Last month, I wrote about the 20-card 1969 Topps “The Sporting News” All-Star baseball subset, highlighting how most of the monochrome action shot background photos were not images of the colorful star players featured on the cards. Of the 20 in the star-spangled subset, I was unable to identify sources for six of those all-star backgrounds. Today I’m pleased to share with you the photograph used on one of the mystery cards, and it’s a big name – one of the greatest of all time. I’m not quite sure how I overlooked this, because in hindsight, it was just waiting to be discovered.
To refresh everyone, the unidentified black & white player I’m referencing was on the 1969 Topps Brooks Robinson All-Star card #421. 
I had studied the grayscale image, even enlarged it to look for facial clues. I jokingly thought the batter looked more like famed filmmaker/actor/comedian Woody Allen than the O’s hot corner hero.
As I was doing research for a different Topps vintage article I’m currently writing (stay tuned, it’s coming and should be eye-opening fun), I stumbled upon the definitive image on the Robinson card. Drum roll, please…
Yes, that’s right, it’s Hammerin’ Hank himself as seen on the backside of his 1964 Topps Giants card #49. How cool is that!? You can see in the circle below how the two images align perfectly.
Topps did their best to put Henry on the witness protection program on Brooks’ card by giving Aaron a face-altering makeover, changing skin tone and airbrushing out Braves logos and his iconic 44 jersey number.
Where was the photo snapped, you ask? Aaron and the Milwaukee Braves played pre-season games in newly-minted Municipal Stadium in West Palm Beach, Florida starting in 1963.
The stadium was christened on March 9, 1963 when the Braves lost to the Kansas City Athletics 3-0. Here’s a nice shot of home plate with the outlandish hot tin roof in the background.
A close-up of the chain-link fence on Aaron’s 1964 Topps Giants card back seems to match the zoomed-in Municipal Stadium box seat chain-link fence below.
From a Topps production timing standpoint, the photo of Aaron batting on the back of 1964 Topps Giants card #49 would make sense that it may have been taken in 1963 at the Braves new digs, but further digging makes me think otherwise. It boils down to stadium seats.
The seats on the 1964 Topps Giants Aaron card #49 are rounded folding chairs, while the chairs at Municipal Stadium are straight and slatted. 
Before relocating to Municipal Stadium in 1963, Milwaukee used Braves Field in Bradenton, Florida as their winter and spring home from 1953-1962. 
Here’s a beautiful photo of Aaron at the plate shot by Hy Peskin in March, 1956 at Braves Field, with chain-link fence and rounded folding chairs circled.
I believe the photo on the reverse side of Aaron’s 1964 Topps Giants card #49 is from Braves Field in Bradenton before they moved to Municipal Stadium in West Palm Beach, thanks to matching arched folding chairs present in both snapshots.
You can grab a copy of the Brooks Robinson All-Star card with the Hammer cameo for just a few bucks on eBay.
Another Topps vintage card mystery solved. And for all you Hank Aaron card collectors out there, put the 1969 Topps Brooks Robinson All-Star card #421 on your master list.
Related Stories:
Comic Sketch: 1969 Topps National League Manager Cards & Cartoons
Mistaken Identities: “The Sporting News” 1969 Topps All-Stars
Comic Sketch: Photo Matching the 1969 Topps American League Manager Cards & Cartoons
1969 Topps Baseball Team Posters – Part 1: Big, Bold & Borrowed
1969 Topps Baseball Team Posters – Part 2: Giant Size! Assembly
Topps’ “Other” 1969 Baseball Sets Were Small, Tall
Original Drawings Reveal What Topps Did to Jim Lemon’s Weird 1969 Card
Roll Call: All-Time Topps Vintage Baseball Team Cards Roster Revealed
