1967 Alt-Topps Requests

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.  

Even More 1964 Alt-Topps

World Series, Leaders, All- Stars and Topps All-Star Rookie Cards

Just a few more of my favorite subsets, World Series cards, Leaders cards, All Star cards and Topps Rookie All Star cards.

For the World Series card I kept the basic format but reversed the layout.  In the real 1964 set, Topps also highlighted Koufax's 15 strikeouts in Game 1. But I gotta say I like this photo better. 

On the leaders cards, I went a little off script for Topps. Instead of one large horizontal photo with two (or more) smaller photos below, I used one large vertical shot for the leader and smaller photos to the right.

Another un-Topps thing is having a card for Runs Scored Leaders.  Not one of the top stats but I like the top three players, so...

Again for the All Star cards, I reversed the Field.

Instead of a team logo, I used the All Star Game logo from 1963. I also tried to incorporate the logo's colors into the card format.

Since this format reminds me so much of the 1960 Topps All Star Rookies subset, I had to recreate it here.

Oddly in 1964 all but one of the Topps All Star Rookie team had the official trophy on his card. That was Jesse Gonder.  But in the Bizarro Universe, my Alt-Topps has got him covered.

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Just as I did in the last batch, I am willing to take a few requests.  I know most people just look at the pictures in these blogs.  But if you actually read this all the way to the bottom of the last post, it's the least I could do.  Just leave your requests in the comment section.

1963 Fleer Extended Set

In my last post, I wrote about the 1963 Fleer set. Specifically, how it was just 66 base cards and not a complete baseball card set as we know it. So today I am speculating about what some of the other non- base cards would look.

One of the first omissions from the set is the manager card. Johnny Pesky guided the Red Sox in 1963 and 1964. Hand picked by Tom Yawkey, Pesky was a fan favorite. But the Sox finished in 7th in 1963 and 8th in 1964.

Harry Craft was the first skipper of the expansion Colt .45s in 1962. He coached there until his eventual dismissal late in the 1964 season. The Colts weren't the first team he'd managed. He was the K.C. Athletics manager from 1957-59 and was part of the Cubs "College of Coaches" experiment in 1961. In his 7 years managing 3 different clubs, he never finished above 7th place.

Since there wasn't a player pose for manager, I had to create one. With the help of photoshop, I lifted the outline of Casey Stengel striking a classic pose.

You know what else is missing? Good old-fashioned team cards. They are missing from current sets as well. I guess they just don't take those type of pictures anymore. Too bad, I miss them.

I picked a team from each league. The Angels in just their 3rd year and the Pirates, who had been around since the late 1800s. I was surprised to learn that the Pirates logo from this era was this cartoonish buccaneer. Topps continued to use their older "classic" logo.

Last but not least are the rookie cards. Topps used the phrase "Rookie Stars" on their cards. Fleer sets of the 80s used the term "Prospect" which seem more appropriate given some of the "stars" that appeared on Topps rookie cards.

I used the eventual 1963 Rookies of the Year as the subjects of these cards. In all they are all very good but only one was an eventual Hall of Famer. Dave DeBusschere is in the Basketball  Hall of Fame.

1975 Topps 1963 Rookies of the Year

In the 60's and 70's many of the Rookies of the Year players appeared on multi-player cards. That is why I made regular cards for Gary Peters and Pete Rose even though they already had cards in the 1963 set.  I just thought those cards wouldn't really look right on a card like this.  

Or, I could have gone the way Topps went when making its 2001 Archives set. Here's that version on a 1963 Willie Stargell.

 

I think I made the right call.

1963 Topps Gary Peters

In 1963 Gary Peters led the AL with a 2.33 ERA. He also won 19 games and threw 189 strikeouts. The White Sox would finish in 2nd place but still 10.5 games behind the Yankees. Peters would win the Rookie of the year beating out teammate Pete Ward who hit .295 with 22 homers. 

Peters was a 26 year old rookie that had pitched for the White Sox in 1959, 1960, 1961, and 1962 but still retained "rookie" status in 1963. He even appeared on Topps cards in 1960 and 1961. He appeared on a multi-player rookie card in 1963.