UPDATE: 1952 Topps Survivors

 I felt it was time to update the list of players in the iconic 1952 Topps set that are still with us. This was a project that was begun by the late Bob Lemke. Since my last update of this list, Eddie Robinson  passed away at the ripe old age of 100. He was the oldest living MLB player at the time of his death. In August we lost Johnny Groth. He was 95. Cloyd Boyer, the older brother of Clete and Ken Boyer, left us in September at the age of 94.

That brings the survivors of the 1952 Topps set down to twelve. Here is the current list of the '52 survivors: 

Bobby Shantz

Born 9/26/1925

Card #219

Bobby Morgan

Born 6/29/1926

Card #355

Carl Erskine

Born 12/13/1926

Card #250

Charlie Maxwell

Born 4/8/1927

Card #180

Bob Kelly

Born 10/4/1927

Card #348

Tommy Brown

Born 12/6/1927

Card #281

Bob Ross 

Born 11/2/1928

Card #298

Curt Simmons

Born 5/19/1929

Card #203

Ike Delock

Born 11/11/1929

Card #329

Vern Law

Born 3/12/1930

Card #81

Dick Groat

Born 11/4/1930

Card #369

Willie Mays

Born 5/6/1931

Card #261

With the passing of Eddie Robinson earlier this month, the oldest living MLB player is George Elder.  He played only part of one season with the St. Louis Browns in 1949.  He played a total of 4 years of pro ball from 1947-1950.  He played minor league ball with the Toledo Mud Hens, San Antonio Missions, Baltimore Orioles. Beaumont Exporters and the Wichita Indians.  Since he never had a baseball card, I made him one in the style of the 1983 Topps Super Veteran cards.

1952 Topps Survivors

I was just reading the "Night Owl" post from June 3rd, about how the players of our youth seem to be passing away at an alarming rate.  Specifically, players from the 1975 Topps set.  It reminded me of another blogger who passed away a little over 4 years ago, Bob Lemke.  Bob kept tabs of who was still alive from the 1952 Topps set. 

Obviously, the list hasn't been updated in quite a while, so here is Bob's last update from November 2016  (Link Here).  This was his list of surviving players from the 1952 Topps set: 

PLAYER                     1952 TOPPS   BIRTH          TEAM
                        `           CARD NO.      DATE
Wally Westlake           38                    11/08/1920   SLC
Eddie Robinson           32                    12/15/1920   CWS
Sam Mele                    94                    01/21/1922   WSH
Gil Coan                      91                    05/18/1922   WSH
Red Schoendienst       91                    02/02/1923    SLC
Solly Hemus                196                  04/17/1923   SLC
Bob Kuzava                 85                    05/28/1923   NYY
Ed Fitz Gerald             236                  05/21/1924   PIT
Charlie Silvera             168                  10/13/1924   NYY
Irv Noren                     40                    11/29/1924   WSH
Wayne Terwilliger         7                      06/27/1925   BRO
Bobby Shantz              219                  09/26/1925   PHA
Ned Garver                 212                  12/25/1925   SLB
Bob Borkowski            328                  01/27/1926   CIN
Randy Jackson           322                  02/10/1926   CHC
Howie Judson             169                  02/16/1926   CWS
Bob Miller                    187                  06/16/1926   PHI
Bobby Morgan             355                  06/29/1926   BRO  
Johnny Groth              25                    07/23/1926   DET
Roy Sievers                 64                    11/18/1926   WSH
Carl Erskine                250                  12/13/1926   BRO
Carl Scheib                 116                  01/01/1927   PHA
Charlie Maxwell           180                  04/08/1927   BRS
Cloyd Boyer                280                  09/01/1927   SLC
Bob Kelly                     348                  10/04/1927   CHC
Tommy Brown             281                  12/06/1927   PHI
Dick Gernert                343                  09/28/1928   BRS
Joe Presko                  220                  10/07/1928   SLC
Bob Ross                    298                  11/02/1928   WSH
Curt Simmons             203                  05/19/1929   PHI
Ted Lepcio                  335                  07/28/1929   BRS
Ike Delock                   329                  11/11/1929   BRS
Del Crandall                162                  03/05/1930   BOS
Vern Law                     81                    03/12/1930   PIT
Johnny Antonelli          140                  04/12/1930   BOS
Dick Groat                   369                  11/04/1930   PIT
Bob Friend                  233                  11/24/1930   PIT
Willie Mays                  261                  05/06/1931   NYG
Tony Bartirome           332                  05/09/1932   PIT
Dick Brodowski           404                  07/26/1932  BRS
Bobby Del Greco         353                  04/07/1933   PIT

His list of 41 has now dropped to just 15.  The oldest being Eddie Robinson at 100 years and the youngest being the "Say Hey Kid" at a youthful 90.

Here is the current list of the '52 survivors: 

• Eddie Robinson           32                    12/15/1920   CWS
• 
  
  
  
  
• Bobby Shantz              219                  09/26/1925   PHA
• 
  
  
  
  
• Bobby Morgan             355                  06/29/1926   BRO  
• 
  
  
  
  
• Johnny Groth              25                    07/23/1926   DET
• 
  
• 
   
• Carl Erskine                250                  12/13/1926   BRO
• 
  
  
  
  
• Charlie Maxwell           180                  04/08/1927   BRS
• 
  
  
  
  
• Cloyd Boyer                280                  09/01/1927   SLC
• 
  
  
  
  
•  Bob Kelly                     348                  10/04/1927   CHC
• 
  
  
  
  
•  Tommy Brown             281                  12/06/1927   PHI
• 
  
  
  
  
•  Bob Ross                    298                  11/02/1928   WSH
• 
  
  
  
  
•  Curt Simmons             203                  05/19/1929   PHI
• 
  
  
  
  
•  Ike Delock                   329                  11/11/1929   BRS
• 
  
  
  
  
•  Vern Law                     81                    03/12/1930   PIT
• 
  
  
  
  
•  Dick Groat                   369                  11/04/1930   PIT
• 
  
  
  
  
•  Willie Mays                  261                  05/06/1931   NYG
• 
  
• 

It really strikes me how beautiful these cards truly were.  As much as Topps (or anyone else) tries to replicate these, I don't think they quite capture the artistry of the original set.

Lastly, since this is a Cards That Never Were blog, I feel obliged to include at least one custom card.  So here is my custom card of Bob Lemke himself.  I'm not sure if he coined the phrase "Cards That Never Were" but it's the first place I'd heard it.  He was a huge influence on this blog and the card community as a whole: 

30 Tribute Card Project - Part 1

A while back, I was reading a post on Sports Collector's Daily that really seemed to be right up my alley. Rich Klein, one of the contributors to this site, wrote about the desire for Topps to make "Tribute" cards for their next Archives set. Tribute cards are basically cards from the year after the player retires. The part of the article that intrigued me was his list of players that he wanted to see tribute cards for. 

 I had seen many of the cards on his list somewhere on the web before, so I started doing a little research. As it turns out, Topps made versions of 4 cards on the list. I found 15 "card creations" from his list on various other baseball card blogs. I thought I could post them here and give a shout-out to the bloggers who made the cards and have inspired me. That still leaves me with 11 cards to complete the list.

Here is his "Wish List":

1.       1952 Joe DiMaggio 

2.       1956 Ralph Kiner

3.       1957 Bob Feller

4.       1957 Phil Rizzuto

5.       1957 Jackie Robinson

6.       1961 Ted Williams

7.       1962 Jackie Jensen

8.       1964 Stan Musial

9.       1964 Early Wynn

10.   1965 Duke Snider

11.   1966 Yogi Berra

12.   1966 Warren Spahn 

13.   1967 Sandy Koufax

14.   1967 Robin Roberts

15.   1968 Whitey Ford

16.   1969 Rocky Colavito

17.   1969 Roger Maris 

18.   1969 Eddie Mathews

19.   1970 Don Drysdale

20.   1972 Ernie Banks

21.   1973 Maury Wills

22.   1974 Willie Mays

23.   1977 Hank Aaron

24.   1977 Frank Robinson

25.   1978 Brooks Robinson 

26.   1978 Jim Wynn

27.   1980 Lou Brock

28.   1980 Thuman Munson

29.   1984 Johnny Bench

30. 1984 Carl Yastrzemski

First I gotta give Topps credit where credit is due:

Topps created these Promo cards tor the National Sports Collectors Convention. Taking care of #1 & #3 on his list.

Just this past year Topps produced these two. The Stan Musial was a special autographed insert in the 2013 Heritage set. And the Banks was part of the Series 2 - 1972 mini subset. That takes care of #8 and #20 on the list.

In my next few posts will share some of the cards on this list that I found on the internet made by my fellow baseball card geeks.

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.