One More for Gibby

 1935-2020

It's like deja vu all over again. The last thing I want is for this blog to evolve into some sort of obituary page with baseball cards.  But I simply cannot let the passing of yet another legend go without any some recognition for what he meant to the sport and to the hobby. So here is one more card for the 1973 Alt-Topps set.

Oddly, with Tom Seaver's recent passing, I had mentioned Bob Gibson and his 1968 "Card That Never Was".  Both he and Seaver pulled the exact same stunt of posing as lefties.  Both even had their cards make it as far as the same proof sheet before being noticed by a sharp-eyed proofreader.

Here are those actual Cards That Never Were again, along with the proof sheet:

You can see Seaver 2nd over in the 2nd row.  Gibson is 7th from the left in the 4th row.

Of course this latest card of Gibson isn't the first time he'd been featured in this blog.  Here are some more cards that I had made in the past:

2016 NLDS: Cubs vs. Giants

For the 2016 postseason I am making Cards That Never Were of Hall of Famers from each team but with a couple of twists. The first twist is that they will appear on cards that coincide with the year they were inducted into Cooperstown. The second twist is that these are not the teams they are best known for playing.

1976 Topps Robin Roberts

Robin Roberts was in seven straight All Star games and pitched 6 straight 20 win seasons for the Phillies in the 1950s. After a dismal 1-10 record in 1961 he was sold to the Yankees. He spent spring training with the Yanks but was released without ever seeing action in a regular season game. He was picked up by the Orioles where he went 42-36 over 3 and a half seasons. He spent the second half of 1965 and the first half of '66 with the Astros. The Cubs picked him in July of 1966. He went 2-3 and retired at the end of the season at the age of 40. He entered the Hall of Fame in 1976.

2003 Topps Gary Carter

This one is just rubbing salt in Mets fans' wounds. First the Giants eliminate them in the wildcard game, now they have to see Gary Carter in a Giants uniform. After 4 straight All Star seasons in New York, Carter struggled with injuries in 1989. He played in just 50 games and hit .183. After the season. He played three more years, 1990 with the Giants, 1991 with the Dodgers and in 1992 he retired after playing his final season in Montreal. The Expos retired his number 8. The Nationals un-retired it along with the retired numbers of Rusty Staub, Andre Dawson and Tim Raines. Fortunately, the Montreal Canadiens rescued them and they are hanging from the stadium rafters. 

Carter was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2003 on his sixth ballot. Hard to believe it took that many vote for an eleven-time All Star, five-time Silver Slugger, three-time Gold Glove and two-time All Star Game MVP.

Another Batch of Cards from Rating the Rookies

It's crazy how these things add up. Here is a baker's dozen.  Thirteen Cards That Never Were from my other blog, Rating the Rookies. The first are a couple of one-and-done players. The only card either Bernie Smith or George Kopacz appeared on was a 1971 Brewers Rookie Stars card. So I made 1970 Topps cards of them.

The second batch also landed on 1970 Topps Cards That Never Were. George Lauzerique and Roberto Rodriguez originally shared a 1969 Topps Athletics Rookie Stars card.

The next two actually had solo rookie cards. Lee Stange had a solo rookie card in 1962. That was the first year Topps had multi-player rookie cards. But they also had quite a few solo rookie cards.  I gave Stange a 1963 Fleer Card That Never Was. 

Deron Johnson had three, count 'em three solo rookie cards. He appeared on solo rookie stars cards in 1959, 1960 and 1961 as a Yankee. And for all three cards Topps used the exact same photo. For his Card That Never Was, I put him on a 1975 Topps card showcasing his brief time with the White Sox. 

The next two appeared together on a 1965 Topps Red Sox Rookie Stars card. I gave Rico Petrocelli a 1968 All Star Card That Never Was in honor of his start in the 1967 All Star game.

 Jerry Stephenson got a 1969 Topps Card showing him as a member of the Seattle Pilots. 

Jim Woods went to High School just blocks from Wrigley. In the same year he graduated high school, he was a September call-up for the Cubs. They only used him a couple times, both times as a pinch runner. So for his Card That Never Was, I gave him the Herb Washington treatment, and put him on a 1957 Topps card with his position listed as pinch runner. He eventually appeared as a rookie on a 1961 Topps card but that was not his first card. He also had a card in the 1960 Leaf set.

Mike Cubbage, Doug DeCinces, Reggie Sanders and Manny Trillo shared a 1975 Rookie Infielders card. Cubbage was part of a multi-player trade that sent Bert Blyleven to the Texas Rangers. For his part, I gave him a 1976 Topps Traded Card That Never Was. 

After a solid career for the Orioles, Angels and (very briefly) Cardinals, DeCinces played in Japan for the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. For his Card That Never Was, I made a 1988 Topps style card of him on the Swallows.

This Reggie Sanders was drafted by the A's in the same year the other Reggie Sanders was born. His entire MLB playing career consisted of  26 games played in 1974. Despite that he had 2 rookie cards, one in 1974 and another in 1975. For his third rookie Card That Never Was, I teamed him up with another young Reggie on this 1968 card.

Manny Trillo also had rookie cards in '74 and '75. For his Card That Never Was, I gave him a Kellogg's cereal card for his first All Star season 1977.

TBT - Boston Red Sox Edition

On the MLB's "Turn Back the Clock" day, the Red Sox wore the uniforms of their pennant winning season, 1975.  There was much discussion about the choice of sleeve patch on Twitter. It is a Massachusetts Bicentennial patch. Did they wear it in 1975 or 1976? How come it is not on any 1976 Topps cards? Not even the World Series card?  

After a bit of "internet investigation" the answers are: yes and yes, just Topps being Topps, and because they didn't wear them during the World Series. When looking for pictures that showed the patch, I found these two press photos: The first shows Harmon Killebrew in a Royals uniform breaking up a double play. Rick Burleson appears to have the patch on his left sleeve. 

In the next picture we see Carlton Fisk sliding into home against Brian Downing of the White Sox. Downing is wearing the Sox's new for 1976 pajamas uniforms. Fisk also has that patch on his left sleeve. So we can determine this is from 1976 and since Killebrew only played in KC in 1975, we know these patches were worn both years.

As for why the patches are absent from the 1976 set, the best explanation has been repeated many time by fellow blogger, Jim from Downington, its "just Topps being Topps". Which is also why this 1978 Rick Wise card shows the patch two years after they stopped wearing them. There are plenty of photos from the 1975 World Series on the interwebs but none show the patch. So that explains its absence on the World Series card.

One final puzzle regarding the sleeve patch, Every card I have looked at has the patch on the left sleeve. Every card except for the 1977 Tom House card. So how did Tom House managed to have this patch on his right sleeve while everybody else's were on the left? The only explanation I can come up with is that he is a left hand pitcher. I found another left-handed pitcher wearing it on his right sleeve: "The Spaceman" Bill Lee.  

Additionally, Starmarket, a local supermarket chain, put out a team set of photos in 1976. These were studio shots of the players in their home jerseys without hats. Other than the wonderful collection of 1976 hair styles, you can see patches in most (not all) of the photos. Again the only two with the patches on the right sleeve were the two lefties, Lee and House. Although the patch is barely in view, you can see the edges of it on the right sleeve and its absence on the left.  It is clearly present on the left sleeve of Rico Petrocelli.

Before this turned into an investigation about which year and which arm this bicentennial patch was from, It was supposed to compare the look of Drew Pomeranz and Fergie Jenkins. The 1977 card has a nice view of the uniform and the offending patch on his left sleeve. I chose to compare these two because Pomeranz wears Fergie's old number 31. Fergie's number 31 is retired by the Cubs. He wore that number for the Rangers and the Red Sox after leaving Chicago but neither team has retired it.

The new uniforms look right but the proportions seem off. The chest lettering seems a bit smaller on the reproductions. Also given that Pomeranz is a lefty, shouldn't he have worn the patch on his right sleeve? Other than that, they look very good, one of my favorites this year.

TBT - San Diego Padres Edition

Yesterday, Ichiro passed Pete Rose on the all time hits list. That is a total of both his hits in the Major League and the Japan Pacific League. When Rose broke Ty Cobb's record in 1985 he was playing against the Padres. Ichiro and the Marlins were also playing against the San Diego Padres.

The Padres were wearing throwback uniforms last night. It would have been just too perfect if these had been 1985 era unis but they were wearing their 90's era unis. The Padres wore this style from 1991-2001. Here is a 1993 Topps throwback card of Melvin Upton Jr. from yesterday's game. As a point of contrast here is the late, great Tony Gwynn on his actual 1993 Topps card.  Mr. Padre passed away two years ago today.  As usual, the exposed stirrups are missing. The other difference is the matte finish of the modern batting helmet.

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Bonus Thowback Thursday Contest

Last week I borrowed this card from The Phillies Room showing David Hernandez wearing the 1976 pillbox cap. 

I stated that I could not find a single baseball card from any year/manufacturer to feature that hat. The closest I could find was this cover of The Sporting News from 1976 featuring Larry Bowa.

So I put out this challenge: If anybody can find a card featuring this cap on a 1976 Phillies player or coach, I will send them ten '70s era cards from the team of their choice. 

It can be a local team issue card, a card from another team with a Phillie in the background, or even a recent "retro" card (IE Archives, UD Vintage, Allen & Ginter, etc.).  It just has to be an actual card that shows the Phillies pillbox cap.

 Just to be clear, I don't need the physical card just a link to a picture of it. On COMC.com, eBay or whatever.

TBT - Kansas City Royals Edition

This past week there were two games featuring uniforms from 1976. On Saturday the Indians hosted the Royals and both wore 1976 era unis.  Friday the Phillies donned their rarely used and even more rarely photographed pillbox hats along with their 1976 home uniforms. They played the Brewers in their 1976 era uniforms.

Here is a card from the Indians/Royals game of starting pitcher Ian Kennedy. Kennedy led the league in 2011 with 21 wins for the Diamondbacks. After the loss to Cleveland this past week his record for Kansas City is 4-4.

As a point of comparison, I chose this 1976 Topps card of Steve Mingori. Mingori was a bullpen pitcher for the Indians and the Royals from 1970-1979. Although his overall record was 18-33 he had a respectable ERA of 3.03. The uniforms look pretty similar but the way they are worn is fairly typical for the different eras. Kennedy wears his uniform much looser and Mingori is sporting the visible stirrups.

I chose to do the Royals TBT by default. I was beaten to the punch on the other three teams by two other bloggers. Both of whom have been doing these throwback style cards longer than I have. And both of these blogs are regular reads for me.

Over at The Phillies Room, Jim has created several 1976 Topps style "Chachi" cards to commemorate this game. I took his card of David Hernandez and put it next to a 1976 Topps card of Steve Carlton for comparison. The uniforms look almost right. It looks like the Phillies logo and number were a bit lower on the jersey and Carlton appears to be wearing a black belt instead of the color coordinated belt the Phillies normally wore.

As far as that pillbox hat, I could not find a single baseball card from any year/manufacturer to feature that hat. The closest I could find was this cover of The Sporting News from 1976 featuring Larry Bowa.

At The Shlabotnik Report, "Joe" posted cards of Jimmy Nelson of the Brewers and Tyler Naquin of the Indians in their full retro unis. I paired Naquin up with a 1976 Topps card of Charlie Spikes, one of the great names in baseball. Other than the helmet which is sporting the current logo, The uniforms look very good.

I had a tougher time finding a 1976 card that showed this version of the Brewers away uniform.  The best I could do was this head and shoulders shot of Rick Austin looking very 1976 in his Brewers trucker cap and "Boogie Nights" mustache. 

TBT - Chicago White Sox Edition Part Deux

Throwback Thursday

Ok this will be a quick and dirty post I will try to actually publish every Thursday. I will make a retro card of a current player from the era of the throwback uni he is wearing. I will also post an actual card from that era as a comparison point.

This is labeled "Part Deux" because the White Sox have had several throwback looks in the past few years (plus they are my favorite team). This one is from last season when they broke out the 1976 look (minus the shorts).  I had to do a little revisionist history to make this work. As a result we get two Cards That Never Were for the price of one.

First is Tyler Saladino, the Sox's back-up shortstop. I chose him because this is a nice action shot that shows of the 1976 throwback uniforms nicely. It also shows off a typical White Sox home crowd.

 Sad.




In the 1976 Topps set the Sox were understandably depicted in their 1971-1975 red uniforms. Also the cards color schemes reflected the team colors. Therefore I had to alter the 1976 Topps White Sox cards color scheme to go along with their new (for 1976) look.

For a comparison I needed to cheat a little. I found this great shot of Jorge Orta (with a cameo by Thurman Munson), so I used it to remake his 1976 Topps card with the modified color scheme.

Rating the Rookies: 1974 Topps Rookie Pitchers

Wayne Garland, Fred Holdsworth, Mark Littell, Dick Pole

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I am spinning off the "Rating the Rookies" theme into its own blog CLICK HERE. I enjoy digging into these cards. I like learning about the players, many of whom are fairly obscure.  I also like the challenge of finding photos of these players and creating relevant "Cards That Never Were" of them.

I was never quite sure this recurring theme meshed with this blog. I think it might be better as a stand-alone. But I intend to keep the 2 linked but making abbreviated posts here with just the cards I created. So (for now anyway) this will be the last complete post of "Rating the Rookies" on this blog.

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For the first time the random number generator has picked the 4 player card for me. Specifically this 1974 Topps Rookie Pitchers card, so this will be a lengthy post.

Wayne Garland went 5-5 in 20 starts in 1974 but that was still not enough for Topps to give him a card in 1975. In 1976 he was back in good graces with Topps. He got his own card and 20 wins and even a Cy Young award vote (just one). After the 1976 season, he got 3 things: a nice big free agent contract with the Indians, a Sporting News cover story, and a sweet fro:

He promptly lost 19 games in 1977 to lead the league in futility. Despite his fat contract, he never had another winning season and retired in 1981. For his Card That Never Was, here is his missing 1975 Topps card:

Fred Holdsworth pitched in only 8 games for the Tigers in 1974. He lost all 3 of his decisions. This was enough for Topps to grant him a card in the 1975 set. He spent the entire 1975 season in the minors and was traded mid-season to the Orioles. In 1976 Topps gave up on him but the Orioles didn't. He was 4-1 with 2 saves in relief and was back on cardboard in 1977. He continued to bounce between the majors and minors until 1981. Overall he was 7-10 in parts of 7 Major League seasons with a 4.40 ERA. Here is his missing card from the 1976 Topps set:

Despite going 1-3 in 8 games (or perhaps because of it) as a 20 year old rookie in 1973, Mark Littell didn't pitch a single inning at the big league level in 1974. He would come up again for the Royals in 1975 and have a similar 1-2 record in 7 games and Topps would again feature him on a rookie card in 1976:

1976 would be his career year, coming out of the bullpen with 8 wins and 16 saves. He also garnered a few MVP votes. He would go on to have a respectable career as a solid relief pitcher for the Royals and Cardinals. He went 32-31 with 56 saves over 9 seasons. But it was his post-career that I found interesting while researching him. First I found this card of questionable judgement from 1990:

Apparently Swell has a fairly liberal definition of "Great".

Mark Littell is also a renown inventor.  He invented and sells the Nutty Buddy. No, not the cookies, but rather a high-tech personal protective device for your "boys".  It comes in 5 sizes (and I am not joking): the hammer, the boss, the hog, the trophy, and mongo!

Rather than fill in a missing 1975 card between his 2 rookie cards, I made a 1978 Hostess card depicting him on the Cardinals. His 1978 Topps card still had him on the Royals even though he was traded in December of 1977 for the "Mad Hungarian", Al Hrabosky.

On the heels of  Littell's Nutty Buddy, I am doing my best to stifle my inner 9-year-old's snickers at the name of the next guy.  In 1974 Dick Pole was 1-1 with a save in 12 games. From 1973-76 he pitched for the Red Sox compiling a record of 14-14. He was picked up by the Seattle Mariners in the expansion draft and was 11-23 over the 1977 and 1978 seasons. He was released by the Mariners in the spring of 1979.  

But it was his career as a coach that was more impressive. In 1983 he began as a minor league coach for the Cubs. Greg Maddux credits Dick Pole with helping him develop his style. He spent time as a pitching coach with the Cubs, Reds, Giants, Expos, Indians, Red Sox and Angels. Here is a Card That Never Was of him on his second tour of duty with the Cubs in 2003:

And now for the important part. The 4 pitchers on this card were a combined 6-9 with 1 save in 1974. Not a single one of them ever made an All Star team, but they all had serviceable careers. A couple had even better careers after their playing days were over. Overall not a great card but still it gets my highest grade yet.