that is not who we thought it was on jim fregosi's 1973 topps card

as you may or may not know, i have a "lurker" mini-collection - one that includes dodger and other notable players who appear on someone else's card. they are also (and perhaps more popularly) referred to as "cameos".

recently, bo of baseball cards come to life sent me a whole mess of these cards as part of a trade. i will post many more of them in a later post, but i wanted to highlight one card in particular - this 1973 topps jim fregosi card:

the 1973 topps set is rife with great and odd looking cards, including many lurkers or cameos. my favorite is probably the glenn beckert card that features duke sims in dodger gear, but there are many other examples to be appreciated. night owl and other bloggers (myself included) have posted about these cards many times.

the fregosi card is widely understood to feature reds' catcher johnny bench removing his mask to track fregosi's pop up - something that has been noted on a number of blogs, including the wonderful 1973 topps site. i certainly added this card to my lurker collection with that in mind.  however, when i was actually editing my scan to post about the trade, i noticed something.

pinstripes.

looking closer at the catcher, you can see pinstripes on his pants in the area shaded by his chest protector.  another thing i noticed is the marking on the left sleeve. at first, i assumed it was a "c" for cincinnati, but they had no such thing in 1972, but they did have a red stripe around the end of the sleeve, which is missing from the catcher on the card.

we know the photo is from 1972, since that was the first year that fregosi played for the mets, and the image does not appear to be airbrushed. given the number of mets in the background, i very much doubt there was any airbrushing on this card. so, it makes sense that the catcher is not bench but rather a catcher for the chicago white sox - possibly ed herrmann or tom egan or chuck brinkman.

in 1972, the white sox were still sporting their red pinstriped uniforms at home

and they had a patch on their left sleeve.  here's a better look at that patch, courtesy of the late, great dick allen

i think you can see how the patch could be contorted to match what we see on fregosi's card.

now, that would mean that the stadium on fregosi's card would not be riverfront stadium, which was the home of the reds. i think that is pretty obvious. for one thing, the fencing above the dugout wouldn't have been in place at riverfront. here's a photo from 1978 that shows the third base dugout at riverfront - it would have looked similarly in 1972.

the stadium in the background of the card is not comiskey park, either. we know that because the white sox and mets were and are in different leagues, but also because the field in question has sunken dugouts with green paint and chain link fence above them. the reds' spring training home in 1972 was al lopez field in tampa, that did not have green posts within the dugout, nor were the dugouts sunken with fencing above them.  here's a postcard of al lopez field from that timeframe

so, everything seems to point to payne park - the white sox' spring training home in sarasota, florida. thanks to digital ballparks, we have some photos inside of payne park

i probably should have kept the photos separate, but you can see that the dugouts are green and sunken, there are posts within the dugout, and there is fencing above the dugouts. 

so, i think i am ready to rest my case. jim fregosi's 1973 topps card does not feature johnny bench.  luckily, willie mccovey's 1973 topps card does

and that is undisputed.

i am curious to know whether or not anyone agrees with this conclusion - what do you think?