Topps All-Star Misses: 1970 AL Outfield

 In 1970 Topps had All Star cards of Reggie Jackson, Frank Robinson and Carl Yastrzemski in the American League outfield.  Reggie and "The Judge" shared the outfield with Frank Howard as starter in the 1969 All Star game.  Howard started the 1970 ASG as well. Hondo was also named to the 1970 Sporting News All Star team. Since that is what the cards supposedly declare in fake headlines, he probably should have had an All Star card in 1970.

The other two AL outfielders that were named to the 1970 Sporting News All Star roster were Reggie Smith and Tony Oliva.  Here are their All Star Cards That Never Were:

Who probably didn't merit inclusion in the 1970 Topps All-Star set, but was in it anyway?

Carl Yastrzemski:

 Yaz was neither a starter in the 1969 ASG nor named to the Sporting News All Star team in 1969 or 1970. That being said he had a great 1970 season and was a starter in that season's ASG. 

Dick Allen

 1942-2020

It is with great sadness that I learned earlier today of Dick Allen's passing.

This one really stings.  I grew up a Sox fan in the '70s.  Dick Allen was a hero to me.  I had a homemade baseball bat that was just ridiculously way too big.  We called it the "Dick Allen" bat.  I could only use it playing sandlot ball because it was obviously not legal for little league play.  If you follow this blog, you know that I have used Allen as the subject of many posts. The 72 "In Action" was one of my first fake cards. Here are as many others that I can remember making:

Alec Mills No-Hits the Brewers

2020 has seen two no-hitters and both were tossed by Chicago pitchers.  Alec Mills pitched the 16th no-no in franchise history.  Not surprisingly, Mills did not even have a card in any major set this season.  His only card is in the latest wave of 2020 Topps Total.  So here is a 2020 Heritage to commemorate the occasion. 

Tom Terrific

1944-2020

Ok, it's official. 2020 sucks.  Yesterday the baseball world lost a legend.  Tom Seaver was the ultimate opening day starter. He started in 16 opening days on the Mets, Reds and White Sox.

Since this is Cards That Never Were, I figured I'd post the greatest Tom Seaver Card That Never Was on the top of this post.  This wasn't made by me, it was a card that actually made it onto the 1968 Topps proof sheet before someone at Topps caught the sophomore pitcher's prank.  He was posing as a lefty, and he wasn't the only one.  Bob Gibson pulled the same prank on the same proof sheet.  If you look closely at the proof sheet, Seaver is second from the left in second row.  Gibson is fourth row, five from right.

Of course, I've made my share of Tom Seaver cards, too.  I even attempted to replicate his 1968 prank in my 1968 Alt-Topps series. I used a little photo manipulation to make the righty a lefty.

Here are the rest of my Tom Seaver Cards That Never Were in no particular order:

Giolito No-Hits the Pirates

Just couldn't let this moment pass without some sort of post. What an exciting game to watch. His stuff was great. The last out was an adventure.  A solid hit that was handled by Adam Engle.

Glenn Beckert

October 12, 1940 - April 12, 2020

I hate to keep doing this.  But Glenn Beckert was part of my childhood and I couldn't let his passing go without a small tribute.  We are living in difficult times now.  He was in hospice in Florida with dementia when he passed away. It was heartbreaking to read how his daughters were unable to visit him due to the Corona Virus. 

He was a Gold Glove, a four-time All-Star and an important part of the ill-fated 1969 Cubs. Most impressive was his low strikeout to at-bat ratio. He led the league 5 times and placed in the top ten every year from 1965-1972.  To put it into perspective as to how much the game has changed, the player with the most at-bats to strikeouts in 2019 was the Orioles utility infielder, Hanser Alberto.  He averaged 1 strikeout in every 10.5 at-bats.  Beckert's career average was 1 strikeout in every 21.4 at-bats.

Four years ago, when Milt Pappas passed away I found this photo of Pappas and Beckert at the 100 year celebration at Wrigley Field in 2014. 

I've created a few cards of Glenn Beckert over the years. Here they are once again.

Bill Buckner 1971 Alt -Topps

1949-2019

Another 1971 Alt Topps for Bill Buckner. We lost him this past Memorial Day. On that day, 9 different players did something Buckner never did in his entire MLB career.

On the day that Bill Buckner passed away Niko Goodrum, Jim Adduci, Dainiel Descalso, Jonathan Schoop, CJ Cron, Miguel Sano, Matt Olson, Shin-Soo Choo and Mitch Haniger all struck out 3 times in a single MLB game.  In his 22 year career, Bill Buckner never had a 3-strikeout game.

Buckner led the league 4 times in At Bats per strikeout. He finished in the top 10 eleven times. Over his career he averaged 20.7 at bats for every strikeout.  Just to put that in context, the current MLB leader in strikeouts per at bat is the Angels second baseman, David Fletcher with 13.8.

Another thing Buckner didn't have was his own card in 1971. 

He had been featured on Rookie Stars cards by Topps in both 1970 and 1971. He finally had hid own Topps card in 1972.  

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.