2016 N.L. Wildcard Game: Mets 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.

1995 Topps Richie Ashburn

After 12 Hall of Fame seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies, Richie Ashburn was traded to the Cubs where he spent the 1960 and 1961 seasons. In 1962 he was purchased by the newly formed Mets. There he was selected as the Mets sole representative to the 1962 All Star games. Although present for both games, he only saw action in the second. He was used as a pinch hitter. He singled and scored a run but the National League lost 9-4. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 1995.

2015 Topps Randy Johnson

Randy Johnson played in 22 MLB seasons for six different teams. He ended his career in San Francisco in 2009 at the age of 46. Although he is best known for his time in Seattle and Arizona, he began with the Expos and also had short stints with the Astros and Yankees. He was a first-ballot selection to the Hall of Fame in 2015.

#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.

1995 Topps Mickey Mantle

This was supposed to be the last of my Mickey Mantle series. And because it was the last, I had another picture in mind to use. This is actually the 3rd or 4th version of this card I made. I just was not happy with the way the others turned out. I'm still not thrilled with this one, (the font is not quite right, it was impossible to match the "gold" foil, the Topps logo is nearly invisible, the borders are messed up, etc.) but sometimes good enough is good enough.

Like I said this was supposed to be #25 in a 25 card series. This is the way it all started out:

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Topps has been pretty good about filling in the blanks as far as Mantle goes. They have created cards for 1951, 1954, and 1955 that weren't included in their original sets. They have included Mantle as a special #7 card in all sets since 2006. Also in 2006 Topps created cards for Mantle going back to 1996. There even was a special 1970 Topps Mantle that was a WalMart exclusive. That leaves a 25 year gap from 1971-1995. I'm sure that it will eventually be filled by Topps because of Mickey Mantle's marketability, but in the mean time I will have to make my own.

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That was the first blog I posted on this site. In the mean time Topps made a 1975 Mini for the 2011 Lineage set and a 1987 Mini for the 2012 set. Now in 2013 their contract with the Mantle estate has run out. Although there is no #7 card in the set, there are also no Mickey Mantle cards. Not in the regular series, not in the Heritage set, not in the Archives set, nothing, nada zilch. Since there is no shortage of cool Mickey Mantle photos on the internet, it looks like I'll be making a few more.