30 Tribute Card Project - Part 4

I am continuing on with the 30 tribute card project I started based on  this article on the Sports Collectors Daily website. In my last post, I was able to check 5 more off the list ( numbers 16,19,21,22 and 23)with cards created by other people on the web.

 Another repeat offender, Uncle Doc's Card Closet gives us #24 on the list. Frank Robinson is represented in the 1977 Topps set, but only as a manager on the team card. Just as in 1976, he didn't have a card that represented him as a player also. The minor issue I have with the 1977 cards on this list is that both the Robinson and the Hank Aaron card on my previous post are missing the facsimile signature.

This bright orange Brooks Robinson card come from When Topps Had (Base) Balls. This site actually has several final tribute cards and all are done beautifully but in the interest of giving other card creators their due, I limited it to #25 on the list. I encourage you to browse his site.

I can't help coming back to Keith Conforti. This Thurman Munson tribute card has appeared on several sites including The Virtual Card Collection. This is not only a brilliant tribute card, but a great concept, borrowed from the 1964 Ken Hubbs card. #28 just might be my favorite card that never was.

The Writer's Journey is one of my daily stops. Among other things The Writers Journey features several "Fun Cards". That is where I found #29 on the list. In 1984 Fleer was the only card company to include a Johnny Bench card.

Like Johnny Bench, Yaz was only include in the 1984 Fleer base set. #30 on the list is the 3rd card from Keith Conforti. Here is another link to his Picasa Web Album.

 Here is the list so far. The Black X represents cards produced by Topps, The red X represents those made by other baseball card geeks:

1.       1952 Joe DiMaggio X

2.       1956 Ralph Kiner

3.       1957 Bob Feller X

4.       1957 Phil Rizzuto

5.       1957 Jackie Robinson X

6.       1961 Ted Williams X

7.       1962 Jackie Jensen

8.       1964 Stan Musial X

9.       1964 Early Wynn

10.   1965 Duke Snider

11.   1966 Yogi Berra X

12.   1966 Warren Spahn 

13.   1967 Sandy Koufax X

14.   1967 Robin Roberts X

15.   1968 Whitey Ford

16.   1969 Rocky Colavito X

17.   1969 Roger Maris 

18.   1969 Eddie Mathews

19.   1970 Don Drysdale X

20.   1972 Ernie Banks X

21.   1973 Maury Wills X

22.   1974 Willie Mays X 

23.   1977 Hank Aaron X

24.   1977 Frank Robinson X

25.   1978 Brooks Robinson X 

26.   1978 Jim Wynn

27.   1980 Lou Brock

28.   1980 Thuman Munson X

29.   1984 Johnny Bench X

30. 1984 Carl Yastrzemski X

Now it's my turn.

To be Continued......

30 Tribute Card Project - Part 3

I am continuing on with the 30 tribute card project I started based on  this article on the Sports Collectors Daily website. In my last post, I was able to check 5 more off the list ( numbers 5,6,11,13 and 14) with cards created by other people on the web.

     The #16 card on the list give us the first repeat offender. White Sox Cards made this tribute card of Rocky Colavito. Colavito's last Topps card was a 1968 hat-less White Sox card that looks suspiciously like his 1964 hat-less K.C. Athletics card. Although he barely hit his weight on the Yankees, this seems a more fitting last card for a 9 time All Star.

  #19 comes from Punk Rock Paint which is just chock full of custom card goodness. Beyond just baseball cards, this site has produced cards from Star Wars, Lost, The Big Lebowski, etc. This Drysdale tribute comes from his "Shoulda Been" series.

   This Maury Wills tribute card was created for the Garvey-Cey-Russell-Lopes blog and is #21 on the list. What is even cooler is that the blogger sent his tribute card off the Maury Wills and got it back signed.

 

    Another repeat offender Dick Allen Hall of Fame gives us #22 on the list. This is another one of those cards that I has several versions to choose from. Mays actually had a card in the 1974 Topps set, but it was a World Series card, not regular issue.

    Just as there were several Willie Mays tribute cards, there were also several for #23 on the list, 1977 Topps Hank Aaron. This particular one comes from Punk Rock Paint again. Among other reasons, I had to give this one the nod for the choice of photography. It was "borrowed" from Steve's Baseball Photography Pages, an absolute favorite of mine.

  Here is the list so far. The Black X represents cards produced by Topps, The red X represents those made by other baseball card geeks:

1.       1952 Joe DiMaggio X

2.       1956 Ralph Kiner

3.       1957 Bob Feller X

4.       1957 Phil Rizzuto

5.       1957 Jackie Robinson X

6.       1961 Ted Williams X

7.       1962 Jackie Jensen

8.       1964 Stan Musial X

9.       1964 Early Wynn

10.   1965 Duke Snider

11.   1966 Yogi Berra X

12.   1966 Warren Spahn 

13.   1967 Sandy Koufax X

14.   1967 Robin Roberts X

15.   1968 Whitey Ford

16.   1969 Rocky Colavito X

17.   1969 Roger Maris 

18.   1969 Eddie Mathews

19.   1970 Don Drysdale X

20.   1972 Ernie Banks X

21.   1973 Maury Wills X

22.   1974 Willie Mays X 

23.   1977 Hank Aaron X

24.   1977 Frank Robinson 

25.   1978 Brooks Robinson 

26.   1978 Jim Wynn

27.   1980 Lou Brock

28.   1980 Thuman Munson 

29.   1984 Johnny Bench 

30. 1984 Carl Yastrzemski 

To be Continued......

30 Tribute Card Project - Part 2

     In my last post I wrote about the latest project I decided to take on. It is based on this article on the Sports Collectors Daily website. In that post I showed the cards on that list that Topps actually made in one form or another and was able to check numbers 1,3,8, and 20 off the list.    

    Today I am going to present cards made by fellow card geeks that I found elsewhere on the web. Some of these have multiple versions on the internet. I chose these particular cards in order to get a variety of the sites I like onto the list without too much repetition. 

    First is #5 on the list 1957 Jackie Robinson.  Robinson was traded to the Giants after the 1959 season. But Robinson had other plans. He had already decided to retire. This card was created by one of my favorite sites, Dick Allen Hall of Fame. Unfortunately that site has been idle for a while now but the creator is now working on the DickAllen15.com, the official Dick Allen website. 

   Topps produced a card of Robinson sporting a giants uniform as part of the 2009 National promo set. but for whatever reason the made it a 1959 card. This card just makes more sense.

     Next is # 6, 1961 Ted Williams. Williams retired after the 1960 season and he went out with style. He hit a homer in his last at bat September 28, 1960. This card is courtesy of  Keith Conforti. I've seen his cards in several locations on the web. To see most of them in one place, here is a link to his Picasa Web Album.

    #11 is the 1966 version of Yogi Berra. Berra had actually retired after the 1963 season to become the Yankees manager in 1964. After losing the World Series to the Cardinals, Berra was fired. He return as a "Player/Coach" of the Mets in 1965 but played in only 4 games. His 1965 Topps card listed him as catcher-coach. This card can be found on Uncle Doc's Card Closet. 

    A few cards on this list have been made by multiple collectors. #13 on the list is one of the more frequently produced. In fact I made a 1967 Sandy Koufax All-Star card myself not that long ago. This one comes from Bob Lemke's Blog. Bob is THE leader in creating Cards That Never Were. He has been producing them for years. 

 

     The #14 card on the list was created for White Sox Cards. As a White Sox fan and a fan of custom cards, I am a regular follower of this site. Robin Roberts was dropped by the Astros in July of 1966 after winning just 3 games in 12 starts. He didn't fare much better when the Cubs signed him 9 days later. He won 2 in 9 starts then hung up his cleats at the end of the season.  Still, it's always nice to see a Hall of Famer in a hometown uniform.

    Here is the list so far. The Black X represents cards produced by Topps, The red X represents those made by other baseball card geeks:

1.       1952 Joe DiMaggio X

2.       1956 Ralph Kiner

3.       1957 Bob Feller X

4.       1957 Phil Rizzuto

5.       1957 Jackie Robinson X 

6.       1961 Ted Williams X 

7.       1962 Jackie Jensen

8.       1964 Stan Musial X

9.       1964 Early Wynn

10.   1965 Duke Snider

11.   1966 Yogi Berra X 

12.   1966 Warren Spahn 

13.   1967 Sandy Koufax X 

14.   1967 Robin Roberts X 

15.   1968 Whitey Ford

16.   1969 Rocky Colavito

17.   1969 Roger Maris 

18.   1969 Eddie Mathews

19.   1970 Don Drysdale

20.   1972 Ernie Banks X

21.   1973 Maury Wills

22.   1974 Willie Mays

23.   1977 Hank Aaron

24.   1977 Frank Robinson

25.   1978 Brooks Robinson 

26.   1978 Jim Wynn

27.   1980 Lou Brock

28.   1980 Thuman Munson

29.   1984 Johnny Bench

30. 1984 Carl Yastrzemski

To be continued......

30 Tribute Card Project - Part 1

A while back, I was reading a post on Sports Collector's Daily that really seemed to be right up my alley. Rich Klein, one of the contributors to this site, wrote about the desire for Topps to make "Tribute" cards for their next Archives set. Tribute cards are basically cards from the year after the player retires. The part of the article that intrigued me was his list of players that he wanted to see tribute cards for. 

 I had seen many of the cards on his list somewhere on the web before, so I started doing a little research. As it turns out, Topps made versions of 4 cards on the list. I found 15 "card creations" from his list on various other baseball card blogs. I thought I could post them here and give a shout-out to the bloggers who made the cards and have inspired me. That still leaves me with 11 cards to complete the list.

Here is his "Wish List":

1.       1952 Joe DiMaggio 

2.       1956 Ralph Kiner

3.       1957 Bob Feller

4.       1957 Phil Rizzuto

5.       1957 Jackie Robinson

6.       1961 Ted Williams

7.       1962 Jackie Jensen

8.       1964 Stan Musial

9.       1964 Early Wynn

10.   1965 Duke Snider

11.   1966 Yogi Berra

12.   1966 Warren Spahn 

13.   1967 Sandy Koufax

14.   1967 Robin Roberts

15.   1968 Whitey Ford

16.   1969 Rocky Colavito

17.   1969 Roger Maris 

18.   1969 Eddie Mathews

19.   1970 Don Drysdale

20.   1972 Ernie Banks

21.   1973 Maury Wills

22.   1974 Willie Mays

23.   1977 Hank Aaron

24.   1977 Frank Robinson

25.   1978 Brooks Robinson 

26.   1978 Jim Wynn

27.   1980 Lou Brock

28.   1980 Thuman Munson

29.   1984 Johnny Bench

30. 1984 Carl Yastrzemski

First I gotta give Topps credit where credit is due:

Topps created these Promo cards tor the National Sports Collectors Convention. Taking care of #1 & #3 on his list.

Just this past year Topps produced these two. The Stan Musial was a special autographed insert in the 2013 Heritage set. And the Banks was part of the Series 2 - 1972 mini subset. That takes care of #8 and #20 on the list.

In my next few posts will share some of the cards on this list that I found on the internet made by my fellow baseball card geeks.

#1 - How The Grinch Stole Christmas

My Top 5 Christmas Cartoons

Over the Christmas holiday I thought I would post my favorite Christmas Cartoons and/or Animated Specials.  In keeping with the theme of this blog, I made cards of them from their "rookie" season.  

My number 1 pick is The Grinch. Not the dreadful Ron Howard movie either. The original Boris Karloff narrated animated classic. It made it's TV debut in 1966. I decided to go with the Topps football card from that year. It just seemed more appropriate.

Merry Christmas to all. I will start posting again after the New Year.