Tommie Agee's 1973 Topps Baseball Card

One of my favorite baseball card sets in the 1973 set, lets examine the Agee card:  This 1973 Topps Tommie Agee baseball card in a classic early seventies Topps airbrushing job. At the end of November Agee was traded from the Mets to the Houston Astros. By the time the 1973 Topps baseball cards were ready to roll out, Topps knew Agee had been traded but had no photos of him in his new uniform. So they got their air brush atrist to paint over the Mets uniform letters in white. Then they painted the sox, caps & Agee's sleeves Astros orange. Although its more of a maroonish red.


Notice there's no Astros name or numbers on the plain white uniform. It's hard to imagine there were no other Agee photos available, like one with him not wearing a cap. Then Topps would have probably given us one of their classic still head shots from that era.

The Astros played inside the Houston Astrodome at the time & would be wearing a  darker road uniform in an outdoor Stadium. This picture was taken on a beautifal day at Shea Stadium in 1972. Notice the classic 371 mark on the dark green outfield wall & the white bus parked in the Shea parking lot.

It's 1972, because Rusty Staub is the rightfielder coming in on the play behind Mets second baseman Kenny Boswell. Rusty arrived with the Mets in 1972. Interestingly Staub has no 1972 or 1973 Topps cards, beacuse he was one of the last players to join the newly former Players Union, who I believe had the deal with Topps.  1972 was also Agee's last season as a Met.