1979 Mitock LA Dodgers Baseball Postcards #5, Andy Messersmith

Today's postcard sits right in Night Owl's wheelhouse, as a night-time Dodger photo from the 1970s. Check out his blog's ongoing series of awesome night cards, if you haven't already. They remind you how different the game looks under man-made light.

Can't tell if Andy's throwing a real pitch, but the photographer caught a nice windup pose of his curve ball or close-grip heater. Nice design choice on that white-on-black autograph, too, something you don't see much on cards from any era. 

The solid + green + mound card composition also reminded me of the 1933 Goudey set. All it's missing is that ad for BIG LEAGUE Chewing Gum and a 1930s patina.

Today's Mitock Publishing-made postcard turned up at the 2011 National in Chicago mixed in with many others published during the 1960s and 1970s. According to what I can find online, the KVB11955 tag line means 1979 and includes at least these Dodger players.

• KVB11955-1: Bob Welch
• KVB11955-2: ?
• KVB11955-3: ?
• KVB11955-4: Derrell Thomas
• KVB11955-5: Andy Messersmith
• KVB11955-6: Garry Thomasson

Let me know if you've seen others from this series and we'll fill out the checklist.

Value: I paid $4 for Mr. Messersmith, who grades a solid VG-EX.

Fakes / reprints: Don't know of any in the marketplace. I suspect it'd be hard to make money faking baseball postcard, unless you went back to the pre-war era.