MLB Dream Bracket Alt-Topps Cards Part 4

Red Sox v Rangers

Yankees v Mariners 

Tigers v Angels

Doubling up might not be enough to keep up, so I'm tripling up. This time we have three teams with a rich history versus three relative newcomers.  The Rangers were born as the expansion Senators in 1961. then moved to Texas in 1972. The '61 expansion also gave us the Angels. The Mariners were a 1977 expansion team. Neither the Mariners nor the Rangers have a World Series Title. The Angels have one, the Tigers have four. the Red Sox have nine, and the Yankees have twenty seven.

In the Red Sox - Rangers match up we have Cy Young, Wade Boggs, Ted Williams and David Ortiz for Boston.  For Washington/Texas we have knuckler Charlie Hough, Ivan Rodriguez, Frank Howard and Ruben Sierra.

In the Yankees - Mariners match up we have Whitey Ford, Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle for the Bronx Bombers.  Jamie Moyer, Harold Reynolds, Ichiro and Kid Griff represent Seattle.

In the Tigers - Angels series Hal Newhouser, Ty Cobb, Al Kaline and Miguel Cabrera represent the Tigers.  On the Angels there is Nolan Ryan, Jim Fregosi, Rod Carew and Mike Trout.

******************************************

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.

More 1975 Alt-Topps

Rookies, All Stars and Team Cards

In my last post I held back the AL MVP, Fred Lynn in favor of runner-up John Mayberry.  I kept him for this card along side of the 3rd place finisher in MVP voting and the ROY runner-up, Jim Rice. With a rookie class like this and narrowly losing the World Series in 1975, they would still wait 11 more years for their next World Series appearance. Rice and Dwight Evens were the only Red Sox that played in both Series.

In the NL the Rookie of the Year was Giants pitcher John Montefusco.  He's teamed up on this card with Jack Clark. Clark was a September call-up for the Giants at the age of 19.  Montefusco beat out HOF catcher, Gary Carter. Carter spent most of the 1975 season in the outfield.  Barry Foote was their everyday catcher despite hitting less than his weight.

For these All Star cards, I found some action photos from the 1974 All Star Game. Murcer was traded to the Giants in 1975 but appeared as a Yankee in the 1974 ASG.  Likewise, Aaron was dealt to the Brewers in 1975.  Unfortunately, both these stars went 0 for 2 in the '74 classic.  Aaron and Murcer would play in the 1975 ASG but for the opposite league.  This time as reserves, both would go hitless again.

I struggled a bit adapting this format to the traditional team card format.  After several attempts, this was the design that I disliked least. Here are the two Texan teams.  

The Rangers were led by Billy Martin at the start of '75 season. The Astros began the season with Preston Gomez. Martin would finish the 1975 season managing the Yankees replacing Bill Virdon.  Virdon would then move to Houston and replace Gomez as manager.

More 1972 Alt-Topps

Managers, Rookies and Team Cards

Running with this same concept, I made these manager cards of two Hall of Famers who were  gone before the start of the 1973 season. Ted Williams was the Manager of the Year for the Senators in 1969. In 1972 the Senators moved to Texas and lost 100 games. It was Williams final year.  Meanwhile, Durocher was falling out of favor in Chicago.

I included the coaches on these cards like Topps would do in 1973 and 74 but it seemed a shame to reduce them to black and white on such a colorful set. You might notice that both 1959 MVPs are included in the coaches. Nellie Fox coached under Williams for the Senators and the Rangers. Ernie Banks was a coach for the Cubs the first few years after his retirement.

And of course, made the necessary rookie cards featuring what would be the 1972 Rookies of the Year.

And love 'em or hate 'em, here are the team cards.

2016 ALDS: Rangers vs. Blue Jays

For the 2016 postseason I am making Cards That Never Were of Hall of Famers from each team but with a couple of twists. The first twist is that they will appear on cards that coincide with the year they were inducted into Cooperstown. The second twist is that these are not the teams they are best known for playing.

1966 Topps Ted Williams

Ted Williams was the manager of the Texas Rangers in their first year. Williams was voted Manager of the Year by the Associated Press in 1969. In his first year as manager he improved the Senators record from  65-96 in 1968 to 86-76 in 1969.  The 1972 Rangers had a miserable 54-100 record under Williams. He was replaced by future Hall of Fame manager Whitey Herzog. He was dismissed in September of '73 when Billy Martin was fired by Detroit. 

This card is an unusual mash-up. Williams was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1966. The Rangers first year was 1972. Even so, it makes a for nice looking card. 

2009 Topps Rickey Henderson 

Just before the 1993 trade deadline, the Blue Jays picked up Rickey Henderson from the A's for Steve Karsay and a player to be named later (Jose Herrera). Henderson only played 44 regular season games with the Jays. But he played in all 12 post season games and earn himself another World Series ring.  

Here he is on a 2009 Topps Card That Never Was, the year he entered the Hall.  He is wearing the unfamiliar number 14. He wore this only a few games while negotiating a deal with Turner Ward for his trademark number 24. When he joined the Yankees it was rumored that he gave catcher Ron Hassey golf clubs and stereo equipment. Ward got an alleged $25,000.

TBT - Texas Rangers Edition

Last month the Astros hosted the Rangers in an All-Texas turn-back-the-clock game. Both teams wore 1986 era uniforms. The Rangers actually had the same away greys from 1985-1993. Here ia my attempt to mimic the 1991 Donruss Nolan Ryan card.  Lucas Harrell cooperated by striking a similar pose.

Both Harrell and Ryan pitched for the Astros and the Rangers. Nolan led the league with 18 losses in 1973. Lucas led the league with losses in 2013 with 17.  He also led in bases on balls that year. Ryan led the league in walks nine times.  The similarities seem to end there. On the bright side, Ryan pitched until he was nearly 47.  Harrell is a relatively young 31 year old.  Things can change in 15 years.

TBT - Houston Astros Edition

This was a tricky one again. The Astros wore throwback uniforms reminiscent of their 1986 season. This was in honor of 1986 Cy Young award winner Mike Scott who threw out the first pitch. For this week's throwback Thursday card, I made a 1986 Topps card of Jose Altuve. The only problem is that the uniform they chose was rarely worn. It is very similar to the tequila-sunrise unis of the late '70s early '80s. But there are some differences.  As a result, I was unable to find a decent card for side-by-side comparisons.







The most obvious difference between this uni and the earlier versions is that it is paired with a black cap instead of the orange. Also the collar is entirely black instead of striped. And finally there is no number on the pants. As I said, it was a rare combination that the Astros used sparingly from 1983-1986. When looking for an old card to compare unis, the best I could come up with were some Mother's Cookies cards. So here is Nolan Ryan in a similar uniform on this 1985 Mothers Cookies Card.

A few more from Rating the Rookies

Over at my other blog, Rating the Rookies, I am still creating Cards That Never Were. Here a a few of my latest creations:

Dan Boitano, Willie Mueller, and Lenn Sakata shared a 1980 Topps Future Stars card while on the Brewers. You can see the whole story by clicking here.

In 1975 Marc Hill, Dan Meyer, and Leon Roberts shared a Topps rookie card with future Hall of Famer Gary Carter. The full post is available here.

A Remake of the 1974 Topps Fergie Jenkins

Texas Rangers CTNW Favorites #1

Let's face it, sometimes Topps just makes terrible looking cards. The 1974 Fergie Jenkins was one of them:

I mean, just look at it.  Poor Fergie obviously just took off his Cubs hat and never had a chance to comb out the hat-head (just barely a step above bed-head). He deserved better. Topps should have given him the full traded card experience. First a nice card for the Cubs like I posted above. Then a decent looking card of him on his new team, like I have below:

Granted, the real Topps Traded card most likely would have either been a terrible airbrush job or perhaps the hatless bed-head picture they used on his regular 1974 card. In 1976 when he was traded to the Red Sox, Topps did give him the full treatment with both a regular and an airbrushed traded card.

Fergie pitched in 197 games for the Rangers in 1975-75 and 1978-81. He had an overall record of 93-72. He is 4th on the all-time list in wins for the Rangers and his 25 win season in 1974 remains a Texas Rangers record.