1965 Alt-Topps Requests

Got quite a few good requests this month. I'll start with the one with the best back story. The request was from "KoolKards".  "Bob" questioned how I would stay true to the 1965 Topps team color schemes for teams like the Cards and the A's that featured black borders. The short answer is, I wouldn't. The black looks great in the original design. Here it just doesn't fit. And Finally "Buzz" steered me towards a backstory.

"KK" wanted the Hawk, and I had the perfect picture.  Gotta love the way he personalized his mitt.  I went with the actual team colors, yellow and green rather than what Topps used in 1965, black and red. The A's colors were black and red until 1964 and a handful of the players (including Harrelson) were still sporting the old colors on their 1965 Topps cards.

"Buzz" left a comment about the Hawk riding the A's mascot "Charlie-O" the Mule.  I dug in and found this great story and photo of him nearly getting bucked off the Mule.  Oddly the story also featured the same photo I had used for my card.

"HH99" wanted a first of many "career cappers" for Minnie Minoso. He initially played his "last game" in 1964. He played again in 1977 and again in 1980. I decided to go horizontal for this one. I could imagine a handful of horizontal cards sprinkled throughout this fictional set.

"Unknown" and "Old Cards" both wanted more All Stars. "OC" specifically wanted Pete Rose and Killebrew. Now Rose wouldn't be an All Star until the 1965 season.  I created a base card for him instead because he probably wouldn't have appeared on an All Star card until 1966.

But I did make one for Killer. I also included the Mick on the AL team. 

In the senior circuit, I made cards for Williams and Clemente. While I fell short of "Unknown's" request for all of the All Stars, Its a start.

After thinking about it for a bit, I decided "what the hell"?  Who really cares if my fake cards aren't 100% historically accurate?  I sure don't.  In fact right under the title of this blog it says "What cards would look like if I had my way". So here is an historically-inaccurate 1965 Pete Rose All Star.

So eight cards in and not even close to being done.  Of course "Buzz" had his usual challenges. These are all guys who spent most of their careers playing for other teams. But in 1965 found themselves on oddball teams.

Dick Stuart, an All Star for Pittsburgh and MVP candidate for Boston, spent one season in Philadelphia. The White Sox Gold Glove outfielder, Landis was traded to the A's in 1965 where he also spent only one season.

Lee Thomas was dealt from the Dodgers Angels to the BoSox mid 1964 and after the 1965 season he went to the Braves.  Long time Braves pitcher Warren Spahn pitched just 20 games in New York before joining the Giants in 1965. 

And Finally there was "Sweet" Lou Johnson who was called up by the Dodgers in 1965 after Tommy Davis broke his ankle. 

"Defgav" wanted one of my favorite players, Dick Allen.  Although that was his preferred moniker, he was still generally referred to as Richie in 1965. Similarly, Roberto Clemente (earlier in this lengthy post) was still called Bob on his Topps cards. I decided to keep both names, Richie and Bob, on the Alt Topps cards.

Last but not least, "Rumple" wanted Bob Miller and Greg Goossen.  Miller played 17 seasons in the bigs for 10 different teams. In 1964 he led the league with 74 appearances for the Dodgers.  Goossen was a bonus baby in the Dodgers farm system until 1965. The Mets picked him off waivers and the Dodgers won the World Series. Before the Mets World Series season in 1969 he was dealt to the Pilots, missing out on a ring for the second time.

1961 Topps Checklist - Cards That Never Were - 1st Series

You can't make fake cards without a fake checklist, just any baseball card geek. Here's my first 25 in order of appearance in this blog.

Topps started including checklists cards in the set in 1961. Prior to that they were on the backs of team cards or were un-numbered inserts. The 1961 checklists were really nice looking cards in their own right. They had nice panoramic action pictures. I feel compelled to include the originals on this post. Not only to ease my guilt for desecrating them for my own use, but also to solicit any information as to who the players are on these cards.

 On this one you can see the numbers. It's Pirates 1st Baseman, Dick Stuart and Cubs catcher Moe Thacker.

Here you can clearly see Ernie Banks standing on second but who is the Brave? and is that Don Zimmer tossing Banks the ball?

Another Cubs game. Could be Santo caught in run-down.  Is that Reds 3rd baseman Willie "Puddin' Head"  Jones? The Reds 2nd baseman was Billy Martin in 1960. Could he be on this card as well?

Here you can clearly see Ron Santo,  Don Zimmer, and pitcher Glenn Hobbie. I think that's Lou Boudreau arguing with the ump. I can't tell which Pirate is on base.

This looks like Banks sliding into Phillies Ted Lepcio at 3rd.

I'm not even sure which teams these are on this card.

That's Braves 2nd baseman Chick Cottier and I have to assume shortstop Johnny Logan. If anybody has more information on the players pictured on these cards, please leave a comment.