1984 Topps Stadium Statues: Royals vs A's

A.L. Wildcard Edition

 For the first round of the playoffs (Including the one-game Wildcards) I created some cards featuring the various players whose statues grace their respective ball parks. I chose the 30 year old Topps card because the dual frames allows for a shot of the player along with his statue. I also just like the clean, classic design of the 1984 set.

Kauffman Stadium in Kanas City has statues of George Brett, Frank White, Dick Howser and the Kauffmans (Ewing and Murial). They are also making their first post season appearance since 1985. In 1985 White and Brett were still playing, Howser was Managing and the Kauffmans still owned the team.

The Oakland Collusium is without statues so I had to go to Philadelphia to find a member of the A's immortalized in bronze. In 1957 (3 years after the A's left Philadelphia) the statue of Connie Mack first graced a park across the street from Shibe Park which had been  renamed Connie Mack Stadium in 1953. When the Phillies moved to Veterans Stadium in 1971, so did the statue. Likewise when Citzen's Bank Park was built in 2004.

1976 Topps George Foster All Star MVP

Going Horizontal

The Big Red Machine had a ridiculous 7 out of 8 position players on the All Star roster in 1976. Five of them were in the starting line up. And at the helm was their manager, Sparky Anderson. The only position player left off the All Star team was center fielder, Cesar Geronimo. Geronimo had career highs in batting with .307 and stolen bases with 22. He also earned his 3rd consecutive Gold Glove in 1976. 

George Foster was also having a great year in 1976. He led the league in RBIs and finished 2nd in N.L. MVP voting to his teammate, Joe Morgan. He was also selected to his first All Star Game. Normally a left fielder, Foster was the starting center fielder and batting clean-up. In his first at bat he got an RBI on a ground out to 2nd. In the 3rd inning he went deep off Catfish Hunter scoring Joe Morgan. Those 3 RBIs were enough to earn him the All Star MVP as the N.L. coasted to its 5th straight victory 7-1.

1965 O Pee Chee Hockey Checklist - Cards That Never Were - 26th Series

This is a somewhat sporadic series. I really haven't had the time to keep up with this blog as much as I used to.  I decided to post a few abandoned projects; my own retro-design for 2014, the 1943 Phillies Team that never was, and the 1972 Hockey Award cards. 

If you want to see all of these cards in one place along with the cards from Series 25 click on the checklists in the right margin>>>>>>

2014 Fantasy Football Card

It's already week 3 and I am just getting around to posting some fantasy football cards. I was the league champ last year, thus had a late draft this year so my team is not exactly "stacked".  As anyone that plays fantasy football know, injuries are key. This season it seems that legal issues are also playing into it.. Fortunately, I steered clear of those players, now I only need my players to stay healthy.

The 3 players I picked to make cards of are: Tony Romo on a 1954 Bowman card, Calvin Johnson "Megatron" on a 1970 Topps card and Julio Jones on a 1978 Topps card.

1972-73 O Pee Chee Hockey Award Cards

Cleaning Out the Closet: 

Part 3 - Abandoned Projects

Once again I find myself unable to post to this blog in a timely manner. So here are some more abandoned projects from the closet.

This one is a bit different. I made these and planned to use them individually but just got bored with the whole idea. So I'm dumping them all at once. It is similar to my take on the 1972 Topps award cards. I simply replaced the photo of the award with a photo of the award winner. 

So here are the cards I made but hadn't published yet:

 

I had already posted these 2 cards in earlier posts:

And here are the original cards from that set. As you can see there was no room for the player's name so I offset the photo similar to the regular issue cards of that year:

Boring, right? Aren't you glad I didn't drag this out over 5 more posts?

1954 Red Heart Willie Mays

New York Giants CTNW Favorites #1

Of course the number 1 New York Giant was the Say Hey Kid. Mays was fairly well represented on cardboard during his career. Even though he missed the entire 1953 season due to military obligations, he had a 1953 Topps card. In 1954 he was in both the Topps and Bowman sets. I chose to depict him on a 1954 Red Heart card. First because in 1954 the Giant were World Series Champs. There were a few other popular odd-ball cards I considered using. There were 1954 Dandee cards which were inserted into bags of chips, 1954 Wilson Franks cards which were inserted into hot dog packages. The Red Heart cards were inserted into dog food bags.

1949 Bowman Monte Irvin

New York Giants CTNW Favorites #2

Monte Irvin wasn't technically the first black player on the New York Giants. He made his first Major League appearance on July 8, 1949. The same day that Hank Thompson made his first appearance in a Giants uniform. (Thompson was also the first black ballplayer on the St. Louis Browns in 1947.) Thompson was the leadoff batter and Irvin came in to pinch hit in the top of the 8th. On that particular day the Giants were playing the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Dodgers by the, of course, had the great Jackie Robinson. In addition the Giants were facing  a black battery of Don Newcombe and Roy Campanella. The Dodgers beat the Giants that afternoon in Ebbets Field 4-3.

1954 Topps Leo Durocher

New York Giants CTNW Favorites #3

In 1954 Leo Durocher led the Giants to their first World Series championship in 21 years.  This was Durocher's only championship as a manager. He had won 2 pennants earlier. In 1941 with the Dodgers and in 1951 with the Giants. Both times he lost the World Series to the Yankees. In 1954 he beat Al Lopez's Cleveland Indians. For his efforts Leo won his 3rd and final Sporting News Manager of the Year award.

1952 Bowman Hoyt Wilhelm

New York Giants CTNW Favorites #4

Just 3 months shy of his 30th birthday, Hoyt Wilhelm made his major league debut. The "rookie" had already led a full life. He had played 8 years of minor league ball interrupted by a 3 year tour of duty during World War II. His MLB career would span 21 seasons and end just days before his 50th birthday.

In 1952 he finished 2nd in Rookie of the year voting to another reliever, Joe Black. Both pitcher had 15 wins. Although Black had a lower ERA with 2.15, Wilhelm was the 1952 Pitching Leader with a 2.43 ERA because Black was a few innings short of the minimum. In his first Major League at bat Wilhelm hit his one and only career home run.