1975 Alt-Topps Requests

I am sorry for this delay in requests. These past few months have been crazy both personally and professionally.  I know that when a blogger of vintage cards disappears for extended periods of time people sometimes make the logical conclusion that the old goat is either sick or dead. I can assure you that I am neither.  Unfortunately, for the next several months, at least, I don't see much time in my schedule for blogging.  I do have some half-baked ideas still in the works and will try to get them out when I can.

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Here are 18 more cards from the Alt-Topps 1975 set based off that black and white mockup.  First off is Walt "No-Neck" Williams who also appeared in my other blog, Rating the Rookies, here.  When he passed away in 2016, I created a card for him on this blog, here.  I also used his image on a checklist for this blog, here.

Another request, is Deron Johnson. Topps began making designated rookie cards in 1959. Johnson was one of those rookies. He also had rookie cards in 1960 and 1961. I featured his 1960 rookie card in Rating the Rookies, here.  This was the only color photo I could find of Johnson in a White Sox uniform, so I had to re-use it for the Alt-Topps version.

For both of these cards, I felt that the black lettering for the team name didn't quite fit. So for the Yankees and White Sox I used white for the team name.

The next two are a couple of players acquired by the Indians in 1974.  Robinson was picked up in September.  Robinson had been a manager in the Puerto Rican winter league since 1968 and had openly campaigning for a manager's job in Anaheim before being dealt to the Indians. After the season ended, he was named player-manager.

Jim Perry came to the Indians in the deal that send "No-Neck" Williams to the Yankees in March of 1974. Both Jim and his brother, Gaylord, were on the Indians to start the 1975 season.  Both also publicly questioned Robinson's managerial credentials. In May, Jim was dealt to the A's for Blue Moon Odom. In June, Gaylord was sent to the Rangers for Jim Bibby, pitcher Jackie Brown, minor league pitcher Rick Waits and cash. Bottom line: Don't question the Judge's bona fides.

 Sonny Siebert began his minor league career in the outfield in 1958-59. In 1960 he moved to pitcher. He ended up pitching in 12 Major League seasons. He had 2 All-Star appearances and pitched a no-hitter in 1966 for the Indians. In November of 1974, he was traded by the Cardinals to the Padres in a 5 player deal. He pitched 17 games for San Diego before being traded to Oakland for Ted Kubiak. He was released by the A's after the 1975 season.

Occasionally, I'll handcuff myself by creating a "rule" for myself.  Earlier, I had used shots from the actual 1974 ASG for the All-Star cards.  So when requests came for additional cards, the photos were not ideal.  For Garvey, I slightly modified it to acknowledge his MVP selection.  The Brooks card with Johnny Bench photo-bombing is just not very good.  So I created a base card of Robinson , too.

The base card shows his trademark short-billed batting helmet.  When the earflaps were added to helmets in the early '70s Brooks felt that the bill was longer and impeded his vision. So he took a hacksaw and cut about an inch and a half off the bill and also part of the earflap.  To my knowledge, he is the only player with this modification.  If someone can find another similar helmet leave a comment.

A few requests were for players on the move. After the 1974 season Bonds went to the Yankees in exchange for Bobby Murcer.  Northrup was actually picked up by the Orioles in the final weeks of the 1974 season from the Expos.  He was an Expo for just over a month after spending the bulk of his career in Detroit. His 1975 season in Baltimore would be his final.

After 8 years as a Met, Boswell was dealt to the Astros.  This photo must have been from spring training because he is wearing the old uniform.  In 1975 the 'Stros adopted the "Tequila Sunrise" uniforms.  Also moving to Texas was Willie Davis. His stay wouldn't be long. By June he was dealt again to the Cardinals.

By 1975 multi-player rookie cards were the norm. But in 1961 and the first few series of the 1962 set, Topps simply put a star with the year and "rookie" designation.  Nobody actually requested this card but with Lynn being the rookie of  year and MVP in 1975, he deserved an individual rookie card. I kinda melded the early sixties "Rookie Star" into this Alt-Topps design.

The request also came for post season cards. Of course I couldn't make them all.  Instead, I made one more from the ALCS and another World Series card.  

In game 4, Mike Cuellar and Ross Grimsley held the A's to just one hit, a double by Reggie.  But they gave up 11 bases on balls, including 3 to Jackson. Meanwhile Hunter and Fingers kept the O's offense in check.

In Game 2 of the World Series, Don Sutton threw 9 strikeouts and shut the A's out through 8 innings. But in the 9th he hit Sal Bando then gave up a double to Jackson.  Mike Marshall came in and gave up a single to Joe Rudi that scored Bando and Jackson. "Designated Runner" Herb Washington came in to run for Rudi. Marshall Struck out Tenace, picked off Washington, then struck out pinch hitter, Angel Mangual to even the series.

These last two are "kind of" a request from Buzz.  He wanted a Graig Nettles card in the glove design. I got me to thinking that maybe I could put together some "Gold Glove" cards similar to the leader cards. So I tried to create a gold-foil-type look that was similar to the leaders cards I made earlier.

It is a fairly recent practice of breaking down the outfielders by specific position (2011).  In 1974 of the 6 gold glove winners for outfield 4 were centerfielders. The exceptions were Joe Rudi, LF Oakland and Bobby Bonds, RF San Francisco. Cesar Cedeno, HOU, Cesar Geronimo, CIN, Paul Blair, BAL and Amos Otis, KC were all centerfielders.

Jim Kaat was a perennial Gold Glove winner. He was honored 16 consecutive years from 1962-1977.  In the NL, Andy Messersmith won his first of two Gold Gloves despite committing a career high nine errors.  

 Unfortunately, Graig Nettles first Gold Glove wouldn't come until 1977. ( A little competition from the "Human Vacuum" at the hot corner). Here is the card that Buzz actually wanted.  This was the best shot I could find to fit the format of this set.  Since this design doesn't translate well to a horizontal adaptation, most action shots of Nettles had him diving right off the card.  

1979 Alt-Topps Requests

The big request this month was the entire run of World Series cards. Topps had omitted them from the 1979 set. I imagine it was to make an earlier deadline. But we here at "Alt-Topps" have a much more fluid deadline. 

Game 1 had been published already, so here is Game 2.  Ron Cey drove in all four Dodger runs. In the 4th he singled to score Garvey from second. In the 6th he hit a three-run homer.

In Game 3 Graig Nettles put on a clinic at third base. He is credited with saving at least 4 runs. Guidry pitched a complete game despite claiming to not have his stuff.

The play everybody talks about in this Series was a soft infield liner to Russell. Russell (intentionally?) let it drop and tried to turn a double play. But a "confused" Reggie Jackson was frozen in the base path. The throw to first ricocheted into the outfield. Instead of 3 outs with LA up 3-1. there were 2 outs and the Yankees were within 1.  The game went to extras and in the bottom of the tenth Roy White scored on a walk-off singe by Lou Piniella.

After the Dodgers gained an early 2-run lead, Munson drove in the Yankees second and third run to put NY ahead. The Yanks never looked back, piling it on to win 12-2. Munson went 3 for 5 with 2 singles, a double and 5 RBIs.

Brian Doyle led the Yankees with a .438 series batting average. Bucky Dent hit .417 in the World Series and was named the series MVP. The two accounted for 12 hits in the final  two games of the series. 

Brett left a comment to include WAR leader cards in this Alt-set.  Wins Above Replacement (WAR) is an appeal to the Sabermetric baseball community. It is supposed to calculate the team wins with a particular player in the lineup as opposed to a "replacement level player". Presumably a minor leaguer or a bench player. 

It's an imperfect science and different sources use slightly different data and formulas. There are also several different WAR's; there is overall, offensive, defensive and one of position players or pitchers. Of course, Topps would not have included these leader cards, but what a unique idea. Wish I thought of it.

I had a few last minute requests. Buzz wanted the 42 year old outfielder Vic Davalillo in Dodger blue. I was tempted to label him P.H. as most of his 1979 appearances were pinch hitting. 

He also wanted to see Bobby Murcer. Murcer began the 1979 season on the north side. He was dealt mid-season back where he started in the Bronx.

He also was looking for the prickly reliever Mike Marshall. If you look back at the Topps cards of Mike Marshall you can see nice action cards in 1974, 1975, 1976 and 1977. His earlier cards were loaded with airbrushed photos. He simply didn't like posing for pictures. And although Topps gave up on him after 1977, he continued to play through 1981. Even Fleer and Donruss ignored him in 1981. He did get a Fleer card in 1982 (his first card since 1977).

I also got a request from the "Chief" for a Bobby Bonds card playing for the Tribe. But I was already on that track.  If you read the comment section of the first posting in the Alt 1979 series, you'd see that there was some question over whether the card of Don Baylor was actually Don Baylor. 

It was suggested that it could be Ron Jackson. He wore the numbers 2, 32, 16 and 15, but never 25. Also in every photo I've seen of Jackson, he has worn a helmet with an earflap. The helmet flying off "Baylor's" head obviously was the old school helmet. The earflap helmets were not required until 1983 and players who entered the league prior were grandfathered. Rock Raines was the last to wear the flapless helmet in 2002.

"Joe" suggested it might be George Hendrick. There are a couple of flaws in this theory. First, Hendrick was listed as 6'5" 195 lb. Baylor was 6'1" and a generous 190 lb (the same weight as on his 1970 Rookie card). Second, going back to helmets, every picture I've seen of Hendrick he has a cap under his helmet. Again not the case in the "Baylor" card. Lastly, the stirrups. Hendrick favored the George Brett style of long pants covering most of the stirrups.

The most obvious tell is the number 25. Baylor initially wore #12 for the Angels until Bobby Bonds was traded to the White Sox after the 1977 season. Here Bobby is depicted on a Traded card. The Rangers traded Bonds to Cleveland in October of 1978. He was still shown as a Ranger on his 1979 Topps card.

The next #25 on the Angels was Tommy John. He wore #35 until his familiar 25 was vacated when Baylor was dealt to the Yankees in 1983. He wore #25 until mid 1985 when he was released.  John was signed by the Yankees in November of 1978. His Topps card still showed him on the Dodgers, There was a Burger King variation that had him on the Yankees.  I think we can agree that neither Bonds nor Tommy John are the person on that card.

My last bit of evidence to support my case is this 1979 ALCS program featuring Don Baylor on the cover. He's wearing the same style helmet, the same high stirrups, the same Adidas cleats, the same batting gloves and the same number.

1971 Topps NL Stolen Base Leaders: Bobby Tolan, Lou Brock, Bobby Bonds

From 1966-1974 Lou Brock led the NL in stolen bases every year but one. 1970 was that year. It was not that Brock had an off year. He still had 13 homers and 51 stolen bases while batting .304 in 155 games.  Bobby Tolan just had a slightly better season. He had 16 homers, 57 stolen bases and an average of .316. Unfortunately, Tolan would miss the entire 1971 season after tearing his Achilles tendon playing basketball. 

1970 was a year with many career highs for Bobby Bonds. He had a career high 48 stolen bases. He also had highs in hits with 200, runs with 134, doubles with 36, triples with 10 and batting average with .302. 

1970 Topps NL Stolen Base Leaders: Lou Brock, Joe Morgan, Bobby Bonds

For the 4th year in a row, Lou Brock was the NL stolen base leader. He stole 53 bases for the Cardinals.  Joe Morgan once again was in the running with 49 stolen bases for the 1969 Astros. Morgan had missed most of the 1968 season after he was taken out by Tommie Agee breaking up a double play.  Bobby Bonds became the first 30-30 player since Hank Aaron in 1963. He stole 45 bases and hit 32 homers in 1969 for the Giants.

The real story of this card is whose photo is not on the card. After leading the league for 6 straight years, then placing in the top 3 from 1966-1968, Maury Wills fell to 4th in the NL with 40 stolen bases. He began the 1969 season as an expansion draft pick for the Expos. In June he returned to the Dodgers in a 4 player trade. In honor of this monumental achievement, here are all of his fake stolen-base-leader cards:

1972 Topps Joe Morgan All Star MVP

Going Horizontal

After going 0 for 3 with a walk during regulation, Joe Morgan had a walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the 10th to give the NL a 4-3 victory in the 1972 All Star Game.

I started making horizontal variations of Topps cards a while back. At that time I decided that I would use the All Star Game MVP as the subject of the cards.  The strange thing is that when Topps started incorporating the horizontal variation into its set they just happened to put that season's All Star Game MVPs onto horizontal cards.

In 1973 Bobby Bonds was the All Star Game MVP. He came in to the game as Billy William's relief in left field. He had a 2-run homer and a double in his only at bats. This is his actual 1973 card. Hall of Famer,Willie Stargell makes a cameo on this card. He also made a brief appearance in the 1973 All Star Game. He pinch-hit for Chris Speier and struck out.

In 1974 Steve Garvey was the All Star Game MVP going 2 for 4 with a run scored and an RBI double. The NL would continue their dominance with a 7-2 victory. Garvey would also be named the National League MVP for the 1974 season.