Card sharks

How many items are out of place in the following Derek Jeter baseball card issued by Topps?

1. George Bush wasn’t really at the game in question, and his left arm is missing.
2. Mick Mantle certainly wasn’t in the dugout at the game in question
3. Derek Jeter isn’t backing away and complaining about a pitch on the inside corner.

OK, 1 and 2, at least, as those wacky baseball card creators superimposed the images – for reasons unknown, really – on Jeter’s 2007 card, which could end up causing a stir at the White House. The New York Daily News reports that using the prez’s likeness requires the White House’s permission, and officials only declined comment yesterday.

Jeter told the Daily News he hasn’t heard anything about the card.

Apparently the value of the card had been going for only about $2 on eBay, although one auction this morning was at $44.02, with 19 bids. But it makes one wonder what it might have been had Jeter’s former lady friend Jessica Biel been the intended superimposition in the Yankees dugout.

Then again, maybe Mickey Mantle has more of a drool factor than Biel for the card-collecting type anyhow.

Update: Turns out the Topps folks had even more fun Photoshopping Jeter’s card, as reader Jeff Philips rightly points out:

“Just wanted to point out that Bush and Mantle are not the only things photoshopped into that picture. Jeter most definitely is… he’s on the wrong side of the plate.

It’s evident by not only the fact that he bats righty, but look at the follow through, and tell me how you end up with that follow through on that side of the plate. And, just because everything else is photoshopped in there, I’d venture a guess that the catcher is as well….he may not be, but it would sure be hard to take a photo with that catcher in it, photoshop out the actual batter, and stick Jeter in on the wrong side of the plate, especially based on the skill level involved with Mantle and Bush (which, let’s face it, were not done very well).”