Even More of the 1980 Donruss Set that Never Was

All-Stars, Leaders, Traded, World Series and Diamond Kings

Dave Winfield went 1 for 5 with one RBI and a run scored in the 1979 All-Star game. He grounded into a fielder's choice. With Gary Matthews on first and Mike Schmidt on third, Matthews was out at second and Schmidt scored. In his second at bat he doubled to the right field gap. He scored on a Gary Carter single.

Lynn's only at bat was a two-run homer off Steve Carlton scoring Don Baylor. That gave the American league a 3-2 lead in a back and forth game that was decided in the 9th inning. In the top og the 9th, Jim Kern (who was the 1979 Rolaids Relief Man award winner) walked the bases loaded. He was pulled for Ron Guidry who walked in the winning run. The NL won their 8th straight ASG 7-6.

For the 1980 All-Stars I borrowed the look from the 1990 Donruss MVP.  I added All-Star text to the background similar to the MVP. Although the 1990 is much more similar to the base. I ditched one of the banners to give it a cleaner look.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Donruss ever had League Leader cards.  If they did, they weren't in the familiar Topps format. But for the sake of this imaginary set, I've created just that. I chose to do them in the Topps style from the '70s with a single card with the AL and the NL leader.

I picked this card because the Brothers Niekro actually tied for the most wins in 1979 with 21 wins each. Of course with knuckleballers you take the good with the bad.  Joe also led the league in wild pitches. Phil led the league in homeruns surrendered. In the AL Mike Flanagan had a career high 23 victories.  He also had career highs in shutouts  with 5 and strikeouts with 190. He was the AL Cy Young award winner.

Even though these guys led their respective leagues in homers, neither look too happy here.  Maybe because both of them also led their leagues in strikeouts.  Yup, Dave Kingman smashed 48 dingers and whiffed 131 times. In the AL, Gorman Thomas hit 45 round-trippers but fanned an incredible 175 times.

As for the traded cards, I reversed he players names and team names and tried to create a "traded" icon in the same vein as the "Rated Rookie" icon. A couple of big name trades here. Nolan Ryan was a free agent who signed a 4 year $4.5M with his hometown Astros.  He became the first player to earn more than $1M a year.  The Angels GM, Buzzie Bavasi reportedly commented that Ryan "could easily be replace by two 8-7 pitchers", referring to his 1979 record of 16-14.  

In 1980, Rusty Staub was competing with Warren Cromartie for first base. The Expos ended up dumping him for two nobodies at the end of  spring training. Rusty ended up sharing time as DH, first base and outfield for the Rangers. He hit an even .300 in a somewhat limited role. He was traded to the Mets the following season for the second time.

In some sets, Donruss did include World Series cards. But they weren't quite the same as we were used to with Topps.  They were visually similar to the player's card except with a World Series logo on the front. The back would detail their World Series feats.  I kept mine similar to Topps but included the World series logo.  In this particular card you can see Ed Ott easily tagging out Eddie Murray after a laser throw from Dave Parker.

It wasn't until their second issue in 1982 that Donruss included their Diamond Kings subset. But I've got one for the 1980 set. While Donruss relied on Dick Perez for their art, I tried to use photo effects to recreate the style.  Here is "Stretch" McCovey on a 1980 style Diamond Kings card.

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As usual, I am taking request for cards based on this design. So if there are any players or even subsets you'd like to see in a future post, leave a comment.

1975 Topps Joe Niekro

Houston Astros CTNW Favorites #5

It has been months since I've made my Top 5 "Fan Favorites". For this one I've chosen to do the Houston Astros. There are several worthy players from the 90's and beyond but as usual, I chose to make cards of players I remember from my early collecting years,  which would be primarily 1980s and earlier. In case you need to be reminded, this is simply an exhibition, not a competition. So please no wagering.

Joe Niekro was purchased by the Astros just prior to the start of the 1975 season. He began his MLB career with the Cubs. He then played for the Padres, Tiger and Braves. It was in Atlanta where he honed his knuckler with the help of his teammate, future Hall of Famer, and big brother Phil Niekro. When Joe came to Houston he was used out of the bullpen. When the knuckle ball became his reliable go-to pitch he earned a starting roll. In 1980 he became the first Astro to win 20 games in two seasons.

I chose the 1975 design because Topps pictured him in a Braves uniform that year. It was also the first season the Astros wore the infamous "Tequila Sunrise" uniforms.  These unis would not appear on Topps cards until the 1976 series. That first season was slightly different than the other years in that the player's number was in a circle on the back. They also had a black #40 patch on their sleeve in honor of Don Wilson. Wilson was an All Star pitcher for Houston from 1966-1974. He died in January of 1975. You can barely make out that patch on his left shoulder.

Here is a better look at those first year uniforms. Sorry I couldn't find a decent color photo that showed both the patch and the circle number.

This photo features pitcher Doug Konieczny and manager Preston Gomez.  I know this is a post about Joe Niekro but I have to point out that in 1974 Gomez had actually brought in a pinch hitter for Don Wilson (whose patch is on his sleeve) when Wilson was pitching a no hitter after 8 innings. Granted, the Astrros were down to the Big Red Machine 2-1 on a costly 2 run throwing error by shortstop Roger Metzger. But pinch hitter, Tommy Helms grounded out and reliever Mike Cosgrove gave up a hit to the first batter he faced, Tony Perez. The 'Stros lost 2-1. Gomez was fired in August 1975 after going 47-80.  He was replaced by fired Yankees manager, Bill Virdon.