Sunday, August 26, 2012

Tony Micelli 1982 Fleer Mock Up

When I ran across this picture of actor Tony Danza, I suddenly remembered that his character on Who's The Boss was an ex-ballplayer. This is what I get for doing homework in front of the television as a child. Random pop culture facts speed to the front of my thoughts as if the synapses cannot be bothered with trivial things like pin numbers and passwords. Nope. Tiny little details from eighties sitcoms are much more important than those.

Basing this card on the timeline of the show (although the sitcom never actually specifies any date), Tony played with the St. Louis Cardinals at second base until a shoulder injury forced early retirement. The show started in the fall of 1984. September 20, 1984 to be exact. I figured two years would be a plausible enough amount of time from injury to rehab to retirement to searching for a better life for his daughter by looking in the want ads for live-in housekeeper in a more upscale environment than Brooklyn. It sounds about right to me, at least.

This photo screamed 1982 Fleer, so that became my focus. The odd angle, weird positioning and lens flare really captured the top notch photography that marred the early Fleer sets. The out of place coloring on the "uniform" seems about right for the sometimes spotty photos from these sets too.

10 comments:

Jason T. Carter said...

This is awesome. I think there was an episode that he was showing someone a baseball card, or someone gave him a baseball card...can't remember for sure. There wasn't a close-up, so I don't know who was actually on the card, but my memory wants to say it was a 1983 Topps card.

JT, The Writer's Journey

Steve Gierman said...

Thanks! I haven't seen the show in years, but that baseball card scene sounds vaguely familiar.

Also, thanks for including this in the "Random Awesomeness". :-) I always find the most interesting things in those posts.

Unknown said...

It was a xmas present. He sold his own (last) card to be able to buy a vase to Angela and she bought it the exact same card for Xmas.

M. G. said...

That's such a cool little project--and what a nice card that came out of it. . . . You probably know this already, but there are also a couple of handy & free online Topps templates & design sites (which are great for people like me who aren't as adept at this stuff and/or those who, also like me, lost their system that used to have Photoshop). Thanks for sharing, and I hope you're posting again soon.

Unknown said...

There was an episode where Angela bought Tony a baseball card for his birthday. I remember the owner of the baseball card store asking $300 for the card thinking the Angela was oblivious to the value of baseball cards, which she was, until Mona talked him down to the real value of card (I believe it was 25 cents), the going price for common cards at the time. For the record, the card depicted in the photo is not the card featured in the show. The actual card showed only his face staring into the camera as he holds the bat over his shoulder. I appeared to be an early 80s version. Tony Danza was born in 1951, making him about 33 yrs old at the beginning if his housekeeping career. So the timeline for his major league career would've been about the mid to late 70s. Since the mentioned his baseball card was hard to find, it suggests he had a short major league career.. Probably 2-3 yrs at the most. The show debuted in the fall of 1984 and he was driving a fish truck before working for Angela, so figure h played for the Cards around 1976-77 to about 1980.

Clarajays said...

Hi there ? Do we know his player number ?? :)

Steve Gierman said...

I'm not sure if a number was ever mentioned. That would be cool to find out though!

K3's Mom said...

In the Episode where Samantha makes the basketball team, she gets his number reversed. It’s 24 or 42. It’s available on the Roku channel.

Steve Gierman said...

I'll have to watch that now! Thanks for the info!!

Steve Gierman said...

It's 24.