Will the REAL Barry Bonds Please Stand Up? A Game

If you know me, you know I love photoshopping things. I’ve been wanting to do something like this for a while, but wasn’t sure how it would manifest itself until last night. I have come up with a fun game. Can you spot the error? The game is to look closely at the cards below, and see if you can figure out what is wrong with them … NO CHEATING!!! That means, NO GOOGLING. The answers are at the bottom of the post for you once you are done 🙂

Let’s get started, shall we?

1982 Topps Cal Ripken Jr. Rookie Card

The first REAL collectible multi rookie card of the 1980’s features the Iron Man smack dab in the middle. What is wrong with this?

1987 Topps Jose Canseco

Jose’s most iconic Topps baseball card. Sitting on the bench, early in his 20s ready to mash. This card has likely been viewed by you hundreds of times. What is wrong with it?

1993 SP Derek Jeter

Jeter’s most coveted rookie card: The 1993 SP. It has enjoyed some increase in value since retiring. Something is off with this iconic card, though. What is it?

1990 Donruss John Smoltz MVP Error showing Tom Glavine

Donruss goofed up big time here, putting Glavine instead of Smoltz citing the reason “All white dudes look the same”. Ok, maybe they didn’t say that. This, however, is an error-error. What is the problemo here?

1986-87 Fleer Michael Jordan Rookie

MJ is not baseball, obviously but shouldn’t the most iconic card from the 80s to present be featured here? The only thing more jaw dropping than its price is how much this card is faked. What is fake about this one?

1987 Donruss Opening Day Barry Bonds / Johnny Ray Error

They were both on the Pirates and they both had moustaches, so who can blame Donruss on this faux-pas? The most expensive Johnny Ray card ever, no doubt. The moment this error was discovered, collectors scrambled to find this elusive card. Well, not this card exactly. Why not?

AND NOW FOR THE ANSWERS. Hopefully you didn’t peek!

1982 Topps Cal Ripken Jr. Rookie Card

The card you see shows Ripken, alright. But what about the other two guys?

Bob Bonner is safe, but Jeff Schneider morphed into 1970’s teen heart throb David Cassidy from the Partridge Family.

1987 Topps Jose Canseco

So, what is up with Jose? It looks good, right?

Check out the Gatorade bottle and banner in the background that I added. Don’t see anything else? Take a look at his name. The #1 misspelling for Canseco is “Conseco” so that would probably have been a tough one for folks.

1993 SP Derek Jeter

This one is very subtle. It is hard to see right off, as it looks like Derek was in the middle of juggling baseballs but ended up tripping over the SS logo.

Give up? The fake card shows the ball not having left his hand yet, whereas the real one shows the ball already having been tossed.

1990 Donruss John Smoltz MVP Error showing Tom Glavine

Unless you are a Braves fan from the early 90s, you may not get this one. The pic below is obviously not John Smoltz … that was the whole point in doing this card, because Donruss put Tom Glavine on it instead. But this isn’t Tom Glavine, either. Who is it?

None other than their tomahawk chopping stablemate, Steve Avery.

Here are the error-error, error and corrected versions altogether.

1986-87 Fleer Michael Jordan Rookie

I put this one together as a joke last month. EVERYONE knows this card. And EVERYONE knows that 9 out of 10 of them are probably counterfeit. I took a PSA graded copy and worked some magic on it, while asking people online if they thought it was real or fake, and if fake, why? They came back to me with MANY answers. “The logo is fuzzy.” “The tag is too gold.” “The font is off.” Barely anyone got it right….

…that there was no basketball hoop! C’mon, peeps! I mean, what is Jordan dunking into?

1987 Donruss Opening Day Barry Bonds / Johnny Ray Error

Last, but not least … We have the Bonds/Ray error. If you can’t tell what is wrong with this one, then do not pass go and do not collect $200.

The picture you see is not Johnny Ray at all. It is, as my dad would call him, Sid “Coffee and” Bream. Bream spent the majority of his career with the Pirates and Braves, but to my knowledge has NEVER been mistaken for Barry Bonds.