Topps All-Star Misses: 1968 AL Infield

 The 1968 Topps All Star cards for the AL infield nearly reflected the 1967 AL starting infield.  1st base was Killebrew, 2nd was Carew, 3rd was Brooks Robinson.  Shortstop was where they ran into trouble.  Topps had Jim Fregosi at shortstop.  The actual starting shortstop was Rico Petrocelli.

And then there is the issue that the cards were supposed to represent "The Sporting News 1968 All Star Selections".  In that case, they missed the mark at shortstop again.  Luis Aparicio was the Sporting News pick.

They missed at 1st base, too.  In 1968 Boog Powell was The Sporting News All Star section.

Who probably didn't merit inclusion in the 1969 Topps All-Star set, but was in it anyway?

Jim Fregosi:

 Fregosi technically doesn't belong using my narrow definition of either starting the previous season's ASG (1967) or being the current season's Sporting News All Star (1968).  However in 1967 he actually played more innings at short than the starter, Petrocelli. He was also the starter in the 1968 ASG.

Topps All-Star Misses: 1969 AL Infield

 Topps 1969 American League All Star Infield was another head scratcher.  At second Topps had Rod Carew who was the 1968 All Star starter and a 1969 Sporting News All Star selection.  Similarly, third base was Brooks Robinson.  He was the 1968 ASG starter and a 1969 Sporting News All Star. There if falls apart.  

Topps had Bert Campaneris at shortstop. The actual 1969 Sporting News All Star was Luis Aparicio. The 1968 MLB All Star Game Starter was Jim Fregosi.

At first it gets really strange.  Topps had Ken Harrelson who had been used primarily as an outfielder since being dealt to the Red Sox in 1967.  In fact, he was named to The Sporting News All Star team in 1969 as an outfielder, not a first baseman. He also appears to be in his A's uniform despite being traded in 1967.  The actual 1969 Sporting News All Star in 1969 was Boog Powell and the starting first baseman in the 1968 All Star Game was Harmon Killebrew.

Who probably didn't merit inclusion in the 1969 Topps All-Star set, but was in it anyway?

Bert Campaneris:

We'll give Topps a pass for Hawk Harrelson because he was a Sporting News Selection in 1969, although in the OF not 1B.  But Campy made his first ASG appearance in 1968 as a reserve and wouldn't be named to The Sporting News team until 1973. Additionally, the pinstriped uniform in the picture hasn't been worn by the A's in the regular season since 1961. How old is this picture? 

1976 Alt-Topps Requests

A few quick requests before the end of the year. 

Buzz likes a challenge. He requested a few veterans that were playing out the twilight of their careers on different teams. 

He also requested a couple West-Coast favorites. Billy Buck and Rick Monday.  The photo used is somewhat a cheat. Monday performed his famous flag rescue on May 4, 1976. This photo was obviously taken some time after that. He was dealt to the Dodgers for Buckner (in a five player deal) after the 1976 season.  Again, the colors used in the base cards reflect he colors Topps used for these teams in the real 1976 set. 

Deogolf requested more World Series cards so here are Games 1 & 7.

Bill wanted some All Stars so for good measure I added a couple stolen base experts. In truth, I just needed an excuse to use a photo that incorporated the little used football-styled helmet the Cards used in 1975.

1972 Alt-Topps Requests

To the people who read all the way to the bottom of my last post, here are your requests.  To be fair, I added that last paragraph about the requests 8 or 9 hours after I had first published my last post. This is just my way of saying thank you to all the other baseball card nerds.  Thank you for sharing my interests and even participating in them. 

I ended up making 11 cards in all.  Bill requested more All Stars so I included Bud Harrelson in what would be his only All Star start. Norm Cash actually started in place of  Boog Powell. Although Powell wasn't listed as injured, he only started in 8 regular season games in July of 1971. Despite going 0 for 2, Cash was good choice to fill in for Boog. First, he was playing in his home stadium. Second, he was hitting .293  with 20 homers in the first half of 1971.

I had a request for Ken Boswell from "Rumple" while "Buzz" gave me a laundry list. Above are the base cards. Staub could've been another traded, but since he wasn't dealt to the Mets until April, I kept him on the Expos.

I did give traded cards to Sudden Sam and McLain.  The shot of Denny wearing #52 must've been from spring training.  His familiar #17 belonged to pitcher Ron Klimkowski in 1971. Klimkowski didn't make Oakland's big league roster after spring training in 1972 and was released outright in May. McLain himself was dealt to the Braves for Orlando Cepeda in June after only 5 starts for the A's.

Both Baseball-Reference and The Baseball Almanac have him listed as wearing #17 during his short time with the A's.  I've seen pictures of him wearing 30, 31 and 52 but never 17.  Can anyone find a picture of him wearing #17 for the A's?

Another Buzz request was Frank Robinson.  I found this great shot and made it a Game 6 card.  So much going on in this photo.  First of course, you have Robbie scoring on a pop fly to shallow center off the bat of Brooks.  You also have Manny Sanguillen at the plate and in the foreground, batboy Jay Mazzone.  Mazzone had lost both hands as a 2 year old.  He joined the Orioles at 12 in 1966. 1972 was his final season.  

Do You "Bunt"?

Apparently, I do.   

I never really saw the point of collecting "virtual" cards. Especially since I've been making virtual cards for this blog for the past 4 years or so. But curiosity finally got the best of me and I had to check out Topps Bunt. To my surprise, I came across this Harmon Killebrew Topps Bunt Card using the same design I used for the 1971 Topps All Star Cards That Never Were.

 Admittedly, the design was not entirely mine. I lifted it from the World Series cards from that set. 

 Nonetheless, I'm kinda stoked that they used a design that I had a hand in creating. 

And I am not the only blogger who's CTNW designs were used by Topps Bunt. Over at The Baseball Card Blog, the writers created a 1965 Topps All Star set. Their design was also incorporated into Topps Bunt.  Here is their design. Basically they made an All Star designation for the regular issue 1965 cards. This is The Baseball Card Blog's version of a 1965 Topps Brooks Robinson All Star card: 

And this is the Topps Bunt version:

On these cards, Topps Bunt utilized the design element that we had also used to create our Cards That Never Were. But on this card of Yogi Berra, the entire card was identical to the one created by Uncle Doc's Closet. Here is the one by Topps Bunt:

And here is the Uncle Doc version:

Did some Topps intern not realize that this was a fake card? Or did he know it was fake and just didn't care? In reality, the design belongs to Topps in the first place and they probably actually paid for the rights to use Berra's image.

I can't speak for the other bloggers, but I am not the least bit upset, offended or otherwise outraged by the Topps Bunt versions of these cards. Quite the opposite. I'm hoping that they use more of our designs. The whole reason I made most of these cards is because I thought Topps should have made them themselves. With the recent addition of Archives, Heritage and now Bunt cards, Topps will have more chances to create the cards they missed the first time around.

Orioles 60th Anniversary Celebration At Camden Yard

Joe at The Shlabotnik Report gave me a heads up that a couple of my cards slipped by quality control and made it onto the scoreboard at Camden Yard last night.  I'm pretty sure it was unintentional, but I am thrilled none the less. Here are a couple screen shots of the scoreboard:

As you can see the center card was part of the 1971 All Star series that never existed. Here is my original post.

This one has the 1981 Cal Ripken card I created just a couple months ago. Click Here. I find the card choice a bit odd. First because they included my card at all. Secondly is that they used the original 1987 card and the 2012 Topps 1987 Mini right next to each other.

Here is a link to see a video of the ceremony. If anybody has the complete ceremony, I'd love to see it just to see what cards were used during all of the players' tributes.

Thank you Joe, you made my day.

1972 Topps Boog Powell In Action

Baltimore Orioles CTNW Favorites #4

You just don't see the base-running Boog Powell action shot every day. But here is the big guy trying to break up a double play. Although I can't see his number, it looks like that might be Bert Campaneris with the throw to first.

1971 Topps All Star Cards : American League Infield

1971 Topps Boog Powell All-Star

Boog Powell was 2nd in MVP voting in 1969 and was the AL MVP in 1970. His dominance didn't cross over into the 1970 All Star game, though. He went 0 for 3 batting clean-up for the AL.

1971 Topps Davey Johnson All-Star

The Orioles' Gold Glove 2nd baseman, Davey Johnson was selected to his 3rd All Star game and his 1st as a starter in 1970. I always remember him being referred to as "Davey" yet Topps always listed him as Dave well past his playing days and into his managerial years.

1971 Topps Luis Aparicio All-Star

Luis Aparicio hit a career high .313 in 1970. He also won his 9th and final Gold Glove that year. He was traded to the Red Sox after the 1970 season. The White Sox retired his number in 1984, the year he was voted into the Hall of Fame.

1971 Topps Harmon Killebrew All-Star

Killebrew was one of only 3 AL starters to get a hit in the 1970 All Star game. The Killer had an impressive .308 batting average in his 13 All Star game appearances.