Perhaps the biggest mistake a card company can make is depicting the wrong player, but is the 1966 Topps Dick Ellsworth card the worst example? This card mistakenly pictures a teammate who had been deceased for 2 1/2 years.
In 1966, Topps made its most embarrassing blunder by mistakenly picturing Chicago Cubs pitcher Dick Ellsworth’s former teammate, Ken Hubbs, who had tragically died 2½ years earlier in a plane crash. Hubbs, a rookie Gold Glove winner and Rookie of the Year in 1962, perished at 22 while trying to overcome his fear of flying in February 1964.
I can’t imagine Ellsworth, who played for 13 seasons and has Topps cards issued every year between 1960 and 1971, is a big fan of this one. And Topps should have caught it; Ellsworth was a lefty, and the image of Hubbs on Ellsworth’s 1966 Topps card was a carryover of Hubbs from inside the little circle of his 1963 Topps card.
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