1971 O-Pee-Chee Bill Russell #226 Los Angeles Dodgers

Description

1971 O-Pee-Chee Bill Russell #226 Los Angeles Dodgers Capturing a future franchise cornerstone right before one of the most famous positional transformations in baseball history, the 1971 O-Pee-Chee Bill Russell #226 Los Angeles Dodgers card offers a nostalgic window into the birth of L. A.'s powerhouse seventies dynasty. Photographed beneath sun-drenched spring training palms in his crisp home whites bearing number 18, the 1969 MLB Centennial sleeve patch, and a classic William E. Russell facsimile signature across the lower frame, this early card still lists the Pittsburg, Kansas native as an outfielder just after he batted .259 with nine triples across 81 games in 1970 and right as manager Walter Alston and Maury Wills began schooling him to take over shortstop. Printed in significantly smaller quantities than its U. S. counterpart during O-Pee-Chee's landmark first full 752-card baseball set in London, Ontario, this black-bordered single carries exceptional appeal for Dodgers team historians and Canadian vintage collectors alike. Once installed permanently at shortstop beside Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, and Ron Cey, Russell anchored the longest-tenured intact infield in Major League history from June 1973 through 1981, becoming an enduring pop-culture touchstone across Southern California television broadcasts, Wheaties boxes, and ballpark giveaways throughout the decade. Across eighteen consecutive Major League seasons spent exclusively in Dodger blue from 1969 through 1986, Russell earned three National League All-Star selections in 1973, 1976, and 1980, collected 1,926 career hits and 167 stolen bases, helped capture four National League pennants, and delivered clutch October base hits to secure the 1981 World Series championship over the New York Yankees. His 2,181 games played still rank second in Los Angeles franchise history behind only Hall of Famer Zack Wheat, and he later returned to the dugout to succeed legendary skipper Tommy Lasorda as Dodgers manager from 1996 through 1998. Turning the card over confirms a genuine Canadian O-Pee-Chee bilingual back printed on bright yellow cardstock rather than a puzzle back, spotlighting English and French text about his All-American high school basketball and track stardom alongside his 1970 Major League batting table labeled Fiche Comme Frappeur Dans Les Majeures and the Printed in Canada double-asterisk mark at bottom left. Detailed inspection of the high-definition scans shows solid vertical balance at 50/50 top-to-bottom and mild leftward shift around 42/58 left-to-right on both the front and yellow reverse, with vivid portrait colors and zero ink writing or wax staining. However, all four black corners exhibit clear handling wear, most notably concentric diagonal corner creases and exposed grey-white paper layering across both the top-right and bottom-right corners, paired with rounded white tips on the top-left and bottom-left corners and visible white chipping along all four edges, placing this honest vintage copy squarely at a conservative raw VG 3 grade. Grade Estimate: VG 3