Favorite Players A-Z (Part 2 of 3)

Part 2 of me jumping on the bandwagon.  Here's "J" through "R" of my favorite players A-Z.

I hope this isn't a recurring theme.  Again, I couldn't choose between two of my favorites.

1974 Topps Traded Fergie Jenkins

1986 Fleer Bo Jackson

1975 Topps Dave Kingman

1981 Donruss Greg Luzinski

1969 Topps Carlos May

Don Newcombe on another rejected Topps prototype

1962 Topps Buck O'Neil

1968 Topps Satchel Paige

1980 Donruss Dan Quisenberry

1973 Topps Frank Robinson

Ten more cards and this time a mere 3 Chicago cards.

The 1980 Donruss Set That Never Was

We all know that Topps monopoly on baseball cards was broken up by a court ruling in 1980. In 1981 we had Fleer and Donruss cards as well as Topps.  In anticipation of the ruling Donruss created these 1980 prototypes.  These can still be found. A quick look at COMC.com shows this panel currently selling for $855.28. (not sure what the 28 cents is for, postage?)

The panel included Reggie Jackson, George Brett and a blank template.  I wasn't the first and I probably won't be the last to use this template for card creations. I made a card of Dan Quisenberry back in 2014 using this design. I've also seen a few other custom cards using this format on the interwebs.

Elements of this design made it into the 1981 Donruss set. Here is a Cy Young Card of Steve Carlton.  You can see the similarities in the banner design.

You can also see the similarities in the banner design of the 1980 Topps cards. If this had been released in 1980, I could see Topps taking issue with the design.

The photos they used also made it into the 1981 set. A cropped version of the Reggie photo made it onto one of his three base cards. 

Donruss even had a bit of revisionist history in regards to the 1980 set. In 2002 they came out with a 1980 "What if?" set including this Reggie Jackson card. It didn't resemble the 1980 prototype at all. 

The Brett photo found its way onto two cards in 1981, his base card and his MVP card.

A cropped version of the same photo can be seen here on an advertisement for the new 1981 Donruss cards.

Okay, that's enough for the baseball card history segment of this post.  The reason I am posting this in the first place is to make these prototypes into a complete set.  

I'm going to follow my normal template of making base cards of the eventual season MVPs and Cy Young award winner.  Then in subsequent posts, I'll fill in the various other elements that make a complete baseball card set.

In the AL, George Brett won the MVP in 1980. That card has already been made for us.  In the NL it was another big hitting third baseman and future Hall of Famer, Mike Schmidt.  You can see my adaptation of the prototype's design.

The Cy Young Award winners were Steve Stone and Steve Carlton. For Carlton this was his 3rd of 4 Cy Youngs. His 24 wins helped the Phillies to their first ever World Series Championship. He was also 3-0 in four post season starts.  Steve Stone was having a career year in Baltimore. He had a 25 wins. That was a full ten wins more than his previous high of 15 with the 1977 Southside Hitmen. He also had a career high of 149 strikeouts. Tendinitis in his shoulder dropped his numbers to 4-7 in just 15 games in 1981. He retired at 34. 

For Donruss, the first few years the set was, well, basic. They didn't have designated rookie cards, or team cards, or leader cards, or all-stars, or post season cards. You get the idea.  My 1980 set that never was will have all that and more.  Those of you that actually read this far into the post can of course request cards as usual or even submit ideas for subsets that I didn't include.

To be continued....

MLB Dream Bracket Alt-Topps Cards Part 2

Another simulated game featuring the All-Time lineups of the White Sox and the Royals begins today at 10 am Eastern time.  And again I put together 4 cards of each team, One pitcher and three position players. For the Sox I took the knuckler, Wilbur Wood, Minnie Minoso, Luke Appling and Carlton Fisk.  For the Royals I have the side-armed Dan Quisenberry, George Brett, Bo Jackson and Freddie Patek.

The cards themselves a based on an unused Topps prototype, presumably from the late sixties. And more info on the games themselves can be found here,

1980 Donruss Dan Quisenberry

Kansas City Royals CTNW Favorites #5

Here is another installment in my on again off again running theme, the top 5 "Fan Favorites" set. Just as a reminder, these are not necessarily the 5 best players from the franchise. They are just cards I decided to make of players that I like. So as David Letterman used to say before Stupid Pet Tricks, "This is only an exhibition. This is not a competition. Please, no wagering."

To be honest I have been waiting for the opportunity to make one of these ever since I learned of their existence a few years back.  This is Donruss's 1980 baseball card design that they were using as a prototype in anticipation of the antitrust ruling that would eventually break Topps monopoly.

Dan Quisenberry was called up by the Royals in July of 1979 going 3-2 with 5 saves. That was good enough for Topps to put him on a "Future Stars" card but not enough to get his own card. I have always been a fan of the sidearm style pitchers, and Quiz was the best. 1980 was his first full season and he led the A.L. in saves with 33 and won The Sporting News Fireman of the Year Award. He would win again in 1982, 83, 84 and 85.