Topps All-Star Misses: 1968 NL Outfield

The 1968 Topps All Star cards for the National League outfield mirrored the 1967 All Star Game starting outfield.  Perennial All Stars Willie Mays, Hank Aaron and Roberto Clemente were all there.  But the cards themselves say "The Sporting News 68 All Star Selection."  The actual 1968 Sporting News All Star outfielders were Billy Williams, Curt Flood and Pete Rose. 

Favorite Players A-Z (Part 3 of 3)

 Part 3 of "Everybody else is doing it, why can't I?"  Here's "S" through "Z" of my favorite players.  This time there aren't any ties, but a full 50% of them are Chicago cards.  Told you I was a homer.

1976 Topps Ron Santo

1990 Donruss Frank Thomas

1976 Topps Father/Son style Bob Uecker Broadcaster

1976 Topps Rookie Pitchers - Pete Vuckovich

1987 Topps Billy Williams All Star

OK this is another cheat, but his nickname is "Double X" so...

Jimmie Foxx on a rejected Topps prototype

1982 Topps Robin Yount In Action

For my final card, I chose a real one.  Bottom line is you cannot improve on this card. From the high sign, to the six balls nailed to the bat, to the inexplicable pink undershirt. It is art, plain and simple.

1952 Topps Gus Zernial

Topps All-Star Misses: 1970 NL Outfield

 Getting back to the 1970 set, this time focusing on the NL Outfield.  Topps was close, in that 2 of their 3 were actually 1969 All-Star starters (Alou and Aaron).  But only one was named to the 1970 Sporting News All-Star roster (Aaron). That leaves me with 3 players who could have been included in this set.

Cleon Jones:

• 1969 starting All Star left fielder.
• Named to the 1969 Sporting News All Star roster.
• 7th place in MVP voting 1969

Bobby Tolan:

• Named to the 1970 Sporting News All Star roster.
• 16th place in MVP voting 1970
• Led the NL in Stolen Bases 1970.

Billy Williams:

• Named to the 1970 Sporting News All Star roster.
• 2nd place in MVP voting 1970
• Led the NL in Hits, Runs and Total Bases 1970.

Who probably didn't merit inclusion in the 1970 Topps All-Star set, but was in it anyway?

Pete Rose:

Rose was an All Star reserve in both 1969 and 1970.  Who can forget the role he played in the 1970 game? Not Ray Fosse, that's for sure. He also wasn't selected to the Sporting News All Star team either year.  Nobody can argue Rose's stardom. In fact he tied for the NL lead with Billy Williams in 1970 and had a Gold Glove in both 1969 and 1970. But still, probably didn't belong in this subset.

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 My latest project is making All Star Cards That Never Year for the years 1958-62 and 1968-70.  During those years Topps decision making on these cards was haphazard and a mystery to everybody but Topps. They were NOT based on the current season's "Sporting News All Stars" nor the previous season's ASG starters.  So I've made additional cards based on this criteria.   

What started as an idea for a small project, ballooned to over 150 cards so I'll be posting these in small doses.  I'll be breaking it down by year, league (NL or AL), and positions (battery, infield and outfield).

MLB Dream Bracket Alt-Topps Cards Part 8

Cubs v Mets
Giants v Brewers

The 3rd round began yesterday and I'm just finishing up the first round of match ups.  Again they pitted older franchises against sixties expansion teams. The Mets colors were originally colors were going to be pink and black.  They decided to change them to orange and blue in homage of the two New York teams that had recently departed for the west coast.  The Brewers were born as the Seattle Pilots in 1969. Weeks before the 1970 season they were "rescued" by Bud Selig and relocated to Milwaukee.

In the Cubs - Mets match up, I went for a 1969 reunion. On the Cubs 26 man roster there is exactly one pitcher (Jenkins) and 3 starting position players (Banks, Santo and Williams).  For the Mets there are 3 pitcher (Seaver, Koosman and McGraw), one starting position player (Jones) and one reserve (Agee) that played in 1969. So in a slight break from my norm of 1 pitcher and 3 position players, the Mets will have 2 pitchers and 2 position players. To see the results of this series click here.

In the Giants - Brewers match up I have Christy Mathewson, Mel Ott, Willie Mays and Willie McCovey for the New York/San Francisco Giants.  The makers of this roster all but forgot about the Seattle Pilots.  Gorman Thomas was drafted #1 by Seattle but didn't make the bigs until 1973. So for the Brewers/(not)Pilots I have Pete Vuckovich (who liked to wear two different shoes), the aforementioned Gorman Thomas, Paul Molitor and Christian Yelich. To see the results of this series click here.

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These cards are base on the MLB Dream Bracket.  Not sure who picked the "all-time players". It is a product of Twitch, Out of the Park and Draft Kings.  I take no responsibility for their choices, good or bad.  The cards themselves are based on a rejected Topps design from the late sixties.

To check the status of the bracket click here.

1987 All Star Game Honorary Captains: Catfish Hunter & Billy Williams

Its been 3 years since I've made Honorary Captain cards for the All Star break.  Part of the reason is my extended break from blogging.  The other part is that I'm just not that into the design of the cards in these years.  The last card I did, 1986 Topps All Stars were really a mash-up of the base cards and the All Star cards because I disliked the 1986 All Star design so much.

The best of the group is the 1987 All Star Cards. Subjectively, it is also the best pair of Honorary Captains.  The 1987 All Star Game was played in Oakland and both Honorary Captains played for the A's and both entered the Hall of Fame in 1987.  Yet neither of these player's plaques featured caps with  A's logos.

Representing the AL is Jim "Catfish" Hunter.  Unable to choose between the A's and the Yankees, Hunter opted for no logo on his cap at all. The nickname we all know, and the fake story behind it all came from Charlie Finley.  Topps always referred to him as Jim Hunter.  It wasn't until long after his playing years that Topps finally used the nickname on the front of a card. It was the 2001 "American Pie" release.

The NL was represented by Billy Williams.  "Sweet Swinging" Billy was, of course, enshrined as a Cub. After 16 seasons in the "Friendly Confines", Williams finished out his career as a DH in Oakland.

Unlike my earlier Honorary Captain cards, these captains actually were featured on 1987 All Star cards.  They were on the Glossy All Star cards inserted into 1988 Topps rack packs.

These Glossy All Star cards were inserted into rack packs from 1984-1991. For the most part they were extremely similar year to year.  They really had no design similarities to the base cards of those series.

Other than the lack of the league logo in 1986 and he 40th anniversary badge on the 1991, there is virtually no difference between the sets.