Topps All-Star Misses: 1960 NL Infield

I've been a bit behind on my postings, due to trying to put together another pack of physical cards.  Also just work, family, holidays, etc.  Also, for the time being, I'm going to monitor ALL of the comments, as this blog has been getting spam comments lately.  I will try to allow comments quickly so they will show, unedited, while trying to weed out the spam.

The National League All Star infield had a lot of potential cards to add to the 1960 set.  Much of this is due to having 2 ASGs in 1959. That being said, the only position Topps seemed to be in sync with was shortstop.  Ernie Banks was the starter in both 1959 ASGs and was a 1960 Sporting News All Star.

However, at first Topps had Willie McCovey, the 1959 Rookie of the Year, but the future Hall of Famer wouldn't make an All Star appearance until 1963. In the first game of 1959, his teammate, Orlando Cepeda was the starter at first.  

In the second game Stan Musial was the starter at first base.  In 1960 The Sporting News selected one All Star team rather than one from each league and in 1960 the selection was Moose Skowron of the Yankees.

Topps had Dodgers Gold Glove second baseman as their All Star selection.  He was a reserve in the second ASG of 1959 and both 1960 ASGs.  The starter in both 1959 games was the Reds' Johnny Temple. 

The 1960 Sporting News selection was Bill Mazeroski.  He was also the starter at second in both 1960 All Star games.

At third Topps had Eddie Mathews. Mathews was the 1960 Sporting News All Star and started the first All Star game in 1959. The player who started the second game was Ken Boyer.

Who probably didn't merit inclusion in the 1960 Topps All-Star set, but was in it anyway?

Willie McCovey

 Stretch was the Rookie of the Year in 1959, but didn't have a Topps card.  (Here is my version of that missing card).  Perhaps Topps was making up for that by giving him two cards in the 1960 set.  But he wouldn't make an All Star appearance until 1963.  It wasn't until 1965 that he would be a Sporting News All Star selection.

1974 Willie McCovey - Redone?

A recurring feature that was typical of Topps in the 1960s and 1970s was to airbrush players into their new team's uniform.   In 1974 Topps may have jumped the gun a bit by declaring the San Diego Padres were now the "Washington Nat'l Lea."  That variation turned out to be a fun variation in the 1974 set.  But what if Topps took it a step further?

By that I mean, what if instead of poorly airbrushing a newly traded Willie McCovey into a San Diego Padres uniform for this "Washington Nat'l Lea." card, they poorly airbrushed him into the proposed "Washington Stars" uniform?

I had already made a 1974 Topps card of Dave Freisleben who modeled the proposed Star uniform in an earlier post.  I think it would've been cool if Topps really ran with this concept, going even further than the "Washington Nat'l Lea." variation.

Topps All-Star Misses: 1968 NL Infield

 After a relatively small group of potential All Star Cards That Never Were in my last post, this group is loaded. Here are the candidates:

Willie McCovey:

• 1968 Sporting News All Star selection
• Starter in 1968 All Star Game
• 1968 NL leader in HRs, RBIs, and slugging.
• 3rd in 1968 MVP voting

Bill Mazeroski:

• Starter in 1967 All Star Game
• Gold Glove second baseman 1967
• 1967 Sporting News All Star Selection

Tommy Helms:

• 1968 Sporting News All Star Selection
• Reserve in 1967 & 68 All Star Games
• 25th in 1968 MVP voting

Dick Allen:

• Starter in 1967 All Star Game
• 19th in 1967 MVP voting
• 2nd in NL Home Runs 1968

Don Kessinger:

• 1968 Sporting News All Star selection
• Starter in 1968 All Star Game
• Led NL shortstops in Fielding %, Assists and Double Plays in 1968.

Topps' 1968 NL All Star infield included mostly legit players.  At first was Orlando Cepeda, the 1967 ASG starting first baseman. Similarly, Gene Alley was the starting shortstop in the 1967 ASG.  Ron Santo was The Sporting News All-Star selection for third base in 1968.  But, as usual, there are some that just don't add up.

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

Joe Morgan:

Morgan was not on the MLB All Star Roster nor the Sporting News All Star Roster in 1967 or 1968.  Although he had (at then) a career high of 29 stolen bases in 1967, he was injured most of the 1968 season. playing only 10 games.

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 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).

Even More of the 1980 Donruss Set that Never Was

All-Stars, Leaders, Traded, World Series and Diamond Kings

Dave Winfield went 1 for 5 with one RBI and a run scored in the 1979 All-Star game. He grounded into a fielder's choice. With Gary Matthews on first and Mike Schmidt on third, Matthews was out at second and Schmidt scored. In his second at bat he doubled to the right field gap. He scored on a Gary Carter single.

Lynn's only at bat was a two-run homer off Steve Carlton scoring Don Baylor. That gave the American league a 3-2 lead in a back and forth game that was decided in the 9th inning. In the top og the 9th, Jim Kern (who was the 1979 Rolaids Relief Man award winner) walked the bases loaded. He was pulled for Ron Guidry who walked in the winning run. The NL won their 8th straight ASG 7-6.

For the 1980 All-Stars I borrowed the look from the 1990 Donruss MVP.  I added All-Star text to the background similar to the MVP. Although the 1990 is much more similar to the base. I ditched one of the banners to give it a cleaner look.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Donruss ever had League Leader cards.  If they did, they weren't in the familiar Topps format. But for the sake of this imaginary set, I've created just that. I chose to do them in the Topps style from the '70s with a single card with the AL and the NL leader.

I picked this card because the Brothers Niekro actually tied for the most wins in 1979 with 21 wins each. Of course with knuckleballers you take the good with the bad.  Joe also led the league in wild pitches. Phil led the league in homeruns surrendered. In the AL Mike Flanagan had a career high 23 victories.  He also had career highs in shutouts  with 5 and strikeouts with 190. He was the AL Cy Young award winner.

Even though these guys led their respective leagues in homers, neither look too happy here.  Maybe because both of them also led their leagues in strikeouts.  Yup, Dave Kingman smashed 48 dingers and whiffed 131 times. In the AL, Gorman Thomas hit 45 round-trippers but fanned an incredible 175 times.

As for the traded cards, I reversed he players names and team names and tried to create a "traded" icon in the same vein as the "Rated Rookie" icon. A couple of big name trades here. Nolan Ryan was a free agent who signed a 4 year $4.5M with his hometown Astros.  He became the first player to earn more than $1M a year.  The Angels GM, Buzzie Bavasi reportedly commented that Ryan "could easily be replace by two 8-7 pitchers", referring to his 1979 record of 16-14.  

In 1980, Rusty Staub was competing with Warren Cromartie for first base. The Expos ended up dumping him for two nobodies at the end of  spring training. Rusty ended up sharing time as DH, first base and outfield for the Rangers. He hit an even .300 in a somewhat limited role. He was traded to the Mets the following season for the second time.

In some sets, Donruss did include World Series cards. But they weren't quite the same as we were used to with Topps.  They were visually similar to the player's card except with a World Series logo on the front. The back would detail their World Series feats.  I kept mine similar to Topps but included the World series logo.  In this particular card you can see Ed Ott easily tagging out Eddie Murray after a laser throw from Dave Parker.

It wasn't until their second issue in 1982 that Donruss included their Diamond Kings subset. But I've got one for the 1980 set. While Donruss relied on Dick Perez for their art, I tried to use photo effects to recreate the style.  Here is "Stretch" McCovey on a 1980 style Diamond Kings card.

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As usual, I am taking request for cards based on this design. So if there are any players or even subsets you'd like to see in a future post, leave a comment.

MLB Dream Bracket Alt-Topps Cards Part 8

Cubs v Mets
Giants v Brewers

The 3rd round began yesterday and I'm just finishing up the first round of match ups.  Again they pitted older franchises against sixties expansion teams. The Mets colors were originally colors were going to be pink and black.  They decided to change them to orange and blue in homage of the two New York teams that had recently departed for the west coast.  The Brewers were born as the Seattle Pilots in 1969. Weeks before the 1970 season they were "rescued" by Bud Selig and relocated to Milwaukee.

In the Cubs - Mets match up, I went for a 1969 reunion. On the Cubs 26 man roster there is exactly one pitcher (Jenkins) and 3 starting position players (Banks, Santo and Williams).  For the Mets there are 3 pitcher (Seaver, Koosman and McGraw), one starting position player (Jones) and one reserve (Agee) that played in 1969. So in a slight break from my norm of 1 pitcher and 3 position players, the Mets will have 2 pitchers and 2 position players. To see the results of this series click here.

In the Giants - Brewers match up I have Christy Mathewson, Mel Ott, Willie Mays and Willie McCovey for the New York/San Francisco Giants.  The makers of this roster all but forgot about the Seattle Pilots.  Gorman Thomas was drafted #1 by Seattle but didn't make the bigs until 1973. So for the Brewers/(not)Pilots I have Pete Vuckovich (who liked to wear two different shoes), the aforementioned Gorman Thomas, Paul Molitor and Christian Yelich. To see the results of this series click here.

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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.

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.