1977 mark belanger

there is some obvious left-to-right photo cropping differences and the spacing of the stacked facsimile autograph is not the same between the o-pee-chee and topps versions of mark belanger's 1977 cards.  however, it's the difference on the backs that i find most interesting.  here is belanger's 1977 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

see that?  o-pee-chee switched cartoons!  they wanted us to know about jim bibby's brother rather than belanger's former teammate, frank robinson.  this is not the only o-pee-chee card to have the cartoon switcharoo (gary carter gets the same treatment as we will see tomorrow), but it is the first one i've shown on the blog.  the checklist variation cards that have cartoons use cartoons from topps cards that were not included in the o-pee-chee set - see the post on garvey cey russell lopes for a better explanation.  but the difference isn't just limited to the cartoon - o-pee-chee also left off the major league total line, and basically redid the entire back.

as far as belanger goes, he lived up to his all-glove, no-hit reputation in 1977.  he hit just .206 with 2 homers, but did win his seventh career gold glove (fifth in a row).

voici à vous, 1977 mark belanger!