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.
Awesome.. looking forward to these! I know you don't normally create backs, but these cards in particular would be great to see "flipped".. Full career stats!
ReplyDeleteGreat project. I noticed Mike Squires was not on your list (and why would he be?), but I featured two Final Tribute cards for him on my site a while back.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.johngysbeat.com/2009/10/mike-squires-1986-topps.html
Johnny Bench
ReplyDeleteCarl Yastrzemski
I'm pretty sure I saw a Munson somewhere, can't remember where though.
Too funny. I saw Squires a couple times at Comiskey a couple times this year. Couldn't help but think of you. Apparently he is a regular there.
ReplyDeleteJohn-ReallY/ How do I never see him? More important...how can I make sure to see him next year?! All time Sox favorite.
ReplyDeleteA few rows behind the scout seats just to the 3rd base side of home plate.
DeleteHmm... Topps didn't get the color right on the '72 Banks card. The Cubs cards were a shade of magenta, not red like this card.
ReplyDeleteWow - I've been planning a month-long feature on my blog to do almost the exact same thing. The one difference - I'm doing mine by year, but same idea. Alot of the same cards, though.
ReplyDeleteTwo cards I know Topps has produced that you didn't mention 1953 Lou Boudreau (1993 Topps Archives) and Catfish Hunter 1980 Topps (2013 Topps Archives).
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ReplyDeleteI also wrote Klein on this topic. I love your work and it is what drove me to write. I just posted a link to this site on Net54baseball a site with mostly pre war collectors.
ReplyDeleteKeep it up, love it as always.