The
1977 Laughlin Erorrs
set (yes the misspelling is intentional) is a 40 card set that is dedicated to
errors that appear on baseball cards! It's a great little set with those great
Laughlin cartoons, and I thought it would be fun to do a semi-regular series
dedicated to the set and errors found within!
The last time I did one of these posts, we were once again dealing with a card that supposedly had the wrong back. In that case, the front was actually wrong but I mentioned how I had a hard time finding another instance of a card where the back was consistently printed incorrectly. I guess I just needed to look at the next card in this set, because Milt's card initially had his little brother Frank's information on the back.
However in later productions, this card was corrected:
It's easy to see where someone at Bowman could get confused. Milt and Frank were roughly 14 months apart in age, and both played the middle infield for an American League team. They even looked alike:
Frank was the more accomplished player, making 4 All-Star teams and winning a Gold Glove. Milt's career on the field was cut short by injuries, but spent over 40 years in the Red Sox organization as a scout and executive assistant.
As far as error cards go, that sibling connection is the most noticeable thing about the card. It's also not the last time we get an error card featuring a mistaken identity with someone's brother:
The story of Gary's brother Lynn appearing on his 1985 Topps card is well known by those of us that grew up in the mid-80's. It remains one of the most recognized error cards of all time.
