1971 O-Pee-Chee Al Downing #182 Traded Los Angeles Dodgers

Description

1971 O-Pee-Chee Al Downing #182 Traded Los Angeles Dodgers Prized by variation hunters and Dodgers team completionists as a true north-of-the-border exclusive, the 1971 O-Pee-Chee Al Downing #182 Traded Los Angeles Dodgers card exists nowhere in the American Topps set as a Dodgers issue. Because Topps finalized its Series Two printing plates before Los Angeles acquired Downing from Milwaukee for Andy Kosco on February 10, 1971, every U. S. copy of card number 182 lists him with the Brewers, whereas O-Pee-Chee's slightly later Canadian press run in London, Ontario updated the front banner to bold red Dodgers block lettering, stamped Recently Traded to Dodgers across the upper-left sky beside his blue Milwaukee cap, and changed his reverse team header to Los Angeles Dodgers. That fascinating cross-border production difference makes this scarce Canadian single mandatory for any collector assembling a master 1971 Dodgers team binder. Beyond its regional hobby scarcity, the card celebrates one of baseball's most accomplished trailblazers and enduring pop-culture figures. A former Trenton Police Athletic League phenom who broke barriers in 1961 as the very first Black starting pitcher in New York Yankees history, captured the 1964 American League strikeout crown with 217 punchouts, helped pitch New York to consecutive World Series appearances, and earned 1967 All-Star honors, Downing immediately rewarded Los Angeles in 1971 with the finest campaign of his seventeen-year career, posting a dominant 20-9 record, 2.68 ERA, Major League-leading five shutouts, third-place finish in National League Cy Young voting, and NL Comeback Player of the Year honors. Three springs later on April 8, 1974 before a national television audience in Atlanta, Downing etched his name permanently into American cultural history when he delivered the fourth-inning fastball that Hank Aaron launched into the left-field bullpen for his record-breaking 715th career home run, handling decades of spotlight interviews alongside Aaron with warmth and class before starring alongside Vin Scully and Ross Porter in the Dodgers radio booth for years. Turning the card over confirms an authentic Canadian O-Pee-Chee bilingual back printed on yellow cardstock rather than a puzzle back, pairing parallel French and English biographies with full Major League pitching statistics and the Printed in Canada double-asterisk imprint. High-resolution scans confirm zero through-card creases, surface wrinkles, pen marks, or wax stains front or back. Centering shifts left on the front at roughly 36/64 left-to-right and 45/55 top-to-bottom, with corresponding leftward alignment on the clean yellow reverse. Pronounced rounding and white-grey wear show at the top-right corner alongside moderate white rounding on both bottom corners, lighter tipping at top-left, and noticeable white chipping across the bottom and upper-right black borders, establishing a conservative raw VG-EX 4 grade. Grade Estimate: VG-EX 4