5 'Wrong Guy' Baseball Cards that Still Deliver the Fun

A tale of grade school sideburns

So I was digging through the list of baseball birthdays today (as usual), when I saw a familiar name.

Well, several familiar names, actually. But one was sort of a pleasant surprise because it belonged to a guy I hadn’t thought about in a good, long while — Ron Jackson.

But there was a problem. When I dug into the details a bit, I found out this wasn’t the Ron Jackson brought my mid-1980s Angels cards to life with that archway mustache of his.

No, this was the Ron Jackson who was born 90 years ago and played seven years for the Sox(es) — six for the White, one for the Red.

So of course I had to write about baseball cards that show the “wrong” guy.

Of course I did.

So I did.

Here are five of them.

1972 Topps Bernie Williams (#761)

So, by my math, Bernie Williams was three years old when this card was issued.

He looks a little older than that, but then, I’ve never been very good at guessing people’s ages.

Looks weird to see him in a Giants cap, though. Guess he got the West Coast stuff out of his blood while he was still young.

The record shows that Williams played parts of four seasons during that first stint in the majors, batting just .192 over 194 plate appearances.

Still, not too shabby for the toddler-elementary years. And the experience set him up for bigger things with the Yankees a bit later on.

Also, how many other players can say they shared a rookie card with the Penguin and also won World Series in the 21st century?

1974 Topps Reggie Sanders (#600)

Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but my calculations show that Sanders was six years old when this card was issued.

And, again, he looks older to me. But it’s really tough to tell that sort of thing from such a small picture.

He sure did have some amazing sideburns for a first-grader, though. And, like Williams, Sanders used his 26-game run with the 1974 Tigers as a warmup for much better things to come with the Reds a couple of decades later.

Although a .273 average with 3 home runs and 10 RBI in 105 PAs for the 72-90 Bengals seems like it should have been worthy of another look.

Spring Training must have interfered with his learning-cursive finals, or something.

(Plus, Bill Madlock sighting!)

1978 Topps Dave Campbell (#402)

Every good baseball fan knows Soup Campbell as one of the voices of ESPN baseball around the turn of the century.

And, also, as Stuart Ullman.

But that Campbell was done in MLB after the 1974 season. So, naturally, the card you see up there does not feature Soup in his pitching days, channeling future Ohtani

Instead, we get this Dave Campbell, who made 118 relief appearances for the Braves in 1977 and 1978 combined but who never stepped on a big league mound outside of those years.

Those “amazing” Atlanta teams went a combined 130-194, in case you were wondering.

1983 Topps Randy Johnson (#596, #354)

Speaking of the Braves, they drafted the tall drink of water who would become the Big Unit in the fourth round of the 1982 draft. Fresh off high school graduation, Randy Johnson decided to go to USC instead.

The next spring, Johnson appeared on a nifty Topps baseball card for the Braves, despite turning them down.

And he also appeared on a nifty Topps card — a rookie card, no less! — for the Twins.

No wonder he turned out to be so great, right? I mean, having the ability to be three places at once has to come with some Big perks.

1990 Bowman Kevin Brown (#127)

Kevin Brown was one of those pitchers, sorta like Ryan or Clemens or Verlander or Scherzer or Unit, who really seemed to figure out the mound as he got older.

Of course, George Mitchell had a theory about all that in Brown’s case.

But it sure was fun to watch Brown’s tailing fastball get nastier and nastier over the years as he turned into a guy fans loved(ish) when he was on their team but couldn’t stand when he was wearing other colors.

This ain’t him.

Even though Brown did appear on a 1990 Bowman card for the Rangers, this Kevin Brown was the lefthander who spent parts of three seasons in the bigs, with the Mets, Brewers, and Mariners.

That run included a nifty little rookie season in 1990 that saw him go a combined 1-1 with a 2.35 ERA in seven appearances for the first two of those teams.

He was done in the majors after 1992 but hung around the minors through 1995. This Kevin Brown also has a nifty little “trunk-or-treat” picture on his Wikipedia page that seems just about right for our current calendar page.

This really is the most wonderful time of the year, after all.

Except for maybe Spring Training.

Or Opening Day.

Or the September Stretch run.

Or Street & Smith’s day.

Or…well, it’s tough to pick a most wonderful time when baseball is involved.

Especially when it keeps you guessing, like these cards do. After all, a Rose by any other name is still a Rose.

But it might be a Don. Or a Re-Pete.

And a Kevin Brown by any other card could also be the former Rangers/Blue Jays/Brewers/Red Sox catcher.

But, hey — even if the cards dupe you, they’re still baseball cards.

What’s a little confusion or disappointment when you get to hold a ray of happiness in the palm of your hand?

Thanks for reading.

—Adam