1979 Topps John Castino

In 1979 John Castino was co-ROY with Alfredo Griffin of the Toronto Blue Jays. Castino did not have a card in the 1979 Topps set. Also the 1979 Topps set did not include horizontal cards. When I came across this picture, I knew I had to make a horizontal card to accommodate it. 

Castino put up solid numbers during his career and was named as one of the "50 Greatest Twin Players" by the Minnesota Twins as part of their 50th anniversary celebration in 2010. His career was cut short by chronic back pain. In 1984 at the age of 29 his playing days were over.

1979 Topps Alfredo Griffin

In 1979 Alfredo Griffin was the AL co-Rookie of the Year along with John Castino of the Minnesota Twins. Griffin was the only one of the 3 ROYs in 1979 to have a card in the Topps set. Unfortunately the card he appeared on was a Cleveland Indians Prospects card. Griffin had made breif appearances for the Indians in 1976, 77 and 78 before they traded him to the Blue Jays for pitcher Victor Cruz. Victor Cruz was featured on the Blue Jays Prospect card.

1964-65 Topps Hockey Checklist - Cards That Never Were - 23rd Series

The majority of this series is the seemingly never ending stream of 1973 All Star cards. The truth is I really enjoyed playing around with this set and creating different cards that were consistent with the original set designs. I followed that theme up with a football and a hockey card. I keep vowing to myself that I will incorporate more football and hockey cards into this blog but I always fall short. If nothing else, there are some nice looking football and hockey checklist cards that I can adapt. This one in particular I had to really squeeze to fit all 25 cards. But I think it was worth it.

1972-73 Topps Conn Smythe Trophy - Bobby Orr

In the 1972-73 hockey set Topps made cards of the trophies rather than the trophy winners. This is similar to what they did in their 1972 baseball set. A while back I updated those cards to make them more appealing to me. Now I am giving the same treatment to the hockey cards. 

The Conn Smythe Trophy is given to the MVP of the Stanley Cup playoffs. In 1972 it was awarded to Bobby Orr of the Boston Bruins. Orr actually accumulated quite a bit of hardware for his 1971-72 efforts, but more on that later. The card itself originally looked like this:

I modified it a bit to include the player's name while trying to be consistent with the set. Here is Bobby Orr's base card from that set:

1957 Topps Jim Brown

In 1957 Jim Brown was named the NFL Rookie of the Year by the United Press as well as the Most Valuable Player by the Associated Press and The Sporting News (Y.A. Tittle was the UPI MVP). The Cleveland Browns 1st pick (6th overall) led the league in rushing his rookie year. He would go on to be the league leading rusher in 8 of his 9 years in the NFL.

I think Topps missed an opportunity when making their 1994 Football Archives set. They could have included cards like this one and cards of the other key players and rookies missing from the original set similar to the Baseball Archives sets.

In 1955 United Press International began recognizing the top rookie in the NFL. Since then there have been several incarnations of the NFL Rookie of the Year award. Many of them were overlapping. But NFL cards have lagged badly. Oddly the very first ROYs were included in the 1955 Bowman and 1956 Topps sets.

But from 1957 until 1988 there was exactly 4 ROYs included in all the sets from Topps, Fleer and Philadelphia. 1 NFL and 2 AFL ROYs from Topps and 1 AFL ROY from Fleer.

 It wasn't until 1989 when rookies began to appear.  In 1989 Topps added a "Traded" series. That series was in response to the new competition from Score and Pro Set who included several rookie players in their sets. 

1973 Topps All Star Cards - American League West

The Oakland A's is where I really have to stretch this concept. With seven All Stars (including coach Dick Williams) but only 1 starter, I attempted to make a manager/coach type card. But 6 photos were too many to squeeze into the coach boxes. This was the next best option.

For the White Sox I was able to use the same format as the Mets. With Dick Allen Starting and May and Wood in reserves, this style fit nicely.

Carew was the sole representative from the Twin Cities so I didn't need a new card for him.

The Royals boasted 6 All Stars but no starters. One of the more questionable moves of the All Star game was when Cookie Rojas pinch hit for Rod Carew against Bill Stoneman. Having a right hander who was hitting .261 in 1972 pinch hit for a left hander who led the league in batting average, against a right handed pitcher? Crazy, right? Nope, 2 run homer! Earl Weaver is a mad genius.

Nolan Ryan was the sole rep of the California Angels but never saw action. I broke from using action shots on the individual All Star cards because this is just a great picture. Ryan never actually played in this uniform. By 1972 the hats had a capital "A" and they had adopted the same elastic waistband look that dominated baseball in the 1970s. This must have been a promo shot after his trade in 1971 or possibly they were still wearing these unis in spring training in 1972. Either way it was too cool to pass up.

In their first year in Texas, the Rangers sent Toby Harrah to represent the team in the All Star game. He didn't play.

1973 Topps All Star Cards - National League West

The Reds had 2 starting All Stars on their roster, Johnny Bench and the All Star MVP Joe Morgan. Clay Carroll and Gary Nolan were both reserves. For Nolan it was his only All Star game. For Carroll it was his second and final. Neither pitcher left the bullpen.

Don Sutton was the Dodgers' sole representative in the 1972 game. He pitched 2 scoreless innings giving up only 1 hit no walks and striking out 2.

Both Astros would play a part in the NL win in the 1972 ASG. Cedeno came in to relieve Willy Mays in centerfield in the 6th. He would single and score an Hank Aaron's 2 run blast to put the NL ahead in the 6th inning. Lee May was the starting first baseman for the NL and drove in the tying run in the 9th.

Hank Aaron was the only Brave on the NL roster. 

The Giants were represented by Chris Speier and manager Charlie Fox who acted as 3rd base coach in the 1972 ASG.

Nate Colbert scored the winning run in the wrong uniform. In 1972 both the home and away uniforms for the Padres were mustard colored the only distinction between home and away was that the home unis had "Padres" across the chest while the away had "San Diego". Colbert wore the one with "San Diego" despite playing in Atlanta with the NL hosting.

1973 Topps All Star Cards - American League East

In the AL East, I once again get to utilize the Manager/Coaches format for the Team All Star cards. Freehan was the starting catcher in the 1972 All Star Game. Joe Coleman made his only ASG in 1972 but never left the bullpen. Lolich pitched 2 scoreless inning for the AL. Norm Cash came in to relieve Dick Allen and struck out in his only at bat.

Yaz was not the only Boston Red Sox elected to the All Star team. Aparicio was also picked to start but had to sit out due to injury. 1972 Rookie of the Year Carlton Fisk singled and scored on Cookie Rojas's 8th inning homer. Reggie Smith struck out pinch hitting for Gaylord Perry.

The Orioles had 3 starters plus the All Star Manager. Pat Dobson and Dave McNally were reserves. Dobson never saw action but McNally got the loss by giving up a walk a sacrifice bunt and a single in the 10th inning.

Bobby Murcer was the Yankees' sole representative in the 1972 ASG. These were dark times for Yankees fans. It had been 10 years since their last World Series Championship and it would be another 5 years until their next. My heart bleeds. Call me when you get to 106 years.

According to Baseball-Reference there were 3 blown saves in the 1972 ASG. The first belonging to the Indians only All Star, Gaylord Perry who gave up a 2 run homer to Hank Aaron. 

In their 3rd year of existence the Brewers had one player representing them in each ASG. In 1972 it was Ellie Rodriguez who never saw action. In 1971 it was pitcher Marty Pattin who didn't leave the bullpen. Tommy Harper was still the only Brewer to see action in an All Star Game. He was a pinch runner in 1970 and was promptly caught stealing.

1964 Topps Football Checklist - Cards That Never Were - 22nd Series

I needed to interrupt the remake of the 1973 All Star cards because I forgot to document the completion of yet another 25 cards created for this blog. You might have noticed that I abandoned the 1961 Topps baseball format. This is a modified 1964 Topps football checklist. Also abandoned were the video checklists. I found another way to get all the cards from the checklist in one place. Well sort of. I have created pages that can be accessed by clicking on the checklists on the right border. Unfortunately, google limits the supplemental pages to 20. Since this is my 22nd series, I was already over the limit. So I doubled up. Each one of those links will get you to the 50 cards created for the corresponding series.

1973 Topps All Star Cards - National League East

When posting the 1973 All Star cards that never were, I let it be known that it was not my first version. I had created a 1973 All Star card for Don Kessinger which included all of the Cubs All Stars from 1972 even the reserves. I had based it off the 1973 Topps Manager/Coaches cards. This was not a format that would work for all teams. In fact it worked for very few of them. Long story short with a little prodding I decided to create team-based 1973 All Star cards. Because of the wide range of players representing different teams in the 1972 All Star game, I had to employ various designs. I've broken them down by division and posted them in the order they finished the 1972 season.

This is the card that I wanted to make the most. Mainly because it fit the same format I used for the Cubs already. But also because of the great players like Clemente, and Oliver. Clemente was actually supposed to be a starter but was out due to an injury. Willie Mays replaced him in the starting line up.

This is the card that started the thread. I made this first. Before I decided to create All Star cards that never were. In fact I made it before I created this blog.

Here is another concept I had toyed with before settling on the final version. I think it works especially well for the Mets as Mays was in the starting line up and Seaver and McGraw were in the bullpen. I think I would have really liked to find this card back in the day. Everyone seems so happy. I came across the picture of Mays smiling at the plate and had to find similarly joyous photos of the other two.

Yet another format. I could have made this fit the same format as the Cubs and the Bucs but who would get the big picture? Both Torre and Gibson were starters.

Bill Stoneman was the sole representative of the Montreal Expos so I just gave him a card like all the other All Stars.

Ditto for "Lefty".