Here is another Topps mock-up. Although the name says Ben Solomon, it's obviously Eddie Mathews. Ben Solomon was an art director for Topps. His name on the card must be an inside joke. The Braves moved to Atlanta in 1966. Mathews is sporting a Milwaukee Braves cap. That is because the photo was lifted from his 1964 Topps card.
Mathews last season for the Braves was their first season in Atlanta. That made him the only Braves player to play for the Braves in Boston, Milwaukee and Atlanta. Despite the Milwaukee cap and the fact that Mathews was traded to Houston before the season, I placed this set in 1967, AKA "the Summer of Love". These cards give off that vibe. This is in contrast to the classic, clean, no-nonsense design Topps actually used in 1967.Here is my version. I used a more straight forward, less cartoony font for the team name. But I preserved the other design elements.
As usual, I made base cards of the respective MVPs and Cy Young Award winners. I also followed Topps' color scheme from the actual 1967 set (as best I could).
The 1967 AL MVP was Triple Crown winner, Carl Yastrzemski. In the NL the MVP was Orlando Cepeda. He had been the 1958 Rookie of the Year for the Giants. Primarily a first baseman, there was just no room on the Giants behind "Stretch". He was traded to the Cards in May of 1966.
1967 was the first year the MLB awarded Cy Youngs to each league. In the AL, Jim Lonborg of the Red Sox was having a career year. He had 22 wins and 246 strikeouts, both league-leaders and career highs. In the NL, Giants pitcher Mike McCormick also had a career high and league-leading 22 victories.
To be continued...
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Just as I've done in previous Alt-Topps posts, this post contains the base cards, I'll make a couple more posts with various subsets. And, of course, I'll make as many request as I can an hopefully post them in a few weeks. Just post your requests (or even ideas for other subsets, etc) in the comment section. Thanks.
Obviously, Topps made the right decision on the 67 design they used, but these look very nice, especially with the cleanup you did on the team name. The cards of Yaz and Cepeda look great! Would like to see your All-Star version of this format with the Killer as the subject. He had a decent year in 67 too tying Yaz for the home run crown.
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting to see what you do with a card of a Phillie or an Oriole. The base color for those teams was yellow, but yellow wouldn't work very well here.
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