1963 Fleer

The 1963 Fleer set was cut short at just 66 cards. Topps won a court battle allowing it to have a near monopoly on baseball cards until 1981. Fleer had to cease printing cards after just one series. 

The '63 Fleer set has had loads of Cards That Never Were posted by multiple sources on the interwebs. I made nine different cards myself, which I posted on this blog and on my other blog, Rating The Rookies.  

Here are my 1963 Fleer cards of Ernie Banks, Ken Hubbs, Fritz Ackley, Curt Flood, Joe Shipley, Al Moran, Lee Stange, Don Zimmer and even Kris Kringle. 

Fleer themselves have made versions of these cards, too. They included this Mickey Mantle MVP card as an insert in its 1998 Tradition set.

Then again for its 40th anniversary in 2003 it included several very nice looking cards. Like these of Luis Aparicio, Lou Brock and Duke Snider::

Although the 2003 set included several players from 1963 it was annoyingly flawed. First, they changed the design slightly by shrinking the player sketch and coloring it white. Second was the inevitable Fleer Tradition logo on the top. But the biggest flaws were the players either in the wrong era uniforms, like Red Schoendienst and Willie Stargell,

 Or simply in black and white like Eddie Mathews and Frank Malzone:

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Ok, all that was a long-winded prelude to tease my next few posts. I am not going to try to complete the 1963 set. That would be insane (although possibly fun).  

 We've seen plenty of base/player cards that never were based on the 1963 Fleer set. But if it had expanded beyond the first 66 base cards into an entire set, what would the other elements of a complete set look like?

1963 Fleer Don Zimmer

Last week we lost one of the truly great baseball characters.  Don Zimmer was baseball. He was married at home plate to his high school sweetheart before a minor league game. He began playing professional baseball 1949 in the Brooklyn Dodgers farm system. He played Major League ball from 1954-1966. He played in Japan in 1966 then became a player manager in the Cincinnati farm system in 1967. He has been a coach or manager right up until his death last week at 83.

In 1962 Topps used a photo of "Popeye" wearing a Mets uniform but listed as a Red.

Zimmer only played 14 games for New York in 1962 before being traded to Cincinnati. In January 1963 the Reds traded Zimmer to the Dodgers. Topps once again used an airbrushed photo of Zimmer in a Mets uniform.

Although the Reds traded him before the start of the 1963 season, I decided to have his 1963 Fleer card depict him in a Reds uniform. Mainly because I have never seen a card with him as a Red.

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.