1976 Topps Traded #74T - Oscar Gamble

The hair! My God, the hair!

Oscar certainly wins the prize for largest major league afro in 1975. His airbrushed cap can barely hold on to Oscar's head. Does that hair come with it's own gravitational pull?

Oscar almost looks like he's getting a migraine from all that hair sitting on top of his head. I do believe that the Yankees had to take an insurance policy out on those locks. Maybe he secretly wanted to be a backup singer for the Commodores.

Oscar Gamble may have been the modern day equivalent of Samson. Once the hair was gone, so was Oscar's strength. His statistics seemed to mirror his afro length.

This has to be one of the most recognizable cards of the seventies. The sheer volume of the hair made it an instant favorite with kids and adults alike. It would take two different stints with the White Sox before I realized the existence of this card.

Now, like the Doobie Brothers episode of What's Happening, I must bow down to the awesomeness of this card. I wonder what would happen if a player came out with a card like this today? I doubt that a player would sport this kind of hairstyle today. The current philosophy seems to be either shaved or some hairdo worthy of the Predator. This is truly a snapshot of the mid-seventies.

The George Washington DNA Relic

This card was talked about in every collector's magazine, blog and online venue. It featured an authentic strand of hair from the first recognized President of the United States. There have been many others before George Washington to hold the title of President of the United States. For arguments sake, we'll just say Washington is the first President.

I don't know about you, but the prospect of this card is a little creepy. It feels like grave robbing. In the 21st century, it's hard to imagine owning a strand of hair from a world famous person that died less than a month before the start of the 19th century.

Who would want to collect a card like this? Can we expect a card of Babe Ruth's follicles in the next few years? Will this lead to a flurry of authentic hair cards? The closest thing I can compare this to would be a CD that Mancow was selling that featured a little bag with a few strands of his beard. I didn't know what to do with that and I don't know what to do with this.

Mancow's hair giveaway with every CD was a joke. A poor joke about cloning if I remember correctly, but a joke nonetheless. This card is no joke. Maybe Topps will come out with a JFK hair strand card this year. Where do you draw the line though? Would a Michael Jordan hair card have more of an impact than George Washington? Would a Thad Bosley hair card have any collectors?

These are questions that I can't answer. I hope they are never answered. When I first heard of the George Washington card, I thought it was pretty cool. A piece of history. Then reality sunk in, the more I thought about it. What is the attraction here? Shouldn't this be in some museum or a presidential library? Why would this be included in a baseball card set? Baseball wasn't even invented in its modern form when George Washington was alive.

This would be a perfect fit for Donruss Americana. I just don't see how it fits in with Allen & Ginter. The only connection to Allen & Ginter that I can see would be smoking. I've heard rumors that George Washington used to smoke tobacco, marijuana and opium. There is no concrete evidence that he smoked anything, but he did grow tobacco.

I guess that if there are cards of uniforms, bats, gloves, baseballs and jackets, this shouldn't be so far fetched. It's just too much of a leap from things used in a baseball game. Someday there will be skin peelings from Trot Nixon from a sunburn that he got from playing the field. I hope not, but I wouldn't doubt it.