My Picks #83: Wes Walz

Every now and then you come across a card where something just doesn't seem right. This pick is definitely one of those and has an error that I didn't even notice for the longest time. It's a Wes Walz from 2001-02 Upper Deck Vintage.

This set was the second iteration of UD "Vintage" as it followed the 2001 version that was competing with Topps Heritage. Now that was a great looking "vintage" set. This one not so much. I think it may just be this card, something seems off about a Wild jersey paired with a "vintage" card design. If it were an Original Six sweater, I may think differently.

Anyway, if you look at the bottom of the card, you see "Wez Walz" written. Hmm, that seems a little odd doesn't it. The correct spelling, Wes, isn't all that common of a name as far as I know, so how does it get misspelled like that? Was it because of the "z" at the end of Walz, and the designer somehow subconsciously thought it looked better that way?

 Here's a look at the back of the card, where Wes' first name is actually spelled correctly.

Not sure what happened on this one, as the front is wrong, but the back is right. I guess nobody's perfect and this one slipped by the quality control process.

Designing and editing cards is something for which I would love to know how the process works. Is there one person who does all the work for a given set, and how do they go about proof reading / spell checking everything? How often does something like this get by?

Hey, I could start another mini-PC project of cards with misspelled names on the front. Nah, I better leave that for someone else, I'm already busy enough with my other projects. So someone feel free to steal that idea and run with it. By the way, do you guys have or know of any other examples of misspellings like this?