NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- 1972 JERRY MORALES

Time to go and give long-time outfielder Jerry Morales a “not so missing” 1972 card based on his action during the 1971 season. So here goes:

Morales was a 22-year-old who appeared in only 12 games for the San Diego padres in 1971, hitting .118 with two hits over 17 at-bats while manning all three outfield positions in his brief action.
He’d see full-time work in 1972, hitting .239 over 115 games, collecting 83 hits over 347 at-bats, with 38 runs scored and 18 RBIs with 26 extra-base-hits.
He’d be a full-time player over the next seven seasons, playing for the Padres, Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals and Detroit Tigers between 1973 and 1979, before playing in 94 games for the New York Mets in 1980 followed by three part-time years with the Cubs again between 1981 and 1983.
All told, he finished his 15-year MLB career with a .259 batting average, with 1173 hits over 4528 at-bats in 1441 games between 1969 and 1983, with 516 runs scored and 570 RBIs.
His 1975 season is easily his best, as he hit .270 for the Cubs while driving in a career high 91 runs with 12 homers and 21 doubles while appearing in 153 games, also a career-high.

RANDOM QUICKIE: THE TRADE THAT AIRBRUSHING FORGOT

For years I have always wondered why, at the zenith of Topps airbrushing, they didn't seem to bother in 1974 with two players who were traded for each other: Glenn Beckert (#241) and Jerry Morales (#258).

Does anyone know why?

Beckert was traded to the Padres from the Cubs along with Bobby Fenwick on November 7th of 1973 for Morales, so I figured it was early enough to try and do an airbrush job on the two. However, there they are, showing their new, correct, teams but still in their "old" uniforms. Odd.

The mid-70's were such an era of airbrushing (both good and bad) that I'm really stumped. It also does bring up the question: why didn't Topps spare themselves all the airbrushing disasters and just do what they did here? Pretty easy to figure out that a player was traded in the off-season and the only images available are with the previous team. Right?

Anyway, one of those childhood questions that lingers to this day…

Beckert in San Diego...ummm make that Washington D.C., or Chicago?!

Morales sporting an oddly San Diego-like Cubs uniform (??)