Saturday, November 2, 2013

1966 Topps Style 2013 World Series Champs

My goal during the Series was to mimic the style of the Topps World Series cards. Topps began making World Series cards in 1960 but stopped after 1965. Generally Topps included a card for each game and another celebration card. That meant if the series went past 5 games, I'd either have to skip ahead from 1965 to 1967 or take a few liberties and create World Series cards in the style of 1966. I chose the latter.


Going into the 2013 World Series, there were no real surprises. It was the 3rd time in last 10 years that the Red Sox won the pennant. It was the 4th time in the past 10 for the Cardinals. None the less it promised to be an exciting match-up. With perfect 20/20 hindsight, I'd say it delivered.

In Game 1 Jon Lester put on a pitching clinic. He went 7 2/3 innings, surrendering 5 hits, 1 walk and no runs while striking out 8. Meanwhile the Cardinals' questionable fielding allowed the Red Sox to take Game 1 by a score of 8-1.


In Game 2 it was the Red Sox's fielding errors that allowed the Cardinals to even up the series.


Game 3 ended on an errant throw to 3rd that led to an obstruction call which gave the Cardinals the winning run to take a 2-1 lead in the series.


In Game 4 the Cardinals left 8 men stranded on base and had their 9th inning rally cut short by a pick off at 1st. This was the first time in history that any post-season game ended on a pick off. The Red Sox tied the Series up at 2 games a piece.


Jon Lester pitched another gem in Game 5, but the big question was why Adam Wainwright didn't pitch around David Ortiz. Ortiz was hitting .733 in the Series while the rest of the team was hitting just over .150 collectively. The Sox took the lead 3 games to 2.


In Game 6 the Cardinals pitching staff finally got the message "Do not to pitch to Big Papi". Ortiz walked 4 times, 3 times intentionally. Shane Victorino, who hit a grand slam to win the Pennant for the Red Sox over the Tigers in Game 6 of the ALCS, rocketed a ball off the Green Monster with the bases loaded to clinch it for the Sox.



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