#1 - How The Grinch Stole Christmas

My Top 5 Christmas Cartoons

Over the Christmas holiday I thought I would post my favorite Christmas Cartoons and/or Animated Specials.  In keeping with the theme of this blog, I made cards of them from their "rookie" season.  

My number 1 pick is The Grinch. Not the dreadful Ron Howard movie either. The original Boris Karloff narrated animated classic. It made it's TV debut in 1966. I decided to go with the Topps football card from that year. It just seemed more appropriate.

Merry Christmas to all. I will start posting again after the New Year. 

#2 - Hardrock, Coco and Joe

My Top 5 Christmas Cartoons

Over the Christmas holiday I thought I would post my favorite Christmas Cartoons and/or Animated Specials.  In keeping with the theme of this blog, I made cards of them from their "rookie" season.  

For my number 2 pick I went local.  If you grew up in Chicago, you know this animated short very well. It was shown on Ray Rayner and Garfield Goose during the holiday season on WGN TV. If you are not from Chicago it is quite possible that you have never heard of Ray Rayner or Garfield Goose, let alone Hardrock, Coco and Joe.  I will just let you google them.

Although this short was shown in Chicago starting in 1956 it was actually made in 1951 so I made 3 1951 Topps cards of the trio. Sorry about the quality, I was forced to use video stills. Below is the full video. It's only 3 minutes long but it brings back great childhood memories.

#3 - A Charlie Brown Christmas

My Top 5 Christmas Cartoons

Over the Christmas holiday I thought I would post my favorite Christmas Cartoons and/or Animated Specials.  In keeping with the theme of this blog, I made cards of them from their "rookie" season.  

For number 3 I returned to the more traditional. Who doesn't love "A Charlie Brown Christmas"?  It debuted in 1965 so I used a 1965-66 Topps Hockey card format. Below is the clip I stole this picture from.

#4 - The Spirit of Christmas

My Top 5 Christmas Cartoons

Over the Christmas holiday I thought I would post my favorite Christmas Cartoons and/or Animated Specials.  In keeping with the theme of this blog, I made cards of them from their "rookie" season.  

At number 4 we already have a kinda strange one. This was a "Christmas Card"  Trey Stone and Matt Parker were contracted to create for a friend in 1995. It led to the long-running Comedy Central series "South Park".

Above is my 1995 Topps card version and below is the whole cartoon. It's only about 5 minutes long and if you haven't seen it, it is totally worth watching. Warning: not safe for work.

#5 - Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

My Top 5 Christmas Cartoons

Over the Christmas holiday I thought I would post my favorite Christmas Cartoons and/or Animated Specials.  In keeping with the theme of this blog, I made cards of them from their "rookie" season.  

Number 5 starts out with a fairly common favorite. Rudolph was first aired in 1964 and here he is on a 1964 Topps baseball card. 

1964 Topps NL Stolen Base Leaders: Wills, Aaron, Pinson

After setting the modern-day stolen base record in 1962, Maury Wills' league leading 40 stolen bases in 1963 was somewhat a let down. It was still nine more than his nearest NL competitor.  

In 1963 Hank Aaron joined what was once the very exclusive 30/30 club. Up until 1963 it had only 2 members, Willie Mays (1956 and 1957) and Ken Williams of the 1922 St. Louis Browns. Hank Aaron stole a career high 31 bases in 1963. Aaron also led the league in Homers, RBIs and Runs scored in 1963.

In 1963, the speedy Vada Pinson led the league in triple and in base hits but was 3rd in stolen bases with 27.

1964 Topps AL Stolen Base Leaders: Aparicio, Hinton, Wood, Snyder

In his 1st season in an Orioles uniform, Luis Aparicio continued his dominance on the base paths. For the 8th consecutive year Aparicio led the AL in stolen bases. His 40 swipes were 15 more than the second place finisher.

Chuck Hinton was an outfielder by trade but was used in every defensive position except pitcher during his career. What he lacked in the field he made up for at the plate and on the base paths. In 1963 he had 15 homers and 25 stolen bases.

Jake Wood and Russ Snyder tied for 3rd with 18 stolen bases each. For Russ Snyder, it was a career high, For Jake Wood it was his lowest total yet in his 3 years in the Majors.

1964 Topps NL Leading Firemen: McDaniel, Perranoski, Baldschun

For the first time The Sporting News awarded their Reliever of the Year award to repeat winners. Both the AL winner and the NL winner had been won the award before and coincidentally both won it on different teams. In the AL Stu Miller won for the Orioles after winning the award as a Giant in 1961. In the NL it was Lindy McDaniel of the Cubs who had won the 1960 prize as a Cardinal.

Also repeating in second place was Ron Perranoski of the Dodgers. Once again it appears that the writers' votes were based strictly on saves only as McDaniel had 22 saves and a 13-7 record for the Cubs while Perranoski had 21 saves with a 16-3 record for the Dodgers. Both pitchers had 75 K's but Perranoski had a lower ERA.

Tied for 3rd place was Jack Baldschun and Roy Face with 16 saves each. Baldschun earned his way onto this fake card by winning 11 games in 1963 compared to only 3 wins for Face.

1964 Topps AL Leading Firemen: Miller, Radatz and Dailey

In 1963 Stu Miller was named The Sporting News Fireman of the Year. This was originally said to be given to the player with the most Saves and Relief Wins but was voted on by the writers and thus subjective. In 1963 Miller led the league in saves with 27 and had 5 wins. Dick Radatz had 25 saves and 15 wins, all in relief. It appears as though the 1963 award was given to the player strictly with the most saves. Dick Radatz, the 1962 recipient of the award, had the the better overall record for a reliever. Radatz also had more strikeouts and a lower ERA. 

There were 3 pitchers tied for 3rd with 21 saves, Bill Dailey of the Twins, Hoyt Wilhelm from the White Sox, and John Wyatt of the A's. Of the 3 Bill Dailey had the best overall record at 6-3 with 72 K's and a 1.99 ERA. That was enough to earn him the 3rd spot on this fake card.

Wilhelm was 5-8 with 111 K's and a 2.64 ERA and Wyatt was 6-4 with 81 K's and a 3.13 ERA.

1977 Topps Rookies: Page, Henderson, Rozema, Bannister

After switching to a single series in 1974, Topps did a poor job of  getting star rookies onto cards their rookie season. in 1977, eight players received Rookie of the Year consideration, only 3 made it into the Topps set for that year

In my last post I created a 1977 card that never was for the AL ROY, Eddie Murray who was conspicuously missing from the set. For this post I am creating a single rookie card for 4 others who received Rookie of the Year votes but were left out by Topps. The sad truth is, other than the Hall of Famers at the top of the ballot the rest were pretty forgettable. 

I don't want to give the wrong impression, all of these players had respectable baseball careers ranging from 6-15 years. They were just, well, forgettable. Bump Wills had the notoriety of being Maury Wills' son. Floyd Bannister was the only one to play in an All Star game. Just once and it was the same year he led the league in strike outs, then followed it up in 1983 as part of the "Winning Ugly" White Sox. 

Speed apparently played a big part in ROY voting. Four ROY candidates had double-digit steals. Dawson had 21, Wills had 28, Mitchell Page had 42 and Gene Richards had 56.

The 3 players who were included in the 1977 set appeared on 2 cards. Gene Richards shared a card with the NL Rookie of the Year Andre Dawson.

Bump Wills was also included on a multiplayer rookie card.

1977 Topps Eddie Murray

 In 1977 Eddie Murray and Andre Dawson were the Rookies of the Year. Both went on to be enshrined in Cooperstown.  Its not often that both AL and NL Rookies of the Year land in the Hall of Fame. 

In 1956 it was Luis Aparicio and Frank Robinson.

In 1967 we had Rod Carew and Tom Seaver.

And the most recent is Eddie Murray and Andre Dawson in 1977. The 2001 ROY's Ichiro and Albert Pujols, look like they have a pretty good chance but that is a fairly long drought.