color color everywhere

i know it is a subject that many are split on - the colorization by topps of old photographs for use on their cards. some prefer the images to be left in black and white, which still allows for them to be used in many sets and inserts. others like the idea, but feel the quality of colorization is not quite adequate. there are other opinions as well. for me, i like that it brings new images of former players on to cardboard rather than recycling the same few images that were previously available in color format.

jackie robinson is one of those legendary players that shows up in many (most?) sets, but his cards suffered due to repetitious use of the same few images. so, i was happy to see a new (colorized) image used on a 2020 topps stadium club chrome card:

the card doesn't scan too well, but it looks nice in person. 

at first, i thought this was a card of jackie signing autographs at dodger stadium because of the colors of the railing and seating levels. that would mean that this photo was taken at an oldtimers game. as you can probably guess, i did some digging.

i knew that this image came no earlier than 1961, thanks to the kid wearing a twins hat. i also knew that jackie famously did not suit up for the 1972 oldtimers game at dodger stadium, which took place the same day that his jersey number was retired along with those of roy campanella and sandy koufax, and i wasn't aware of an earlier oldtimers game hosted by the dodgers.

a quick search led me to the photo at gettyimages

which listed its creation date as august 24, 1969 and its locale as anaheim stadium. i was also able to find an image of the program that someone is holding out for jackie

which matches that same date on which an oldtimers game at anaheim stadium was held. the program features sandy koufax and steve bilko, and this particular copy is signed by don newcombe, but not jackie robinson.

interestingly enough, the game featured don drysdale, who had announced his retirement just a couple of weeks earlier. here's an article by dodger historian mark langill that gives some more detail on drysdale's experience in the month of august, 1969. and here's an article from the los angeles times about the game itself, including some insight on jackie's experience. looks like if i were on twitter i would have saved myself some research time.

anyway, it's good to know that my instincts were correct - that's not dodger stadium. even though i didn't make it to the big a until 1979, i am pretty sure the color of the railing was always reddish-orange as it was then, and the concrete base was a darker color. here's an image of carl yastrzemski from the late 1960's/early 1970's at anaheim stadium that seems to support that recollection.

so you can see that the folks at topps who did the colorizing might have had dodger stadium on the mind instead, which isn't a bad thing except when colorizing black and white photos. i hope things improve in the coming years, because it is great to see a variety of images for the legendary players featured in modern day sets.