1981 Topps Gary Carter All Star MVP

Going Horizontal

With the 2016 All Star game behind us, I thought I would return to an old theme, making horizontal cards for the Topps years without them. As usual I am using the All Star MVP as my subject.  In 1981, it was Gary Carter of the Montreal Expos. 1981 was the only season in which the Expos saw post-season play.

Just to get ahead of the usual comments that the 1981 All Star MVP would appear on a 1982 card: yes, I know. I also don't care. My blog, my fake cards, my rules.

The actual 1981 Gary Carter card was a beauty so this is not  meant to be an improvement on his card from that year. I took a few liberties with the original design besides turning it on its side. I narrowed the lower border and shrunk the size of the cap. I also replaced the position and team name inside the cap with the team logo, an idea blatantly stolen from the Dick Allen Hall of Fame blog. Click here to see the source of my plagiarism.

The 1981 All Star game was postponed to August and marked the return to baseball after the 1981 strike. The 1981 was split into two halves with the division winners from each half season playing each other in the first ever best-of-five Divisional Championship Series.

The All Star Game itself  had the NL come from behind to win their 10th straight 5-4. Gary Carter hit two solo homers. His first cam in the 5th inning off Angel pitcher Ken Forsch to tie the game at 1-1. His next came in the 7th with the AL leading 4-2. He took Yankees reliever Ron Davis over the center field fence to bring the NL within one run. Mike Schmidt had the game winning RBI with a two run shot in the 8th off Rollie Fingers.