Topps All-Star Misses: 1969 AL Outfield

In 1969 the Topps AL All-Star outfield included Carl Yastrzemski, Tony Oliva and Willie Horton.  Of those three, Yaz and Horton were starters in the 1968 All Star Game. None of them were named to the 1969 Sporting News All Star team.  Joining Yaz and Horton as a starter in the 1968 outfield was Hondo. Frank Howard was also a 1969 Sporting News All Star selection. This makes his omission even more glaring.

Joining the "Capitol Punisher" on the 1969 Sporting News Roster was Paul Blair.  Blair had a career year in 1969.  He had personal bests in Hits, HRs, RBIs and slugging.  He also earned his 2nd of 8 Gold Gloves and was 11th in MVP voting.

Rounding out The Sporting News All Star Selections for the AL outfield was Reggie Jackson. Despite making his MLB debut in 1967, Jackson didn't have a Topps card until 1969.  How cool would it have been if he also had an All Star card that year? He certainly deserved it, as he was also a starter in the 1969 MLB All Star Game.

Who probably didn't merit inclusion in the 1969 Topps All-Star set, but was in it anyway?

Tony Oliva

The newly minted Hall of Famer, Tony Oliva was on the All Star team every year from 1964-1971, but he wasn't a starter in 1968 or 1969.  He wasn't selected to The Sporting News in 1968 or 1969 either. A great player with a great list of accomplishments, but he just doesn't belong here.

Topps All-Star Misses: 1970 AL Outfield

 In 1970 Topps had All Star cards of Reggie Jackson, Frank Robinson and Carl Yastrzemski in the American League outfield.  Reggie and "The Judge" shared the outfield with Frank Howard as starter in the 1969 All Star game.  Howard started the 1970 ASG as well. Hondo was also named to the 1970 Sporting News All Star team. Since that is what the cards supposedly declare in fake headlines, he probably should have had an All Star card in 1970.

The other two AL outfielders that were named to the 1970 Sporting News All Star roster were Reggie Smith and Tony Oliva.  Here are their All Star Cards That Never Were:

Who probably didn't merit inclusion in the 1970 Topps All-Star set, but was in it anyway?

Carl Yastrzemski:

 Yaz was neither a starter in the 1969 ASG nor named to the Sporting News All Star team in 1969 or 1970. That being said he had a great 1970 season and was a starter in that season's ASG. 

Even More 1967 Alt-Topps

Traded, All-Stars, Leaders and World Series Cards

This set started with an Eddie Mathews prototype card.  It only seems right to include a card with him traded to the Astros.  Jim O'Toole was an elite pitcher in the early '60s. He was the NL starting pitcher in the 1963 All-Star game. By 1967, arm trouble left him a shadow of his former self.  He finished his MLB career playing for his hometown White Sox.  He made an attempted come back in 1969 with the expansion Seattle Pilots, but was cut before the start of the season.

For the All-Star cards, I decided to take another rejected Topps card.  This one may have been meant for a booklet cover or something similar.  Although it says Willie McCovey, he is obviously absent from either photo.

The black and white action shot could be either Bernie Allen or Graig Nettles.  Any other guesses?

 The inset photo is definitely Ollie Brown.  That photo originally appeared on his 1967 card with the Giants. An airbrushed version similar to the one used on this mock-up appeared on his 1969 Padres card. 

Here is the actual Willy McCovey.  Coinsidentaly, he was the starting first baseman for the NL in the 1966 All-Star Game.  For his AL counterpart, I made a card of the Halos 2nd bagger Bobby Knoop.

I went back to following Topps script with the design of the leaders card.  I also followed their lead by using "Bob" and "Richie" instead of their preferred names: Roberto Clemente and Dick Allen. Leading the NL in RBIs in 1966 was the "Hammer", Hank Aaron.

For the AL, I simply had to include the "Judge".  1966 was his Triple Crown year.  Here we have all 3 batting average leaders, Robinson, Oliva and Kaline.  Not a bad leaders selection. It contains both 1964 Rookies of the Year and 4 Hall of Famers.

Finally, for the World Series card, I used another Topps reject. The mock-up says Tom Siever (another inside joke?). I can't make out any of the black and white players on this card but that sure looks like Drysdale on the inset.  On my version, I kept the rounded corners with the little flourish and added a border for continuity.  I also added the 1966 World Series logo to the card. 

 Instead of a black and white inset with a blue background, I used a color head-shot. It seems as though the Dodgers offense took the Series off. They managed only 2 runs in the first game then went scoreless in the next three.  The O's outscored them 13-2 in a four game sweep.

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As usual, I will make a "requests" post before Spring Training ends.  Please post your requests in the comment section and I will try to accommodate as many as I can. Thanks.

More 1964 Alt-Topps

Managers, Team Cards and Rookies

What set would be complete without the basic staples? Managers, team cards and rookie cards.

The manager cards in the actual 1964 Topps set were pretty much the same as the base cards.  In my "Bizzaro Universe" set, too. 

For the team cards I kept the basic card design continuity along with the full color team logo.

 In the real 1964 Topps set, the picture for the A's showed a team still in the 1961 uniforms. In the early 60's the A's changes uniforms more than most teams changed underwear. The uniforms shown on this card were introduced in 1964. 

The other strange difference in these cards is the sheer volume of players. The Braves must've taken the picture at the beginning of spring training. The A's looked like they waited until they were down to a 25 man roster.

For the rookie cards I went 3 across and broke it down to position and league. This is something that I don't think Topps ever did. I've seen them break it down by league, team, or position. To my best recollection, I don't remember Topps going in this direction. They only had multiplayer rookie cards since 1962. In 62 they were broken down by position. In 1963 they were simply labeled "Rookie Stars", not broken down by league, team nor position. So it's not too far fetched that this would be the format they could've opted for,

Of course with 20/20 hindsight, I stacked the deck with the Rookies of the Year for 1964, Dick Allen and Tony Oliva.  I also doubled up on rookie Hortons in the AL. In the NL included Don Kessinger and HOFer Tony Perez.

1973 Topps Tommy Davis

While doing a little research on 1973 designated hitters, I happened to notice that there wasn't a card for Tommy Davis in 1973.  My OCD would not allow me to let this go un-corrected. 

Like Orlando Cepeda, Davis played very little in 1971 and 1972 but his career was revived by the adoption of the designated hitter. In 1973 he played in 137 games, 128 as a DH. He batted .306 which was 3rd in the A.L. By contrast, Davis played a combined total of 120 games in 1971 and 1972.  

When you look at the top 5 DHs in 1973 you can see it was populated by stars who's careers may have been over had it not been adopted by the American League in 1973. With 142 games each at DH were Orlando Cepeda and Tony Oliva:

Tommy Davis was 3rd on the list with 128 games at DH followed by Fran Robinson at 127. As long as I was adding the "Designated Hitter" label to his 1973 Topps card, I figured I may as well take advantage of the opportunity to use a picture of him in the correct uniform:

Rounding out the top 5 was Gates Brown with 118 games at DH.  Brpwn was the relative youngster of the group at just 34 years old and in his 11th year in the Majors:

1967 Topps All Star Cards : American League Outfield

1967 Topps Frank Robinson All-Star

In 1966 Frank Robinson won the triple crown and was the AL MVP. Unfortunately in the 1966 All Star game he went 0 for 4 including a strikeout. 

1967 Topps Al Kaline All-Star

Al Kaline went 1 for 4 in the first 8 innings. In the 9th inning he was replace by the AL Rookie of the Year, Tommie Agee.

1967 Topps Tony Oliva All-Star

In 1964 Tony Oliva was the Rookie of the Year.  In 1966 he was selected for his 3rd All Star game and he won the Gold Glove. 

1975 Topps 1964 Rookies of the Year

Here is the 1964 edition of my running theme using the 1975 Topps MVP card format to showcase the Rookies of the Year.  And once again in 1964 neither Rookie had his own card, both were featured on multi-player rookie cards. Even so, the "Cards That Never Were" featured on this ROY Card were already made for me.

First the American League rookie, Tony Oliva. Leading the league in Hits, Runs Scored, Doubles, Batting Average and Overall Bases, Oliva was a near unanimous winner. Wally Bunker, a 19 game winner for the Orioles received one vote. In both 1963 and 1964 Topps featured Oliva on multi-player rookie cards, but in 1989, Topps created an individual 1964 rookie card of him as part of their "Turn Back the Clock" subset.

In the National League, Dick Allen was putting up similar numbers. He led the league in Triples, Runs Scored and Total Bases. Allen was also nearly unanimous in ROY voting with Rico Carty and Jim Ray Hart each getting one vote.  

Like Oliva, Allen was featured on a multi-player rookie card in 1964. Naturally for all things Dick Allen, I have to defer to the Dick Allen Hall of Fame. He has remade all of Allen's cards, and is in the process of placing him on every Topps issued card. In addition he posts photos and updates for all Phillies games and has numerous other home made cards. He was kind enough to let me use his 1964 card in this post. 

Another card I asked to repost was his 1977 Topps Dick Allen Card That Never Was.

Allen spent his last season as a first baseman for Charlie Finley's depleted Oakland A's. During his time in Oakland he wore the number 60 on his back and Wampum on his name-plate. He graduated from Wampum (Pennsylvania) High School in 1960. Very cool, and just another reason why I have always been a big fan of Dick Allen.

Once again I want to give a big thank you to the Dick Allen Hall of Fame blog for an assist on this posting.