1972 Alt-Topps

After being away for so long, I was undecided when (or if) I would start posting again.  But I do have quite a backlog of cards that I've already made. I also have quite a few ideas that still need to be fleshed out. What I do know is that I just don't have the time to post very often. So I'm going to try posting once a month.

Like I said before, "Cards That Never Were" was not a unique idea when I started this blog.  And lately there are even more blogs out there with similar content. Additionally there are Twitter, Facebook and other accounts devoted to the very same concept. Rather than just add more to the pile, I wanted to try something a bit different.

I came across some of Topps rejected concept cards on The Topps Archives and Keith Olbermann's Baseball Nerd and various other message boards and blogs.  Similar to what I did with the 1963 Fleer set, I decided to create an outline of what these mock-ups could be as a complete set. I will try to incorporate what we've all come to expect in a complete set: Rookie cards, All-Star cards, Leaders, World Series, etc.

For my first "Set", I think this was a prototype for the 1972 set. The designer used John Mayberry's 1971 card and put it inside his design. I decided to clean it up a bit and see what the cards might have looked like if Topps went with this design in 1972.

Here are few base cards, using the MVPs and Cy Young winners from 1972. Oddly, Three of the four were on new teams in 1972. Carlton had a card in a St. Louis uniform plus a late series "traded" card. For Dick Allen and Gaylord Perry, Topps just recycled old photos and tried to pass them off as their new team.

I tried to keep close to the color schemes that Topps used in 1972. If that Mayberry card was made using the color scheme the Astros used in 1972, it would look more like this:

In my next post I'll delve into this concept a little deeper.