except in the case of the 1991 Topps, Wes Chamberlain/Louie Meadows mixup.
There are few similarities between Chamberlain and Meadows, and this "error" smells more like an intentional mixup than a mistake. Though they were both outfielders, Wes, of course batted and threw right-handed, while Louie was left/left. It is also odd that Topps could misidentify a player who had appeared in their previous two flagship sets, and though new to the Phillies had been around for quite a few years. Either way, they did and Wes Chamberlain is left with two "official" cards in the set.
I have heard that Wes will not sign the error card, which is understandable. Has anyone ever had an experience where their request has been denied? If so, please leave a comment - I'd be interested to hear what happened...
It is interesting that the Desert Shield card features the Louie Meadows version, but the Tiffany, Micro and O-Pee-Chee cards are the corrected version. Also, the Desert Shield card can sometimes be found with a factory dot either between the L's in "Phillies", to the right of the dot in "i", or by the bottom knuckle of his lower hand.
ReplyDeleteI'd also be interested to hear whether Louie Meadows signs the card picturing him. I would assume he does.
ReplyDeleteThere was a Reading Phillies card put out in, I believe, 1989 by either Pro Set or Star that pictured Cliff Brantley but had the name Erik Bratlien on the front and back. Bratlien was also in the Phillies system but he never made it to AA. So they got the picture right, but they had the wrong name. (I can't remember whether the stats were Brantley's or Bratlien's though.) Brantley definitely would sign the card (and I recall him joking about it when he did); since Bratlien never made it to Reading, I don't know whether he would. But there was an update set put out later that had the right name on it, although they never pulled the wrong one so it is quite common.