I promised to have these done "before spring training ends". But it ended rather abruptly. I did at least manage to get these out before the regular season starts, if there is a season at all.
This time around, there weren't as many requests as I usually get. It's as though you might have had more important things to tend to. In all seriousness, I hope that everyone is staying healthy and following the CDC guidelines. Here's something to kill a few minutes of your self quarantine.
I got a couple requests for more All Star cards, particularly Harmon Killebrew. The Killer wasn't actually a starting All Star in 1966. He was on the All Star roster, though. Topps played pretty fast and loose with their All Star cards in the '60s. Often they referred to them as "Sporting News All Stars". Despite the title, sometimes the players on their cards weren't named to the Sporting News All Star team, either. So I have no qualms about including Killebrew in this Alt-Topps subset. The Ron Santo card is one that I had made earlier, then decided to make a McCovey card instead. After all McCovey's name was on the original mock-up, even though his image wasn't.
I also got a request for a Phillies and an Orioles card. The reason: both had yellow as their base colors in the real 1967 Topps set. "Bob" thought yellow wouldn't work well in this design. He may have a point. I found a decent head shot of Uecker wearing a Phillies uniform. His real 1967 card was of the hatless variety. For the Orioles, I dragged out one of my favorite players, Luis Aparicio.
As I said before, the request were few, so I had a couple that I wanted for myself. I always like to add a card of "the Mick" whenever I can. In 1967 he moved from the outfield and played first base exclusively. His real 1967 card still listed him as an outfielder. I also needed to add possibly the biggest trade of 1967, Maury Wills. He not only moved from LA to Pittsburgh but also from shortstop to third base. The Pirates already had a Gold Glove shortstop in Gene Alley
A request came in for the multi player cards that were a Topps staple in the '60s. In this instance, the request was for the White Sox pitching rotation that included Tommy John, Joel Horlen and Gary Peters. Although the Sporting News had all three on their cover in July of 1967, I could not find a similar color photo. But heck, two out of three ain't bad. I also made a card of the Alou brothers. I used the term Family Affair. That TV show debuted in September of 1966. The Sly and Family Stone hit single of the same name wouldn't come out until 1971.
The same person wanted a rookie card that featured Fred Lasher and Cisco Carlos. Both were late call ups that pitched for 2 of the 4 late-season AL contenders. (As late as September 6th, the Twins, Tigers, Red Sox and White Sox were all tied for 1st place). Lasher was a closer with 9 saves in 17 appearances in '67. He also had 28 strikeouts in just 30 innings pitched. Cisco Carlos was 2-0 with a 0.86 ERA and a strikeout to walk ratio of 3 to 1. He was good enough to be included with Johnny Bench on the cover of the 1968 MLB rookie edition of Sports Illustrated. However in 1968 he went 4-14 for the Sox.
"Deogolf" wanted more World Series cards and I wanted to provide some equal time for the Dodgers. But the reality is LA was pretty much absent from the 1966 Fall Classic. Even the real 1967 Topps set had only Orioles on their World Series cards. One of the better performances by the Dodgers was Claude Osteen's pitching in game 3. He only gave up 3 hits in 7 innings. But one of those hits was a solo homer by Paul Blair. The Dodgers gave him zero runs in support.
