Thursday, September 17, 2009

2005 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites #115 Bob Dernier

The 1980 Topps blog recently posted a few cards from the Topps All-Time Fan Favorites sets. The cards posted borrowed their design from the 1980 Topps set (hence their inclusion on the Dean Family's blog). Topps released three of these sets from 2003 through 2005 and I've collected the Phillies cards from them. The sets consist of all-time "fan favorites" (hence the name of the set) featured on the familiar Topps' designs of the past four decades. What is unfamiliar are the pictures selected for each fan favorite. While the intent was to match a picture and a Topps design from the same year or era, the picture selection committee had a few misses.

The Bob Dernier card pictured here features a 1982 Topps design, but a 1988-1989 vintage picture of Bobby D. This always bugged me a little. But what always bugged me a little more isn't the picture selection, it's the "3rd Base" position indicator on the bottom left of the card. Only the most die-hard of Bob Dernier fans would know he was originally drafted as a third baseman, a position he last played at Class A Peninsula in 1979. Why feature a Gold Glove outfielder as a third baseman? Surely this was done by Topps just to perplex me.

Feel free to compare and contrast with Bob Dernier's actual 1982 Topps card, featured in that year's Traded series.

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