If you’re a card collector, or if you read Marvin Miller’s book, you know that the 1969 Topps set was a really tough one for Topps. Miller, in one of his early acts as head of the union, tried to get Topps to increase the amount of money it paid the players in licensing. Topps politely declined. Miller instructed the players not to pose for Topps photographers, starting in 1967.
This decision was ultimately up to the individual player. Some did and some didn’t in 1967, which impacted the 1968 set, as photos were generally taken a year ahead of time for Topps sets in those days. By 1968, nearly all of the players complied with the union’s request. What made the 1969 set even tougher was the addition of four expansion teams, which meant that Topps had to use capless photos for players on those teams. Finally, there were two other teams that had issues. The A’s moved to Oakland and there was a logo dispute involving the Astros.
What a mess!
So, why talk about the troubles Topps had in 1969 when the featured card is from 1970? In ’69, Gary Gentry had a rookie card that he shared with Amos Otis. Both players had tightly-cropped pictures with the logos on their hat blacked out. Other rookie cards in the same set did not have that problem. A quick online search did not produce the reason for the blocked-out logos.
And for Gentry’s 1970 card, his first solo offering, they used the same picture they used in 1969, just at full size. The player dispute was over and the Mets had virtually every other player in a hat with the logo. It’s one of hundreds of interesting little things with Topps cards of this era. The reason could easily be benign. It just would be fun to know the answer.
Also, this is actually an OPC card. OPC were the Canadian version of Topps and for some reason, the 1970 OPC set was 546 cards while the regular Topps set was 720. So, Canadian collectors could get this Gentry with the blocked-out logo but they couldn’t get 10 future Hall of Famers, including Nolan Ryan.
Anyway, the back of the OPC cards are neat, with a darker card stock and writing in both English and French.
