Even More 1964 Alt-Topps

World Series, Leaders, All- Stars and Topps All-Star Rookie Cards

Just a few more of my favorite subsets, World Series cards, Leaders cards, All Star cards and Topps Rookie All Star cards.

For the World Series card I kept the basic format but reversed the layout.  In the real 1964 set, Topps also highlighted Koufax's 15 strikeouts in Game 1. But I gotta say I like this photo better. 

On the leaders cards, I went a little off script for Topps. Instead of one large horizontal photo with two (or more) smaller photos below, I used one large vertical shot for the leader and smaller photos to the right.

Another un-Topps thing is having a card for Runs Scored Leaders.  Not one of the top stats but I like the top three players, so...

Again for the All Star cards, I reversed the Field.

Instead of a team logo, I used the All Star Game logo from 1963. I also tried to incorporate the logo's colors into the card format.

Since this format reminds me so much of the 1960 Topps All Star Rookies subset, I had to recreate it here.

Oddly in 1964 all but one of the Topps All Star Rookie team had the official trophy on his card. That was Jesse Gonder.  But in the Bizarro Universe, my Alt-Topps has got him covered.

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Just as I did in the last batch, I am willing to take a few requests.  I know most people just look at the pictures in these blogs.  But if you actually read this all the way to the bottom of the last post, it's the least I could do.  Just leave your requests in the comment section.

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.

1964 Alt-Topps

Continuing on with the Topps Mock-ups, This is one of the better looking designs that was rejected by Topps. 

In this version, Topps borrows somewhat from the 1962 Topps Football style and the photo was originally used on the 1963 Ken Hubbs card.  Because of this, I put this at a 1964 vintage.

Here is the 1963 Hubbs card.

And here is my cleaned up version.

I tried to create the base cards using the same color schemes Topps used to represent the teams in 1964. First the 1964 MVPs, Brooks Robinson,

And Ken Boyer. As you can see, the colors Topps used in 1964 really bore little if any resemblance to actual team colors.

Next the Cy Young award winner, Dean Chance. In 1964 there was just one Cy Young awarded so I decided to round out my base cards with a National League pitcher.

 I chose Ken Johnson for two reasons. The first is that he threw a no-hitter against the Cincinnati Reds in April of 1964 yet managed to lose that game 1-0. Pete Rose scored the only run. He reached second on an error by Johnson himself.  He then scored on another error by Hall of Famer, Nellie Fox. The second reason is I just like the Colt .45s logo.

Stretch

Willie McCovey
1938-2018

Yesterday we lost another legend. Willie "Stretch" McCovey.  I put together one more 1972 Alt-Topps card in his honor. Additionally, I have included all of the cards I've made of McCovey over the years for this blog. 

Cards That Never Were - 35th & 36th Series Checklists

Oscar Gamble and Rusty Staub

Just doing a bit of house-keeping here at CTNW.  The cards on these checklists date all the way back to July of 2016.  

I made the checklists in the 1983 design and included 2 of the greats that we lost earlier this year, Oscar Gamble and Rusty Staub.  Checklist 35 is populated with several cards from my other long neglected blog, Rating The Rookies.  It also contains many NFL/AFL Rookies of the Year and "Throwback Thursday" cards.

Checklist 36 is dominated by the 2016 post season cards I made. I took Hall of Famers that played for the 2016 post season teams. The twist was they were better known for wearing other teams' uniforms and I put them on cards from the year they were inducted into the Hall. I have to say, it made for some unusual looking cards. Also in that series were more Football ROY's and the missing manager cards from 1974.

If you wish to check out all the cards on these checklists without all these boring words getting in the way, click here.  Or, as always you can click on this (or any other) checklist in the right margin.  It will direct you straight to the page that contains all of these cards.