1981 Topps Gary Carter All Star MVP

Going Horizontal

With the 2016 All Star game behind us, I thought I would return to an old theme, making horizontal cards for the Topps years without them. As usual I am using the All Star MVP as my subject.  In 1981, it was Gary Carter of the Montreal Expos. 1981 was the only season in which the Expos saw post-season play.

Just to get ahead of the usual comments that the 1981 All Star MVP would appear on a 1982 card: yes, I know. I also don't care. My blog, my fake cards, my rules.

The actual 1981 Gary Carter card was a beauty so this is not  meant to be an improvement on his card from that year. I took a few liberties with the original design besides turning it on its side. I narrowed the lower border and shrunk the size of the cap. I also replaced the position and team name inside the cap with the team logo, an idea blatantly stolen from the Dick Allen Hall of Fame blog. Click here to see the source of my plagiarism.

The 1981 All Star game was postponed to August and marked the return to baseball after the 1981 strike. The 1981 was split into two halves with the division winners from each half season playing each other in the first ever best-of-five Divisional Championship Series.

The All Star Game itself  had the NL come from behind to win their 10th straight 5-4. Gary Carter hit two solo homers. His first cam in the 5th inning off Angel pitcher Ken Forsch to tie the game at 1-1. His next came in the 7th with the AL leading 4-2. He took Yankees reliever Ron Davis over the center field fence to bring the NL within one run. Mike Schmidt had the game winning RBI with a two run shot in the 8th off Rollie Fingers.   

Checking in with "Rating the Rookies"

This has been a busy time for me and I haven't really had the time to commit to this blog. Although I haven't been very busy on this blog, I have still been occasionally creating Cards That Never Were for my other blog, Rating The Rookies.

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Here is a 1975 Topps card for Lloyd Allen and a 1973 Topps card for Winston Llenas. They shared a 1970 Rookie Stars card while on the Angels. You can see that post here.

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Craig Reynolds, Lamar Johnson, Johnnie LeMaster and Jerry Manuel all share a Rookie Infielders card in the 1976 Topps set. 

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Jim Miles and Jan Dukes were both on a Senators Rookie Stars card in 1971. Here they are representing the same team in 1968 and 1971 repectively.

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In the 1963 set Rogelio Alvarez, Dave Roberts, Bob Saverine and Tommy Harper share a Rookie Stars card.

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Sammy Ellis and Mel Queen were both on the 1964 Reds Rookie Stars card.

1981 All Star Game Honorary Captains: Warren Spahn & Bob Feller

The All Star break in upon us once again. So here a few additions to my All Star Game Honorary Captain collection.

Warren Spahn represented the National League as Honorary Captain in the 1981 All Star Game.  Spahn's heroics on the field earned him 17 All Star appearances and 13 20-win seasons, He led the league in ERA 3 times, strikeouts 4 times, shutouts 4 times, victories 8 times and complete games 7 times. He earned The Sporting News Pitcher of the Year Award 4 times, The Cy Young award in 1957 and The Lou Gehrig Award in 1961. In 1973 he was voted into the Hall of Fame.

The hometown hero, Bob Feller represented the American League as honorary captain at the 1981 All Star game in Cleveland. Feller was a triple crown winner in 1940, leading the league with a 2.61 ERA, 27 wins and 261 strike outs. He was an 8 time All Star and led the league in victories 6 times and in strikeouts 7 times. He had 3 career No-Nos and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1962.

It is worth noting that both of these pitchers left the comfort of the MLB to join the armed forces in their prime. Feller was the reigning pitching champion, having led the league in victories 3 consecutive years leading up to his 3+ years serving as an anti-aircraft gunner chief aboard the USS Alabama. In his first full season back he led the league again and was selected to the AL All Stars.

Although Spahn was a rookie before serving, in his first full season back he led the league in ERA and was selected to the NL All Star Team. Spahn's military career held nearly as many awards as his baseball career. He was a combat engineer who fought in the "Battle of the Bulge". He received a Purple Heart after taking shrapnel to his foot. His unit was awarded the Distinguished Unit Emblem and he received a battlefield commission to second lieutenant.

As for the game itself, this would be the 4th and final time the game would be held at Cleveland's Municipal Stadium. The game was rescheduled to August 9th because of the baseball strike. It still holds the attendance record for All Star games with 72,086 and the most players used with 56. The NL won 5-4 with all of its runs scored via the long ball. Gary Carter had 2 solo homers and was named MVP. Dave Parker also soloed and Mike Schmidt had a 2 run homer to give the NL the victory.

Minnie Minoso

1925-2015

Another one of my all-time favorites passed away today. It's odd that the player who broke the color barrier for the White Sox died within weeks of the player who broke the color barrier for the Cubs. I can't express what these 2 great men meant to the city of Chicago and to baseball. Today's news just amplifies the tragedy of the recent "Golden Age" Hall of Fame ballot.

Minnie Minoso has always been one of my favorite subjects.I made the card above back in 2011 to commemorate his brief appearance playing for the Sox in 1980. I changed up the Topps cap design a bit to look more like the Sox cap of the era. Ultimately, I wasn't happy with it and never posted it until today.Instead went with this 1981 Fleer card:

I had also created 2 different cards for Minnie from 1951 sets. A 1951 Bowman of Minoso on the White Sox:

And a 1951 Topps card of Minnie on the Indians:

He even made it onto one of the leaders cards that never were, this 1961 RBI leaders card:

1981 Topps Dave Righetti

If you were watching the World Series you probably saw the Giants' pitching coach Dave Righetti. Lets face it, if you are reading this, not just looking at the pictures, you are as big a baseball geek as I am. So it is safe to assume you watched it. Well, Righetti was the 1981 A.L. Rookie of the Year. He went 8-4 in 15 starts for the pennant winning Yankees. He was also one of eight players receiving Rookie of the Year votes that did not have a card in 1981. This seem especially egregious since there were now 3 card companies to choose from. 

There were 17 players in 1981 who received Rookie of the Year consideration. Of them only one appeared on a card in the 1981 Fleer set. The N.L. Rookie of the Year, Fernando Valenzuela. The 1981 Donruss set had two candidates, Tim Raines and Mookie Wilson. All 3 of these players also appeared in the 1981 Topps set along with 6 others to bring Topps total to 9 of the 17. 

In the next couple posts, I'll be addressing the lack of rookies in the new-in-1981 baseball card sets.

1981 Topps Cal Ripken

Baltimore Orioles CTNW Favorites #1

Cal Ripken made his debut on August 10, 1981. He had no plate appearances but scored the winning run. In the bottom of the 12th, Ken Singleton doubled against Kansas City Royals pitcher Renie Martin. Cal Ripken came in to pinch run. After an intentional walk to Eddie Murray, designated hitter John Lowenstein drove a walk-off RBI single to right field. The Orioles beat the Royals 3-2.

The Trading Card Database has over 12,000 cards listed for Cal Ripken. Finding a card that wasn't made of him is nearly impossible. Nobody would expect a late season call-up to have a card in that season's set. Then again, no list of Orioles greats would be complete without Cal Ripken. So I cheated. Just a little.

1981 Topps World Series - Bake McBride

The 1981 Topps set had only 2 World Series cards. By then Topps had gotten away from issuing a card for each World Series game.Seemed like a good fir for this action shot of 1974 Rookie of the Year, McBride. For a moment I considered making World Series cards for the years that Topps didn't. But finding game specific photos seems like an overwhelming task.

2006 Heritage Jerry Hairston Jr. 1999 Bowman Chrome Scott Hairston

 

Today I'm posting 2 "Cards That Never Were".  A third generation of Major Leaguers. All three generations have ties to my hometown teams. 

Scott Hairston was originally drafted by the Chicago White Sox in 1999 while at Central Arizona College but did not sign with the Sox. He would later be drafted and signed by the Diamondbacks in 2001.  His older brother, Jerry Hairston Jr. spent 2005 and part of 2006 playing on the north side for the Cubs. Both of them are the sons of Jerry Hairston who played on the south side of town. Jerry played for the White Sox off and on from 1973-1989.

On the north side was his older brother, Johnny Hairston who played for what must be one of most popular 2nd place teams of all time. The 1969 Chicago Cubs. Johnny Hairston was the first second-generation African-American ball player in the Majors.

The patriarch of this baseball family is Sam Hairston. Sam spent most of his 50+ year career in baseball with the White Sox organization. He played briefly for the Major League club in 1952 but was a player, coach and scout for the White Sox minor league affiliates including the Colorado Springs Sky Sox and the Birmingham Barons. Sam Hairston was inducted into the Birmingham Baron's Hall of Fame in 2009, and the Colorado Springs Sports Hall of Fame in 2011.

1981 Topps Jerry Hairston

In my last two posts, I wrote about baseball pensions. Here is another pension story about a well-liked player from a 3 generation Baseball family. Jerry Hairston was added to the White Sox roster in September of 1989 and 1990 so that he would get the full 10 year pension. At the same time, the Sox attempted to add another well-liked player, Minnie Minoso. This would have given Minoso the opportunity to play in his 6th decade. Unfortunately it was vetoed by the league.

Jerry Hairston played for the Sox from 1973-1977 when  he was bought by the Pirates. He then played in the Mexican League where he was seen by Sox manager Tony Larussa and GM Roland Hemond during the 1981 strike. After the strike he was signed by the Sox.

1981 Topps Mickey Mantle

In May Topps will produce another Archives set. The base cards will use the 1954, 1971, 1980 and 1984 format. I would not be surprised to see The Mick on any or all of these formats although the 1954 "Missing Mantle" has been done several times.

Upper Deck made one to coincide with the 1954 Archives set in 1994. Topps made one in 2011as part of the "Lost Cards" subset.  They also released an eTopps version in 2006 and made a 72 card set in 2007 called The Mickey Mantle Story base on the 1954 card. If you want to see my version of the 1971 Topps Mantle Click Here.  If you want to see my version of the 1980 Topps Mantle Click Here.  If you want to see my version of the 1984 Topps Mantle you will have to wait, but I still should have time to get to it before the Archives set is released.

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1955 Bowman Santa Claus

I was looking to do a few "Christmas Cards" and wanted to see what else was out there before I started. That's when I came across the 2007 Topps Christmas Set. See images below. I had no idea these existed. I may have to pick up a set on eBay.

Merry Christmas!

1981 Topps Cardinals Batting Leaders

Rogers Hornsby played for the Cardinals from 1915-1926 and again in 1933. During that time he averaged .359. In 1924 he hit an astounding .424. There have been only 3 .400 hitters since then. Hornsby again in 1925 with .403, Bill Terry in 1930 with .401 and Ted William in 1941 with .406

Yadier Molina hit a career high of .305 in 2011. Yadier and brothers Jose and Bengie are all catchers and all have World Series rings.

1981 Topps Rangers Batting Leaders

Today's franchise leaders card is based on the 1981 Topps Rookie Prospect format.

Al Oliver spent only 4 of his 18 season in a Rangers uniform. The career .303 hitter averaged .319 while in Texas.

Josh Hamilton hit .359 during his MVP season with the Rangers. In the 4 years he has been a Ranger his batting average has been .311.

Michael Young hit .338 in 2011 placing him 3rd in the American League. He spent all 12 of his MLB seasons with the Rangers and appeared in 7 all Star games

Sunday Shout-Out

JOHNGY'S BEAT

Not long ago I had a post called "Upon Further Review..." in which I posted cards others had made before I made my versions. All of which I found after I posted my cards and called them "Cards That Never Were". Not only were they all published well before mine, the worst part was they were better than mine. At the end of the post I wrote "At least nobody else made a 1979 Bobby Douglass." 

Wrong again. Johngy beat me to it. Here is his version:

And here is my version:

Same year, same basic idea, even same picture but he posted it in September of last year. 

He found my blog and left a nice comment and I have since been following his 2 blogs Johngy's Beat and A Pack to be Named Later.  He has a number of homemade cards on his Johngy's Beat site. Some are made by him and some are made by his friends from other blogs. But his specialty is Celebrity Cards.

Being from Illinois, his site is loaded with Chicago related cards.

He also seems to have an eye for the ladies...

... but an unhealthy fascination with Mike Squires?

 I'm joking of course.  His site is loaded with cool looking cards, interviews, photos and interesting stories. Click on the links throughout this thread to check out his blogs.