More 1968 Alt-Topps *UPDATED*

Managers, Team Cards and Rookies

Nothing ground breaking here. I simply used the base card format for the managers.

I had to use this photo because I never noticed that the White Sox coaches had caps that were different than their players. This is similar to the A's look in the '60s and 70s. I scoured 2 of my favorite sites looking for other examples of coach-specific White Sox caps. I had no luck at either Chris Creamer's Sportslogos.net or Paul Lukas's Uni-Watch.com.  If either of these blogs can help me out with more information, hit me up.    ****See update below for more information***

For the team cards I used the Topps 1965 and 1966 method of including where the team finished the previous year.

For whatever reason, Topps did not include team cards of the Astros, Cubs, Giants, Indians, Red Sox or Yankees in the real 1968 set.  In this alt-set we got the Giants and Red Sox covered.

As usual I included the Rookies of the Year in my sampling of rookie cards.

For the Reds, Bench and McRae. And for the Yankees Bahnsen and Bobby Cox.

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UPDATE Jan 10, 2019

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That was fast. 

I knew that posing this question to Paul Lukas would yield results. I just didn't realize how quickly he would have the answer. He sent me a link to Todd Radom's blog where he had a great and humorous history of this short-lived ballcap.

Here is a link to Todd Radom's Blog. There is plenty of good reading there. I can really lose a full day just going through it. (Just a friendly warning)

Here is a screenshot of his explanation:

There is also a terrific graphic that accompanies this story.  I won't include that here. I feel I have already taken too many liberties posting his explanation. I do recommend following the above link to see it for yourself.

That is Tiger Stadium depicted in the photo used for this card.  I would have to deduce that this was the final appearance of this ill-fated cap.

Thanks again to Paul Lukas of  Uni-Watch!

1968 Topps Rookie Stars: Bobby Cox, Alan Foster

Here is another card created for "Rating the Rookies". The reason I chose to use these players was to kill 2 birds with one stone. First, Bobby Cox played only 2 seasons at the Major League level before going on to his Hall of Fame managing career. He didn't have a card his rookie season, 1968. But his 1969 Topps card featured the "Topps 1968 All-Star Rookie" trophy.

So one reason was to give Bobby Cox a card for his 1968 season, but the more important reason was this magazine cover:

This cover featured Sports Illustrated's picks for the rookie class of 1968. Of these 5, Topps agreed with SI on 3. Johnny Bench, Mike Torrez and Cisco Carlos all had "Rookie Stars" cards in the 1968 Topps set. But  Don Pepper (who never had any cards) and Alan Foster were left out.

A while back, I created this card that included Don Pepper at the request of a Tigers' fan who wanted some cards commemorating their 1968 season. (He specifically wanted a Jim Rooker card among others.) Click here.

Now thanks to a randomly selected card from "Rating the Rookies", all 5 players now have 1968 Topps Rookie Stars cards to go along with the 1968 SI cover.