Cards I Made for Other Websites

Cleaning Out the Closet 

Here are some cards I found, going through some of my old stuff that never got published on this blog. Some of these, I don't remember where I published them.  Like this Bo Jackson throwing out the first pitch at a White Sox - Royals game.  Apparently he wanted to appear neutral by wearing a plain black cap and sweatshirt.  I added the Sox logos because I am not neutral. But I really don't remember where or when (or if) I posted this card. 

This card was made for Rich Klein of Sports Collectors Daily.  The Astros had the first pick of the 1992 draft.  Hal Newhouser, who was at that time serving as scout for Houston, tried to convince them to draft Jeter. After they picked Phil Nevin instead, Newhouser quit.  This was my attempt at a "What if?" card.

Phillies reliever Al Raffo pitched in 35 games in 1969, but never had a card.  Jim from Downington requested this for his 1970 Topps Baseball blog.

In 1967 there were several of these type of multi-player cards. These cards were an attempt at giving at least one to each team.  I had a hard time finding era appropriate photos and ultimately abandoned the project.

More requests from Jim from Downington.  These were the QBs missing from his 1971 Topps Football blog.

1974 Willie McCovey - Redone?

A recurring feature that was typical of Topps in the 1960s and 1970s was to airbrush players into their new team's uniform.   In 1974 Topps may have jumped the gun a bit by declaring the San Diego Padres were now the "Washington Nat'l Lea."  That variation turned out to be a fun variation in the 1974 set.  But what if Topps took it a step further?

By that I mean, what if instead of poorly airbrushing a newly traded Willie McCovey into a San Diego Padres uniform for this "Washington Nat'l Lea." card, they poorly airbrushed him into the proposed "Washington Stars" uniform?

I had already made a 1974 Topps card of Dave Freisleben who modeled the proposed Star uniform in an earlier post.  I think it would've been cool if Topps really ran with this concept, going even further than the "Washington Nat'l Lea." variation.

Glenn Beckert

October 12, 1940 - April 12, 2020

I hate to keep doing this.  But Glenn Beckert was part of my childhood and I couldn't let his passing go without a small tribute.  We are living in difficult times now.  He was in hospice in Florida with dementia when he passed away. It was heartbreaking to read how his daughters were unable to visit him due to the Corona Virus. 

He was a Gold Glove, a four-time All-Star and an important part of the ill-fated 1969 Cubs. Most impressive was his low strikeout to at-bat ratio. He led the league 5 times and placed in the top ten every year from 1965-1972.  To put it into perspective as to how much the game has changed, the player with the most at-bats to strikeouts in 2019 was the Orioles utility infielder, Hanser Alberto.  He averaged 1 strikeout in every 10.5 at-bats.  Beckert's career average was 1 strikeout in every 21.4 at-bats.

Four years ago, when Milt Pappas passed away I found this photo of Pappas and Beckert at the 100 year celebration at Wrigley Field in 2014. 

I've created a few cards of Glenn Beckert over the years. Here they are once again.

1974 Topps John McNamara

After winning only 60 games in 1973 the Padres fired Manager Don Zimmer. Meanwhile the Padres franchise was in flux. They had been tentatively sold to Joseph Danzansky who planned to move the team to Washington. Danzansky had also made an unsuccessful bid for the Senators in an attempt to keep them from moving to Texas. The city of San Diego threatened legal action for breaking the lease at San Diego Stadium (later known as Jack Murphy then Qualcomm). 

Ultimately the club was sold to Ray Kroc and stayed in San Diego. John McNamara took over as manager. With all the off season commotion, the Padres remained the same on the field. Finishing in last place with only 60 wins again.  Because the fate of the Padres was still in flux when the 1974 set went to print, Topps made a few runs designating the team as Washington. But they never made an manager/coaches card. So here is both the 1974 Padres and the 1974 Washington "Nat'l Lea." Manager Cards That Never Were because why not?

1974 Topps Bill Virdon

After winning the World Series, A's manager Dick Williams had enough of Charlie Finley's interference and quit. Meanwhile in New York Ralph Houk also quit after the 1973 season. He was tiring of the Bronx Fans' constant booing a Yankees team that was no longer a perennial contender. Yankees' new owner, George Steinbrenner jumped at the chance to hire Williams. 

But Finley had the last laugh. Williams was still under contract for another year and Finley would not let him go.  This left both the Yankees and the A's manager situation in limbo when Topps went to print the 1974 set.

The Yankees eventually opted for Bill Virdon. Virdon had managed the Pirates to the division championship in 1972. But in September of 1973 with the Pirates 3 games back and 2 games under .500, Danny Murtaugh replaced Virdon at the helm. The 1974 Yankees finished in 2nd place with 89 wins. Bill Virdon was named The Sporting News Manager of the Year.

It's too bad Topps never got to make this card. It would have been nice to see a card that included a coaching staff of Whitey Ford, Dick Howser and Elston Howard.

1974 Topps Ralph Houk Redux

In 1974 there were only 24 Major League teams. But in the Topps set for 1974 there were only 21 manager cards.

Twenty of them looked like this:

And one of them looked like this:

Okay, other than the fact that Ralph Houk is wearing Yankee pinstripes and a poorly airbrushed Tigers cap, what else is wrong? 

Yup. All the coaches are missing. If you look at the other 20 manger cards, Topps included the coaches. Most teams had four, a few more had three. The Indians could only muster two, but the Tigers? Bubkis. Zilch. Nada.

So here I am to right this wrong and give due to the coaches in Detroit. While I'm at it, I'll put Mr. Houk in his proper uniform.

That's better. Now he has a proper coaching staff; pitching coach Cot Deal, Joe Schultz who was the Pilots manager in their only season, Dick Tracewski who coached in Detroit for 24 years , and Jim Hegan who's son Mike Hegan played for Joe Schultz in Seattle.  Unfortunately, the aging tigers finished last in the AL East.

And what about the other 3 missing manager cards? The missing Oakland A's card is what got this started. Warren over at Mets Fantazy Cards made this card. It's one of his many creations that never made the blog. I just thought it was too good not to post. Sorry Warren.

After winning 2 straight World Series titles in Oakland, Dick Williams had enough of Charlie Finley's antics and quit. He was quickly hired by the Yankees but Finley called foul. Williams still had a year under contract with the A's so he would not be eligible to manage any other team. 

** Spoiler Alert** 

This probably explains why the Yankees are also without a manager card in the 1974 Topps set.

TBT - Cincinnati Reds Edition

Last week the Reds donned their Big Red Machine era uniforms and officially retired Pete Rose's number. Although his number was never "officially" retired, the only other player to wear #14 since 1963 was Pete Rose Jr.  Junior played a total of 11 games for the Reds in September of 1997.

The Reds throwback uniforms were technically their 1976 uniforms. You can see the bicentennial patch on the right sleeve. But I liked the look of Joe Morgan's 1974 card and decided to mimic it using the Reds current second baseman, Brandon Phillips.

What's going on at my other blog?

Just a quick post of some of the Cards That Never Were that I created for my other blog: Rating the Rookies. Perhaps this would be a good time to point out something that almost every collector knows: for every rookie card that has a legit future star, there are dozens of players that don't make it big. This batch of cards certainly proves that point.

Most of Dave Bennett and Morrie Steevens (no, not a typo) short MLB careers were behind them by the time they appeared together on this 1965 Phillies Rookie Stars card.  Steevens ended up pitching just 2.2 innings in 1965 which was exactly 2.2 more than Bennett. 

Tommy Matchick and Daryl Patterson were on the same 1968 Tigers Rookie Stars card. At face value, it looks like any other mundane rookie card. But it seems like there is always a good story hidden somewhere. Just ask Pedro Borbon, AKA the "Dominican Dracula".

Chuck Coles was an early one and done. His one and only baseball card was a Topps Sporting News  Rookie Stars of 1959 card. 1959 was the birth of the designated rookie card. Unfortunately, most of the players in that series didn't live up to Topps' expectations.

Randy Bass, Jim Gaudet, and Randy McGilberry were captured in grainy black and white on a  Royals 1979 Prospects card. Only one of them actually played on the Royals in 1979.

In 1973 Tom Paciorek and Jorge Roque shared a 1973 Rookie Outfielders card with the 1973 NL Rookie of the Year, Gary Matthews Sr. I had to dig deep to create Cards That Never Were for Paciorek and Roque but had several already in the bank for Mathews right here.

Catching up with "Rating the Rookies"

More often than not lately, I'm having trouble making new blog posts. It's not due to a lack of ideas. It's more a lack of free time.  In the mean time here are several Cards That Never Were from my other blog, Rating the Rookies. The three above are from this post. Enos Cabell, Pat Bourque, and Gonzalo Marquez shared a rookie card in the 1973 set.

Steve Jones shared the 1969 Royals Rookie Stars card with Ellie Rodriguez. Since I had already created a Card That Never Was for Rodriguez as part of the 1973 All Star set, I only needed to create a card for Jones.

In 1966 Lee Elia, Dennis Higgins and Bill Voss shared a White Sox Rookie Stars card. Again I had already created a card for one of the players. In this case it was Dennis Higgins who appeared on the 1969 Topps AL Leading Firemen card.

Four More from "Rating the Rookies"

Here are a few more Cards That Never Were from my sister blog Rating the Rookies:

This is a 1964 Topps Giant card of Steve Hertz. He had a career stat line of 4 plate appearances, 3 strikeouts, no hits, no walks, yet somehow he scored twice. Click here for a link to his rookie card.

Here are a couple of career-capper Cards That Never Were for Bernie Allen and Phil Linz. They were featured on a 1962 Topps Rookie Parade card. This was the first year Topps put out multi-player rookie cards. Click here to see the rookie card they shared with Rich Rollins and Joe Pepitone.

This is a 1967 Card That Never Was of Rollie Sheldon showing him on the last MLB team he played for. Even though he was on a 1969 Topps card as a Seattle Pilot, he never made the team. Sheldon was a 24 year old rookie for the Yankees in 1961. When they signed him his birthdate and high school graduation years were off by 4 years. They thought they were signing a 20 year old phenom. But with their pitching staff depleted due to the expansion draft, he earned a spot in the bullpen even after his correct age was determined. Click here to see his rookie card.