This 1972 Topps baseball card, with Billy Cowan of the California Angels, has always been a favorite in my baseball card collection. The photographer must have had a good sense of humor, to have Cowan pose in this exact location, allowing the halo in the background to be perfectly positioned over his head!
Curious about that structure and the story behind this card, I went looking for more info. The “A” with the halo on top was originally part of the scoreboard at Angel Stadium of Anaheim, which opened in the spring of 1966 – you can see different views of it in this collection of photos. There’s no way this could have been an accidental positioning, as the halo is perfectly aligned above Cowan’s baseball hat – but one has to wonder, with the serious look on Cowan’s face, was he in on the photographer’s joke? Or was he completely unaware of what the Topps photographer was doing to him?
Looking at the back of this baseball card today, I was amused to see that the stats on the back include Billy Cowan’s batting record in both the major leagues and the minor leagues, so I learned that he spent time in Wenatchee, St. Cloud, San Antonio, Salt Lake City, and Buffalo (among other locations) before making his way to California and becoming an Angel (in more ways than one).
If you’d like to own this card yourself for a few bucks, let me know – it’s available for sale.