MLB Dream Bracket Alt-Topps Cards Part 3

A's v Rays and Orioles v Astros

These "games" have already been played, you can check the results here. I got a chance to watch a bit of these yesterday.  I was disappointed.  The graphics were almost non existent.  I was hoping for something more like the White Sox are doing with NBCSN and "MLB The Show". 

The "greatest" player selection was made by "Twitch" or "Out of the Park" or "Draft Kings" or whoever.  I can't say I totally agree. Also there were no players "disqualified". That mean they included "Shoeless"  Joe Jackson, Pete Rose, Barry Bonds, etc.  In fact, there seems to be a plethora of steroids-era players.

These games are going on right now. As I type many American Leagues have already been eliminated. So I'm doubling up today. Just want to get as many cards out while they are still relevant. I'm still making 4 for each team, 1 pitcher and 3 position players. Once again, the card design is based on a rejected Topps design from the late sixties.

For the A's, I made cards of Eddie Plank, Jimmie Foxx, Bert Campaneris, and Rickey Henderson.  On the Rays there is David Price, Fred McGriff, Carl Crawford and Evan Longoria,

In the Orioles-Astros match up, we have Jim Palmer, Frank Robinson, Eddie Murray and Cal Ripken. For the Astros it's JR Richard, Cesar Cedeno, Brad Ausmus and Carlos Correa.

1982 Donruss Rated Rookies: Gaetti, McGee, LaPoint, Hostetler

In 1982 both the AL and NL Rookies of the Year were featured in every set. Cal Ripken and Steve Sax were on Rookie Stars cards in the regular Topps set and each had their own card in the Traded set. They both also had Donruss and Fleer cards in 1982. 

There were 15 other players receiving Rookie of the year votes in 1982.  Of those 15, Pittsburgh's Johnny Ray and Cleveland's Von Hayes both received the full compliment of 1982 cards (Topps, Topps Traded, Donruss and Fleer).

Seven other players who received votes for Rookie of the Year in 1982 appeared on at least 1 card issued that season: Minnesota's Kent Hrbek, Seattle's Ed Vande Berg, Toronto's Jesse Barfield, San Francisco's Chili Davis, Atlanta's Steve Bedrosian and San Diego's Luis DeLeon and Eric Show.

So in order to soothe my rookie OCD, I tried to incorporate the design elements of the original set into this multi-player Donruss Rated Rookie card. I included 4 more players who received Rookie of the Year votes: Minnesota's Gary Gaetti, St. Loius's Willie McGee and Dave LaPoint, and Texas's Dave Hostetler. 

In  my next post I will put the remaining players onto a 1982 Fleer rookie card.

Orioles 60th Anniversary Celebration At Camden Yard

Joe at The Shlabotnik Report gave me a heads up that a couple of my cards slipped by quality control and made it onto the scoreboard at Camden Yard last night.  I'm pretty sure it was unintentional, but I am thrilled none the less. Here are a couple screen shots of the scoreboard:

As you can see the center card was part of the 1971 All Star series that never existed. Here is my original post.

This one has the 1981 Cal Ripken card I created just a couple months ago. Click Here. I find the card choice a bit odd. First because they included my card at all. Secondly is that they used the original 1987 card and the 2012 Topps 1987 Mini right next to each other.

Here is a link to see a video of the ceremony. If anybody has the complete ceremony, I'd love to see it just to see what cards were used during all of the players' tributes.

Thank you Joe, you made my day.

1981 Topps Cal Ripken

Baltimore Orioles CTNW Favorites #1

Cal Ripken made his debut on August 10, 1981. He had no plate appearances but scored the winning run. In the bottom of the 12th, Ken Singleton doubled against Kansas City Royals pitcher Renie Martin. Cal Ripken came in to pinch run. After an intentional walk to Eddie Murray, designated hitter John Lowenstein drove a walk-off RBI single to right field. The Orioles beat the Royals 3-2.

The Trading Card Database has over 12,000 cards listed for Cal Ripken. Finding a card that wasn't made of him is nearly impossible. Nobody would expect a late season call-up to have a card in that season's set. Then again, no list of Orioles greats would be complete without Cal Ripken. So I cheated. Just a little.