1975 Topps M.V.P. and R.O.Y. Cards: 1970-1974

In 1970 Munson and Morton appeared on multi-player rookie cards. For the purposes of the ROY card, I created regular issue cards for them.  I used "action" shots for these cards even though Topps wouldn't use action shots until the following year. Hopefully that distracts from the fact that I couldn't quite match the font.

Speaking of "action" shots, gotta love that '71 Torre card. And yes I know the uniform on Earl Williams wasn't used by the Braves until 1972.

As a huge Dick Allen fan, his 1972 card really bugs me. First, Topps re-used the same photo as the 1970 Dick Allen card on the Cardinals. To make matters worse the photo is of him in a Phillies uniform. The Cardinals never had pinstripes to the best of my knowledge. How old was that picture. At least he wasn't wearing the horn-rimmed glasses he wore on his rookie card. 

In 1973 all 4 players were outfielders. Once again both ROY winners appeared on multi-player rookie cards so I needed to create standard cards for them.

In 1974 there was no card for Mike Hargrove and Bake McBride appeared on a multi-player rookie card. With the Steve Garvey card going horizontal, I thought maybe I should update the ROY card to look more like the MVP card:

1975 Topps M.V.P. and R.O.Y. Cards: 1960-1969

In 1960, both Hanson and Howard had "Rookie Star" cards. Following the same train of thought I used on the 1959 ROY card, I wanted a regular issue card. I created a standard 1960 card for Frank Howard. Looking at it now in comparison to the Maris and Groat cards, both photos I used should have been zoomed in quite a bit to match the original set.

For the 1961 ROY card I needed to create only the Don Schwall card.

Here is a switch. The only "Card That Never Was" is the one created by Topps. Maury Wills was famously missing from the Topps sets until 1967, but they made one for their 1975 MVP subset.

For the 1963 card things got a little different for me. Both Rose and Peters appeared on multi-player "Rookie Stars" cards. For consistency, I created standard cards for them. But I wonder if Topps might have gone in a different direction:

or:

?

Once again, both ROY winners appeared on multi-player rookie cards in 1964. This time, I didn't create either of these "Cards That Never Were". For the "Richie" Allen card, I had to bow to the master of all things Dick Allen, the Dick Allen Hall of Fame blog. For the Oliva card, I lifted it from the Topps 1989 "Turn Back the Clock" subset:

Once again, in 1965 both players were on multi-player rookie cards and I made regular issue cards for them.

Ditto for 1966.

And 1967...

And 1968.

In 1969 Lou Piniella appeared on his 3rd multi-player rookie card on his 3rd different team (Senators, Indians & Pilots). However none of them would be the team he played for when he won Rookie of the Year honors. For the 1969 card I had to make Piniella's first Royals card as well as a rookie card for Sizemore.

1975 Topps M.V.P. and R.O.Y. Cards: 1951-1959

Now that I have finally finished my run of Rookie of the Year cards as they might have appeared on 1975 Topps MVP cards I thought I would look back and see how they stacked up.

Neither Gil McDougald, nor Willie Mays had 1951 Topps cards so these were some of my earliest works. To Topps' credit, a '51 Campanella didn't exist either. For the MVP card they also modified the existing Yogi Berra card.

They increased the size and darkened the font of his name and eliminated the other text. They followed suit on the Campy cards as well. I tried to stay true to the original but it made the card harder to read. Topps made the right move.

For the 1952 card I needed only to create the Harry Byrd card. 

For the 1953 card I chose to use the Kuenn card Topps created for the 1991 Archives set. Kuenn did not have a card in the original 1953 Topps set.

Once again I used the Archives card for this one. Bob Grim was not included in the original set but was in the 1994 Archives set.

1955 shows 3 "Cards That Never Were". The first being the Campanella card Topps created for the 1975 MVP. Both photos black and white and what is worse, he is wearing an L.A. Dodgers cap. On the ROY card I used the 1955 Herb Score card that was created by Topps as a V.I.P. give-away at the National Sports Collector's Convention in 2005. The Virdon card was mine.

Mantle, Newcombe and Aparicio all had cards issued by Topps in 1956. The Robinson card was also a Topps creation. Once again I used a VIP card from the Nationals, this time from 2006.

For the first time all 4 cards were actually issued in the original set.

Ditto for 1958.

For the 1959 card I needed to create a McCovey rookie card. In this case I decided to make it look like a regular issue card as opposed to the Rookie Stars card like Bob Allison. If Topps had issued these cards they might've gone the other way because the standard 1959 set was already well represented on the MVP card. I felt that as a stand-alone card I needed to show off the standard set.