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. 

September Shout Out

Mint Condition

If you are one of the few people who have checked out this blog before, you might have noticed that I used to do a "Sunday Shout Out". There are a lot of sites that make custom cards, but not quite enough to write about 52 times a year. With that realization, I decide to give a shout out just once a month.

This month it is Mint Condition. Although he is a Yankee fan he makes great custom cards of current players from all teams.

And he does this every day. Check out his Custom Card of the Day.

Another of my favorites is his Year By Year Customs. Here he makes several cards of players in one Topps format. Here is his take on 1975:

Sunday Shout Out

CSD's Custom Cards 

 

This site has hundreds of custom cards. If you are a White Sox Fan then this blog is for you. As of today there are 319 different custom White Sox Cards.

 

 Another feature is his Famous Lineage Cards which isremeniscent of the 1985 Topps Father-Son cards.

All in all some pretty cool custom cards and a great way to waste some time at work.

Sunday Shout-Out

JOHNGY'S BEAT

Not long ago I had a post called "Upon Further Review..." in which I posted cards others had made before I made my versions. All of which I found after I posted my cards and called them "Cards That Never Were". Not only were they all published well before mine, the worst part was they were better than mine. At the end of the post I wrote "At least nobody else made a 1979 Bobby Douglass." 

Wrong again. Johngy beat me to it. Here is his version:

And here is my version:

Same year, same basic idea, even same picture but he posted it in September of last year. 

He found my blog and left a nice comment and I have since been following his 2 blogs Johngy's Beat and A Pack to be Named Later.  He has a number of homemade cards on his Johngy's Beat site. Some are made by him and some are made by his friends from other blogs. But his specialty is Celebrity Cards.

Being from Illinois, his site is loaded with Chicago related cards.

He also seems to have an eye for the ladies...

... but an unhealthy fascination with Mike Squires?

 I'm joking of course.  His site is loaded with cool looking cards, interviews, photos and interesting stories. Click on the links throughout this thread to check out his blogs.

Sunday Shout-Out

Dick Allen Hall of Fame

This is a site after my own heart. First it is loaded with cool home-made cards. Second it features one of my childhood favorite players, Dick Allen. 

I love that Allen wore a jersey with Wampum 60 during his final year on the A's (Wampum High School, Class of 1960). I love that he wore a helmet on the field. I love that he smoked in the dugout. 

His other themes are Familiar Faces/Strange Places. Done in the 1974 Topps style.

Tributes to 1976 and 1980 Phillies Teams.

College All Americans in the 1971 Topps Style, Minor Stars in the 1983 Topps Style,

St. Patrick's Day cards in the 1969 Topps Style and the White Sox in their 1976 era softball uniforms colorized and presented on 1961 Topps format. (They look really cool so I won't bother asking why.)

This site has so many great custom cards as well as pictures you won't find anywhere else. I can't recommend it enough.