Favorite Players A-Z (Part 1 of 3)

My mother (probably all mothers) used to say, "If your friends jumped off a bridge, would you do it, too?".  Maybe.  I've seen a few bloggers make an A-Z list of favorite players. So I figured that I'd jump, too.  I'm more than a bit of a homer so look for an overabundance of Cubs and White Sox players.

For the most part, I'm including cards I had previously created for this blog.  I had to make one card specifically for this post (it's the letter "L") and there is one real card which might be my favorite card in my collection.

Right off the bat, I'm torn. Two of my all time favorite players have last names starting with A. So I'm cheating already.

Hank Aaron on a rejected Topps design.

1972 Topps Dick Allen In Action

1953 Topps Ernie Banks

1984 Topps Roberto Clemente Statue

1978 Topps Larry Doby

1972 Topps All Star Pitchers (Yeah, I know I spelled Dock wrong)

1964 Topps Nellie Fox All Star

1976 Topps Father/Son style Mark Grace Broadcaster

1968 Topps Frank Howard All Star

1957 Topps Monte Irvin

First ten cards and only 5 were Chicago teams, if you don't count Grace. Not bad. (For me).

To be continued....

Barrier Breakers: 1947 Larry Doby - Cleveland Indians

We all know Larry's story. Second to Jackie Robinson in the MLB and the second MLB manager behind Frank Robinson.  He also played in Japan in the early sixties. He has been one of my favorite subjects in this blog. I've made a few cards of him already. Here is a '55 Bowman, a 1963 Menko, an Alt-Topps MLB Dream Bracket card and a 1978 Topps manager card.  These all made appearances on my blog going back as many as 9 years.

I had floated the idea of the 1947 Bond Bread card on Twitter. Most liked it and thought it captured the era accurately.  The only complaint was the photo I had originally used.  Someone pointed out that it was already used on a  1979 TCMA card.  It actually was used by TCMA  again in 1984 and 1986.  In all, I found over a dozen cards that used that same photo, including several from Fleer and Topps. This version uses a magazine phot from that era.  I can't tell if it was colorized or just the print quality of the magazine.  At least I haven't found it on any other cards. Yet.

MLB Dream Bracket Alt-Topps Cards Part 5

Indians v Negro League Legends

Spoiler alert:

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The biggest disappointment in the Dream Bracket so far (besides the non-existent graphics) was the early exit of the Negro League Stars.  In an apparent lack of pitching on either side, the Tribe outscored the Negro League 52-36 in a series that went all seven games. You can read the recap here or see the video here. 

I was disappointed because I wanted  them to go deep into the bracket. I wanted to see how the Negro League Legends stacked up against other teams as well. Maybe a round-robin type of series would have been better for this. Anyway, This whole thing could have been improved by better graphics like MLB The Show and/or a different form of bracket that wouldn't be a one and done situation.  

Just my thoughts on this imaginary series of games. Now lets get to the imaginary cards!

For the  Indians we have Bob Feller, Nap Lajoie, Lou Boudreau and Larry Doby.

For the Negro League Legends I could not just do 4 cards.  I decided to make four pitcher cards, the full line-up of position players including the DH and three of the reserves.  On a side note, I know that I am missing perhaps the most famous Negro League pitcher, but there are so many cards of Satchel Paige compared to his contemporaries. Also I decided to go with black and white photos rather than an amateurish attempt at colorization. Plus with 16 cards that's a ton of work. 

Here are the four pitchers: Bill Foster, Hilton Smith, Leon Day and Smokey Joe Williams.

Here are the position players: Josh Gibson C, Buck Leonard 1B, Newt Allen 2B, Ray Dandridge 3B, Pop Lloyd SS, Turkey Stearnes LF, Oscar Charlseton CF and Cool Papa Bell RF.

The designated hitter is Mule Suttles. On the bench is Martin Dihigo, Monte Irvin and Biz Mackey.

  It also goes without say that this is the All-Time great nickname team.  Mule, Turkey, Biz, Buck, Pop, Smokey and of course Cool Papa.

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These cards are base on the MLB Dream Bracket.  Not sure who picked the "all-time players". It is a product of Twitch, Out of the Park and Draft Kings.  I take no responsibility for their choices, good or bad.  The cards themselves are based on a rejected Topps design from the late sixties.

To check the status of the bracket click here.

1955 Bowman Larry Doby

Cleveland Indians CTNW Fan Favorites #3

I'm putting together 5 "Cards That Never Were" fan favorites from each team. These are not necessarily the 5 best players from the franchise. So as David Letterman used to say before Stupid Pet Tricks, "This is only an exhibition. This is not a competition. Please, no wagering."

Larry Doby represented the Indians on the All-Star team 7 years in a row from 1949-1955. He played for the Indians from 1947-1955, then again in 1958. In the early 50's many players were left off sets because Topps and Bowman were competing for contracts with the players. That doesn't explain why Doby appeared on both Topps and Bowman card in 1954 but on neither in 1955.

1963 Menko Larry Doby

 

I found a black and white photo of Larry Doby in his uniform for the Chunichi Dragons and felt compelled to turn it into a card. This is a fairly decent representation of a 1963 Menko card. The characters on the right are from top to bottom: Chunichi (2 Characters), 7 (his uniform number), Larry (3 characters), Outfielder (3 characters). The cards themselves were 1 13/16" x 3" and had baseball related drawings on the back. They were meant to be used for flipping which some of us older guys remember doing to our cards as kids.

Doby played for the Dragons in 1962 along with Don Newcombe who was the NL MVP and Cy Young award winner in 1956.  Newcombe played 1st base for the Dragons instead of pitching. Doby did have a 1962 Menko card which is why I made mine in the 1963 style.

 Here is his actual 1962 Meko card:

 

This card recently sold at Prestige Collectibles for $486. As you can see by the original that my crappy colorizing fits right in with the originals. You can also see the beating this card took as it was probably used the way it was intended, kids flipped and traded it.

October Shout Out

Bob Lemke's Blog

This is one of my favorite websites. If you are a baseball card geek like I am you will recognize the name. Bob is the Editor of the Standard Catalog of Vintage Baseball Cards.  His blog is full of information and quit a few custom cards.

His creations are head and shoulders above any I have seen on the web. He is obviously a perfectionist and it shows.

His cards all have a front and a back that is both true to the original set issue format and informative.

I could (and I have) spend hours going through his blog. Also if you are so inclined, he sells a limited number of hard copies of his creations. 

I really had a hard time narrowing down the cards to include on this page. I had to include Wheaton, IL native John Belushi and Brian Piccolo (note Lemke spelled his name correctly but Topps did not).  I love to see cards of famous players on unfamiliar teams (Robinson, Doby, Namath) or people who never had cards (Madden, Pride). I don't want to give away too much but go visit his blog. If you are like me, it's like being a kid in a candy store.