1967 Earl Wilson Topps cards

Here are the 1967 Topps cards that feature Earl Wilson. They are numbers 305, 235 and 237. In the middle of June of 1966 Boston traded Earl away to Detroit. His cards from 1967 reflect that. Sort of.

The card clearly states TIGERS, but the trained eye will still see the stylized B of Boston on his jersey.


Here we see Earl wearing a blue, airbrushed cap.


And then a partial airbrush job.

At least he's wearing a cap on the League Leaders cards. Look back at the first card. No cap.

This is what is known as BHNH* (Big Head No Hat) syndrome. Very convenient for the card producers when a player gets traded mid-season.

"Quick. We're supposed to go to press in an hour. Find that photo of Earl Wilson without his hat. You know the photo. Yes. That's the one. Good. Enlarge it to crop off the Boston from his jersey. No one will notice. Trust me. I'm in marketing."

Earl went 5-5 for Boston and 13-6 for Detroit that year. He completed 13 of his 37 games started for the season. He finished up the year with a 3.07 ERA. He also had 7 HRs. Producing them, not giving them up. He gave up 30 of them.

* I did not coin the term BHNH. I'm not sure where I read it, but it was probably a Baseball Card Magazine from 1989 or so.