1991 Topps Rich Gossage

Texas Rangers CTNW Favorites #5

It has been months since I've made my Top 5 "Fan Favorites". For this one I've chosen to do the Texas Rangers. Additionally I've narrowed it down to the Hall of Fame pitchers who have worn the Rangers' colors.  Here they are in the order of games pitched for the Rangers. I'm sure you can guess most of them, but you may be surprised by which Hall of Famer pitched the most games in Texas.

In 1989, Goose Gossage was released by the Cubs during spring training, was waived by the Giants mid-season.  He was picked up by the Yankees where he finished out the season. After the season, the Yankees dropped him as well. Gossage spent the 1990 season in Japan pitching for the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks. Topps didn't make a 1990 card for him, "career-capper" or otherwise.

In 1991 he was signed by the Rangers where he pitched in 44 games, mostly middle relief. His days as a closer were behind him by then. Gossage was also missing from the Topps set in 1991, not even a Topps Traded card.  They did make a 1992 card of him in a Rangers uniform. That would be Topps' last regular issue card of the Goose. This despite him playing 1992 and 1993 in Oakland and 1994 in Seattle. Seems like an awful lot of cards missing for a Hall of Fame pitcher, especially in the junk-wax era.

1991 Topps Mickey Mantle

I know some will disagree, but I think Topps put out a pretty decent product for it's 40th anniversary. They included the player position, used team logos, had better photos, and returned to the horizontal action variations. Another cool thing Topps did was issue cards to the troops in Kuwait during operation Desert Shield. Unfortunately I could not figure out a way to recreate the foil stamp used on the Desert Shield cards for this one.

1953 Topps Ted Williams

Going Horizontal

I have always liked it when Topps turned the cards sideways especially when they added an action shot. In the 1952 set Topps had a handful of horizontal cards but it wouldn't be until the '70s that we would see them try it again. Even then they only did it in 1971, 1973 and 1974. After that we had to wait until 1991. In recent years, Topps frequently has been using a horizontal variations within their sets. But I'd like to see some of the more vintage sets with horizontal variations.

I know certain layouts don't adapt very well to a horizontal version. But take a look at these real  Topps cards. You have to admit they stand out.

There are quite a few vintage sets I think would look cool turned sideways. I might have to add horizontal cards to my seemingly never ending list of running themes. Any thoughts?

1991 Topps Jim Thome

Cleveland Indians CTNW Fan Favorites #1

I'm putting together 5 "Cards That Never Were" fan favorites from each team. These are not necessarily the 5 best players from the franchise. So as David Letterman used to say before Stupid Pet Tricks, "This is only an exhibition. This is not a competition. Please, no wagering."

Jim Thome is the Indians all-time homerun leader. He hit 337 of his 604 homers in an Indians uniform. The rest were hit while plaing for the Phillies, White Sox, Dodgers and Twins. He is currently filling in for Phillies' Ryan Howard who is recoving from an injured achilles. 

There were several players that I wanted to add to this list. For some of them, I just could find an interesting card to make (Dennis Eckersley). Others played in Cleveland before they were called the Indians (Joe Jackson, Cy Young).