1956 Topps J.C. Caroline

It's week 3 of the NFL season and I am just getting around to some more Cards That Never Were for the Rookies of the Year. One of the reasons is that there were several Rookie of the Year Awards. The one that I had been using for reference was the UPI award. The UPI was a press award given out from 1955-1996. 

Although there was much overlap, The Sporting News also handed out annual awards vote upon by NFL players, coaches and executives. The Sporting News began awards in 1955 as well and are still doing it now. 

But it only gets muddier from there. The Newspaper Enterprise Association got into the act in 1964. They continued issuing awards through 1996 and from 1971-1976 they issued two awards. one oa AFC one for NFC, except for the 1974 season. OK got that? Because we're not done yet.

In 1967 the Associated Press got into the game. They issued separate awards for the offensive and defensive Rookies of the Year. They are still issuing that award. In 1969 Pro Football Weekly played the same game, awarding offensive and defensive ROY trophies. The latest ROY is awarded by Pepsi. This began in 2002 and is voted online only by fans at NFL.com. 

I started making these cards quite a while back, in April of 2014, I made a 1957 Rookie Card That Never Was for the great Jim Brown. 

 I noted that the 1955 and 1956 Rookie of the Year winners were given cards by Bowman in 1955 and Topps in 1956, their rookie seasons. However that is not strictly the case. In 1955 Alan Ameche of the Baltimore Colts was the winner of both the UPI and TSN award and he had a card in the 1955 Bowman set.

In 1956 the UPI award was given to another Colts player, Lenny Moore.  Moore had a card in Topps 1956 set.  But The Sporting News awarded the Rookie of the Year did not have a card in 1956. The Bears defensive back / offensive halfback, J.C. Caroline was primarily a defensive back but was used by the Bears as a halfback and kick returner as well through the 1958 season. After that he was used exclusively on defense. 

J.C. Caroline played 2 years at the University of Illinois breaking Red Grange's rushing record before being ruled academically ineligible. He the played in the CFL for the Toronto Argonauts but was placed on waivers the picked up by the Montreal Alouettes. J.C. and the Alouettes beat his former team in the semi finals to advance to the Grey Cup. Montreal lost to the Edmonton Eskimos. The following year J.C. got a degree in Phys Ed from Florida A&M and was drafted by the Bears. In his rookie year with the Bears he picked off 6 passes and ran 2 back for touchdowns. He was the Sporting News Rookie of the Year which meant that the honor was bestowed by his fellow players and coaches.

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 - St. Louis Cardinals Edition

Last Saturday the Cardinals celebrated the 90th anniversary of their 1926 World Series championship by wearing their 1927 "World Champion" uniforms. Cards from this era are scarce so I decided to copy the 1971 Laughlin World Series cards. 

These featured cartoon drawings of  players, highlights or factoids about the games. There were several different variations of these cards issued by Fleer in 1970, 1971 and again in 1980.  I chose third-baseman Jhonny Peralta to take the place of Hall of Fame player-manager Rogers Hornsby. 

Can't really compare the uniform to a cartoon so I included a photo of Hall of Fame pitcher, (Grover Cleveland) Pete Alexander. I found this colorized version posted on several pages on the interwebs and I am not sure who to credit with the colorization. As usual the main differences are the modern cut of the uniform including the shorter sleeves and of course the socks. Oddly the socks look closer to the cartoon than the photo.

1971 Topps Cubs Dual No Hit Club

One year ago today Jake Arrieta threw his first no-no. Earlier this year Arrieta threw another. It would be his second no hitter in just 11 regular season starts. He would be the first Cub to throw multiple no-hitters since 1971. Ken Holtzman threw a gem in August of the infamous 1969 season then again in 1971. 

You have to go back to when the Cubs were known as the Chicago White Stockings to find another player in franchise history with multiple no hitters. It was Larry Corcoran who aced the Boston Red Caps in 1880, the Worcester Ruby Legs in 1882 and the Providence Grays in 1884.

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.