Topps All-Star Misses: 1968 AL Outfield

 My latest project is making All Star Cards That Never Year for the years 1958-62 and 1968-70.  During those years Topps decision making on these cards was haphazard and a mystery to everybody but Topps. They were NOT based on the current season's "Sporting News All Stars" nor the previous season's ASG starters.  So I've made additional cards based on this criteria.   

What started as an idea for a small project, ballooned to over 150 cards so I'll be posting these in small doses.  I'll be breaking it down by year, league (NL or AL), and positions (battery, infield and outfield).

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Ken Harrelson

• 
  1968 "Sporting News" All Star
• 1968 MLB ASG reserve
• Led AL in RBIs 1968
• 3rd in AL MVP voting 1968

Frank Howard

• 
  1968 "Sporting News" All Star
• 1968 MLB ASG starter
• Led AL in HRs, Slugging and Total Bases 1968
• 8th in AL MVP voting 1968

Willie Horton

• 
  1968 "Sporting News" All Star
• 1968 MLB ASG starter
• 4th in AL MVP voting 1968
• Had career highs in HRs and Slugging % in 1968

Tony Conigliaro

• 1967 MLB ASG starter
• Did not play 1968 season because of injuries

Who probably didn't merit inclusion in the 1968 Topps All-Star set, but was in it anyway?

Frank Robinson:

Although a reserve All Star in 1967, injuries in late 1967 and 1968 caused him to have career lows in most batting categories in 1968.  He was neither a 1967 ASG starter nor named to the 1968 Sporting News All Star team.  Fortunately the Hall of Famer returned to form in 1969.

1965 Alt-Topps Requests

Got quite a few good requests this month. I'll start with the one with the best back story. The request was from "KoolKards".  "Bob" questioned how I would stay true to the 1965 Topps team color schemes for teams like the Cards and the A's that featured black borders. The short answer is, I wouldn't. The black looks great in the original design. Here it just doesn't fit. And Finally "Buzz" steered me towards a backstory.

"KK" wanted the Hawk, and I had the perfect picture.  Gotta love the way he personalized his mitt.  I went with the actual team colors, yellow and green rather than what Topps used in 1965, black and red. The A's colors were black and red until 1964 and a handful of the players (including Harrelson) were still sporting the old colors on their 1965 Topps cards.

"Buzz" left a comment about the Hawk riding the A's mascot "Charlie-O" the Mule.  I dug in and found this great story and photo of him nearly getting bucked off the Mule.  Oddly the story also featured the same photo I had used for my card.

"HH99" wanted a first of many "career cappers" for Minnie Minoso. He initially played his "last game" in 1964. He played again in 1977 and again in 1980. I decided to go horizontal for this one. I could imagine a handful of horizontal cards sprinkled throughout this fictional set.

"Unknown" and "Old Cards" both wanted more All Stars. "OC" specifically wanted Pete Rose and Killebrew. Now Rose wouldn't be an All Star until the 1965 season.  I created a base card for him instead because he probably wouldn't have appeared on an All Star card until 1966.

But I did make one for Killer. I also included the Mick on the AL team. 

In the senior circuit, I made cards for Williams and Clemente. While I fell short of "Unknown's" request for all of the All Stars, Its a start.

After thinking about it for a bit, I decided "what the hell"?  Who really cares if my fake cards aren't 100% historically accurate?  I sure don't.  In fact right under the title of this blog it says "What cards would look like if I had my way". So here is an historically-inaccurate 1965 Pete Rose All Star.

So eight cards in and not even close to being done.  Of course "Buzz" had his usual challenges. These are all guys who spent most of their careers playing for other teams. But in 1965 found themselves on oddball teams.

Dick Stuart, an All Star for Pittsburgh and MVP candidate for Boston, spent one season in Philadelphia. The White Sox Gold Glove outfielder, Landis was traded to the A's in 1965 where he also spent only one season.

Lee Thomas was dealt from the Dodgers Angels to the BoSox mid 1964 and after the 1965 season he went to the Braves.  Long time Braves pitcher Warren Spahn pitched just 20 games in New York before joining the Giants in 1965. 

And Finally there was "Sweet" Lou Johnson who was called up by the Dodgers in 1965 after Tommy Davis broke his ankle. 

"Defgav" wanted one of my favorite players, Dick Allen.  Although that was his preferred moniker, he was still generally referred to as Richie in 1965. Similarly, Roberto Clemente (earlier in this lengthy post) was still called Bob on his Topps cards. I decided to keep both names, Richie and Bob, on the Alt Topps cards.

Last but not least, "Rumple" wanted Bob Miller and Greg Goossen.  Miller played 17 seasons in the bigs for 10 different teams. In 1964 he led the league with 74 appearances for the Dodgers.  Goossen was a bonus baby in the Dodgers farm system until 1965. The Mets picked him off waivers and the Dodgers won the World Series. Before the Mets World Series season in 1969 he was dealt to the Pilots, missing out on a ring for the second time.

1971 Alt-Topps Requests

 Here's a few more 1971 Alt-Topps requested in the comment sections. KookKards wanted a card of The Hawk in his final year. Two interesting things here, first KoolKards is a blog by 3 brothers creating their own cards. Although they made a few of big league players, most are family oriented. They must've come across the same rejected mockups. Here is a link to the KoolKards page using one of the rejected designs for a family football game. Very nicely done..

Another interesting thing is that Harrelson had his nickname "Hawk" emblazoned on the back of his jersey when he was traded to the Indians in 1969. That  is why I used his nickname on his Alt-Topps card.

As usual "Buzz" (who's lengthy and informative comments often out-shine the posts themselves) had a handful of great request. He hit upon one of my all time favorites, Mr. Cub. Ernie Banks was also in his final season in 1971.

He was also looking for Felipe Alou. He was betting that I could "do better" than an already very good action card issued in the real 1971 set.

Despite my attempt, the real 1971 Topps Felipe Alou is still superior

Buzz also requested a card of the 48 year old knuckler, Hoyt Wilhelm.  After his longest tenure from 1963-1968 with the Chicago White Sox, he was well traveled in the twilight of his career.  He was picked up by the Royals in the 1968 expansion draft. KC dealt him to the Angels. Toward the end of the 1969 season, California traded him to the Braves. 

Again before the end of the 1970 season, Wilhelm was claimed off waivers by the Cubs. The Cubs the traded him back to Atlanta before the start of the 1971 season. He was released by the Braves mid season 1971. He signed with LA and played until mid-season 1972 when he ultimately ended his playing career 5 days before his 50th birthday.

Topps created a card for Wilhelm on the Cubs. In typical O Pee Chee fashion, the same photo was used on a Braves card with a notation "Recently Trade to Braves".

Tony Horton had never appeared on a Topps card in his short but prolific career. His career ended in tragically 1970.  He took himself out of a second game of a double header.  He then attempted suicide.  He was treated for stress likely stemming from the treatment he receive from the Cleveland fans following a salary dispute.  Thankfully, he recovered and still lives today.  Unfortunately, he never played another game.

Although Buzz only left a description, not a name in his first comment, I knew who he was writing about.  I had created 2 other Tony Horton Cards That Never Were. Here he is included on a rookie card created for the 1964 Alt-Topps a few months ago.

Here is another that I was asked to make for 1969 Topps Baseball blog. 

Deogolf requested that I once again complete the World Series subset.

One of the key plays of Game 1 was the play at the plate in which the umpire was out of position. Hendricks tagged Carbo with his mitt while the ball was in his other hand. Conversely, Carbo missed the plate. So while Ken Burkhart may have not been in the best position to make the call, he did manage to make the correct call.

Game 2 had plenty of offence. The game had 3 long balls in an eleven run game. I chose to put Boog hitting his second of the series on this card.

Game 3 saw 9 runs put up by the Orioles. This included a grand slam by the pitcher, Dave McNalley. McNalley also pitched a complete game for Baltimore.

Lee May kept Cincinnati's hopes alive by going 2 for 3 with 4 RBIs and a walk. This included what turned out to be a game winning 3-run homer in the 8th inning.

Game 5 and the "celebration" card were included in my previous post.

Buzz also wanted more information on the font used here.  It is called Playbill and it is based on the font that was used on vintage Broadway programs of the same name.

Buzz thought it looked similar to the old west "Wanted" posters. Here are a couple cards in that vein. I chose the career leaders (in 1971) of  stolen bases and shutouts.  I suppose in some alternate universe these cards could have been inserts into the 1971 Alt-Topps wax packs.

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There was one more request from Jim for A Tony Oliva card. I decided to add it here. I had actually made another in memory of Bill Buckner and didn't want to add this onto that page.

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.