Imagine a Bar Mitzvah in 1968. Picture it. The horn-rimmed glasses, the avocado colored dresses, tweed suits that look like they're cut straight from the border of a 1969 Topps Baseball card. If you close your eyes, you can picture exactly what this looks like, can't you?
To top it all off, this particular celebration has a caricaturist. I'm sure that you've seen them, at the Bar Mitzvahs you went to, or senior nights or quinceañeras. They're there for the kids, who walk home with an oversize print of them with an oversized head doing something that they like. Like playing baseball, or driving a race car or waterskiing on the top of a human pyramid holding the tow rope with their teeth. You know, the normal stuff.
What luck then, that these two guys happened to be at the party:
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| 1968 Tasco Prints Bill Freehan |
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| 1968 Tasco Prints Denny McLain |
How awesome are these, in a "god McLain is an ugly guy and these are humongous and stupid but I must have them" kind of way? They are 1968 Tasco Prints--basically artist caricatures of great baseball players from 1968 (there is a '69 edition too) done by an artist out of Livonia, MI who somehow wrangled himself an MLB license. They're not just Tigers either, but greats like Willie Mays, Brooks Robinson, Frank Howard and many more.
Needless to say, I couldn't resist. When I saw these I couldn't help but picture some wide-eyed 13 year old go slack-jawed as he watches his heroes walk into the reception hall on their way home from a game. And then, before he can even say "Hi", watches them get in line for a caricature that they'll take back to the Stadium to hang in their lockers. Maybe McLain throws him a "Mazel Tov" on the way out.
