1963 Topps, Lew Krausse

#104 Lew Krausse

Here is another card that I got signed at the Kansas City A's reunion in July. This was one of the easier cards for me to get signed that day as I found Lew on his way to the stairs to the A's suite. Someone else had stopped him for his autograph and when I got there, he had his ID badge showing so I knew who he was.

I bought this card from checkoutmycards.com and they had a few Lew Krausse cards to choose from. I chose this one because it looked so strange. For some reason, the grass is airbrushed in the card and it makes Lew look like he is floating in the outfield. I don't have many '63 Topps cards to compare this to, but I hope it was a common thing in '63. Hopefully Topps will recreate the airbrushed grass with their 2012 Topps Heritage set. Interestingly, Topps used the same photo, without the airbrushing, for Lew's '64 card.

Lew's career lasted twelve seasons and he played for the A's, Brewers, Red Sox, Cardinals, and Braves. His best season was probably the '66 campaign when he finished the year 14-9 with a 2.99 ERA. Four years later, he found himself on a young Brewers team and he posted a 13-18 record for them. If you looked strictly at wins, that would have been his second best season. 1974 was his final season in the Majors.