Topps All-Star Misses: 1960 NL Infield

I've been a bit behind on my postings, due to trying to put together another pack of physical cards.  Also just work, family, holidays, etc.  Also, for the time being, I'm going to monitor ALL of the comments, as this blog has been getting spam comments lately.  I will try to allow comments quickly so they will show, unedited, while trying to weed out the spam.

The National League All Star infield had a lot of potential cards to add to the 1960 set.  Much of this is due to having 2 ASGs in 1959. That being said, the only position Topps seemed to be in sync with was shortstop.  Ernie Banks was the starter in both 1959 ASGs and was a 1960 Sporting News All Star.

However, at first Topps had Willie McCovey, the 1959 Rookie of the Year, but the future Hall of Famer wouldn't make an All Star appearance until 1963. In the first game of 1959, his teammate, Orlando Cepeda was the starter at first.  

In the second game Stan Musial was the starter at first base.  In 1960 The Sporting News selected one All Star team rather than one from each league and in 1960 the selection was Moose Skowron of the Yankees.

Topps had Dodgers Gold Glove second baseman as their All Star selection.  He was a reserve in the second ASG of 1959 and both 1960 ASGs.  The starter in both 1959 games was the Reds' Johnny Temple. 

The 1960 Sporting News selection was Bill Mazeroski.  He was also the starter at second in both 1960 All Star games.

At third Topps had Eddie Mathews. Mathews was the 1960 Sporting News All Star and started the first All Star game in 1959. The player who started the second game was Ken Boyer.

Who probably didn't merit inclusion in the 1960 Topps All-Star set, but was in it anyway?

Willie McCovey

 Stretch was the Rookie of the Year in 1959, but didn't have a Topps card.  (Here is my version of that missing card).  Perhaps Topps was making up for that by giving him two cards in the 1960 set.  But he wouldn't make an All Star appearance until 1963.  It wasn't until 1965 that he would be a Sporting News All Star selection.

1968 Alt-Topps Requests

Sorry for the late posting. Believe it or not, January has been a very busy month for me. The weather in Chicago didn't help. And I get the feeling February won't be any better...

Let's start the requests with the All-Stars for Bill.  He wanted to see one of his favorites. The Killer. The man who may (or may not) have been the inspiration for the MLB logo created in 1969. 

The other was for the 1967 Triple Crown winner, Yaz. Although he saw significant drops in all three categories, he still was the AL batting leader in 1968. He also led the league in walks and on-base percentage.

Now for what I call "The Buzz Challenge".  Buzz must've been quite the pitcher in his youth considering the curve-balls he likes to throw.  Even a gimme like Mickey Mantle, Buzz wanted him with a first baseman's mitt. Now I had already made a card of the Mick at first base here.  I have seen a handful of action shots at 1st but very few posed. Since this set is supposed to be circa 1968 an action shot would have been unusual to say the least.

Many of Buzz's other challenges were the usual odd player-team combos. Here is Jim Bunning who was known for pitching in Detroit and Philly. In 1968 and the beginning of 1969 he was a Pirate. He also spent part of 1969 as a Dodger. I made a card of him on LA a few years back.

You can also see his west coast favorites come out. Here is a long-time Dodgers catcher on his new team. Johnny Roseboro went to the Twins in a deal that brought 1965 MVP Zoilo Versalles to LA.

Another short-time Dodger was Rocky Colavito. Known mostly for playing in Detroit and Cleveland, Rocky did short stints for the A's, White Sox and Yankees.

He was looking for a card depicting 1964 MVP Ken Boyer in a Dodgers uniform. Boyer actually began the 1968 campaign playing 3rd base for the White Sox. This was actually a tougher photo to find. This is the only color shot I found of him in a Sox uniform. I have absolutely no idea where he got that lightning-bolt windbreaker.

Ken Harrelson is perhaps best known for playing in Boston.  Topps, however, could never seem to make a card of him in a Red Sox uniform. It was always an airbrushed A's or Senators uni. Hawk also played in Cleveland where Topps caught up to his uniforms again.

Lastly, was utility infielder, John Kennedy. After playing for the Yankees in 1967, Kennedy spent the entire 1968 season in the minors before being picked up by the expansion Pilots for the 1969 season.

1964 Alt-Topps

Continuing on with the Topps Mock-ups, This is one of the better looking designs that was rejected by Topps. 

In this version, Topps borrows somewhat from the 1962 Topps Football style and the photo was originally used on the 1963 Ken Hubbs card.  Because of this, I put this at a 1964 vintage.

Here is the 1963 Hubbs card.

And here is my cleaned up version.

I tried to create the base cards using the same color schemes Topps used to represent the teams in 1964. First the 1964 MVPs, Brooks Robinson,

And Ken Boyer. As you can see, the colors Topps used in 1964 really bore little if any resemblance to actual team colors.

Next the Cy Young award winner, Dean Chance. In 1964 there was just one Cy Young awarded so I decided to round out my base cards with a National League pitcher.

 I chose Ken Johnson for two reasons. The first is that he threw a no-hitter against the Cincinnati Reds in April of 1964 yet managed to lose that game 1-0. Pete Rose scored the only run. He reached second on an error by Johnson himself.  He then scored on another error by Hall of Famer, Nellie Fox. The second reason is I just like the Colt .45s logo.

1964 Topps All Stars - The National League Infield

In 1963 the entire starting infield for the NL was made up of St. Louis Cardinals. The corner infielders, White and Boyer also earned Gold Gloves in 1963. In addition, their Hall of Fame teammate, Stan Musial, was making his final All Star appearance in his last MLB season. Despite the All Star infield and leading the league in Runs and Batting average, the 1963 Cards fell short in the pennant race. They were no match for the Dodgers pitching dominance. 

The Cardinals offence in the 1963 All Star game didn't mirror the regular season. Collectively, the Cardinal All Stars had just 2 hits in 18 at-bats.

1964 Topps Bill White AS

1964 Topps Julian Javier AS

1964 Topps Dick Groat AS

1964 Topps Ken Boyer AS

1963 Topps All Stars - The National League Infield

1963 Topps Orlando Cepeda AS

The "Baby Bull" was having another great year for the N.L. Champs in 1962. He hit .304 with 35 homers and 114 RBIs. Unfortunately, he was 0 for 4 in the 2 All Star games that season.

1963 Topps Bill Mazeroski AS

Mazeroski was a Gold Glove second baseman. And although he hit a historical walk-off homer to win the 1960 World Series, he is not known for his hitting. In his 10 All Star games, he had only 2 hits. Neither hit came in 1962.

1963 Topps Dick Groat AS

The Bucs had the middle infield covered in the 1962 games.  Dick Groat went 3 for 6 over the 2 games with 3 RBIs. He was also hit by a pitch to lead off the 1st inning of the 2nd game.

1963 Topps Ken Boyer AS

Ken Boyer has a .348 batting average over his 11 All Star game appearances but over the 2 games in 1962 he collected only 1 hit in 5 at bats.