Topps All-Star Misses: 1961 AL Battery

In 1961 Topps had LHP Whitey Ford, RHP Jim Perry and catcher Earl Battey representing the AL battery. Only Ford was an actual Sporting News All Star in 1961. He was also the only starter in either 1960 All Star game, starting the second game. Bill Monbouquette was the starter in game 1.

Whitey For was the 1961 Sporting News All Star selection for left handed pitcher.  The right handed pitching selection was Tigers pitcher Frank Lary.

Righty Monbouquette started game one and southpaw Ford started game two.  In game one, the first lefty reliever was Bud Daley.  In game two the first right handed reliever was Ealy Wynn.

At catcher, Topps had Earl Battey, but the starter for both 1960 games was Yogi Berra. His backup from 1955-1959 was Elston Howard, who also platooned in the outfield for the Yankees.  But by 1960 he was getting the majority of starts behind the plate.  In 1961 he was named to the Sporting News All Star team at catcher. 

Who probably didn't merit inclusion in the 1961 Topps All-Star set, but was in it anyway?

Jim Perry was the runner up to Bob Allison for the AL Rookie of the year in 1959. In 1960 he led the AL with 18 wins. He was selected to the 1961 All Star team as a reserve. Earl Battey was a Gold Glove catcher for the Senators/Twins franchise in 1960 and 1961.  He was also 8th in MVP voting in 1960. That being said he wasn't an All Star in either season. Nor was he selected to The Sporting News roster.  So neither actually belong by my narrow definition.  If we only knew Topps definition...

Topps All-Star Misses: 1959 AL Battery

    My latest project is making All Star Cards That Never Year for the years 1958-62 and 1968-70.  During those years Topps decision making on these cards was haphazard and a mystery to everybody but Topps. They were NOT based on the current season's "Sporting News All Stars" nor the previous season's ASG starters.  So I've made additional cards based on this criteria.   

What started as an idea for a small project, ballooned to over 150 cards so I'll be posting these in small doses.  I'll be breaking it down by year, league (NL or AL), and positions (battery, infield and outfield).

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Early Wynn:

• 
  1958 All Star reserve.  Got the Win.
• 1959 Cy Young Award winner.
• Started 1959 All Star Game 1.
• 1959 All Star Game 2 reserve.
• Selected to 1959 Sporting News All Star team.
• Led AL with 22 wins in 1959.
• 3rd in MVP voting 1959.

Billy O'Dell:

• 1958 All Star reserve.  Got the Save.
• 1st Lefty to appear in 1958 ASG.
• 1959 All Star Game 2 reserve. 
• 1st Lefty to appear in 1959 ASG 2.
• Best AL Strikeout to Walk Ratio in 1958.

Sherm Lollar:

• 
  1958 & 1959 Gold Glove.
• 1958 & 1959 All Star Reserve.
• Selected to 1959 Sporting News All Star team.
• 9th in 1958 MVP voting.
• 9th in 1959 MVP voting. 

Who probably didn't merit inclusion in the 1961 Topps All-Star set, but was in it anyway?

Billy Pierce:

Once again, I gotta call out my own team, another White Sox player.  Billy Pierce was an All Star reserve in both 1959 and 1959 but never left the bullpen. He also wasn't selected to the Sporting News All Star team in either of those years.

1964 Topp Early Wynn - 30 Tribute Card Project - Part 8

This part 8 of a continuing 30 tribute card project inspired by this article from Sports Collectors Daily. In previous posts I have shown 4 cards that Topps had produced and 15 cards that I have found on various blogs pages. Now I have my turn:  

In the 1950s only 2 AL teams other than the Yankees saw post-season play. Both were managed by Hall of Famer Al Lopez and both had 20+ game winner and future Hall of Famer Early Wynn. At the age of 39 he won the Cy Young award. And he was a workhorse for the Go Go Sox, leading the league in Wins, Starts, Innings and Batters Faced. Like most of us, his performance declined steadily in his 40's and at the end of the 1962 season he was released by the White Sox with a career win total of 299. The Indians picked him up in mid-June and on July 13, 1963 he finally got his 300th victory. For the remainder of the season he was mostly used out of the bullpen. He would remain with the Indians as a coach through 1966.

 Here is the list so far. The Black X represents cards produced by Topps, The red X represents those made by other baseball card geeks, and the blue X represents the cards made by yours truly:

1.       1952 Joe DiMaggio X

2.       1956 Ralph Kiner X

3.       1957 Bob Feller X

4.       1957 Phil Rizzuto X
5.       1957 Jackie Robinson X

6.       1961 Ted Williams X

7.       1962 Jackie Jensen X

8.       1964 Stan Musial X

9.       1964 Early Wynn X

10.   1965 Duke Snider

11.   1966 Yogi Berra X

12.   1966 Warren Spahn 

13.   1967 Sandy Koufax X

14.   1967 Robin Roberts X

15.   1968 Whitey Ford

16.   1969 Rocky Colavito X

17.   1969 Roger Maris 

18.   1969 Eddie Mathews

19.   1970 Don Drysdale X

20.   1972 Ernie Banks X

21.   1973 Maury Wills X

22.   1974 Willie Mays X 

23.   1977 Hank Aaron X

24.   1977 Frank Robinson X

25.   1978 Brooks Robinson X 

26.   1978 Jim Wynn

27.   1980 Lou Brock

28.   1980 Thuman Munson X

29.   1984 Johnny Bench X

30. 1984 Carl Yastrzemski X

To be Continued......

1959 Fleer Early Wynn

In 1959 Fleer had an exclusive contract to produce Ted Williams cards. Topps could not make cards featuring the Splendid Splinter and Fleer couldn't make cards of virtually every other active Major Leaguer. Over the next few posts I plan to make Fleer cards that might have been. I'll take Cy Young Award winners and put them on Fleer sports cards that were issued before 1981 when Fleer and Donruss began competing with Topps.

Here is the 1959 Cy Young Award winner as he might have appeared on a 1959 Fleer card if Topps didn't have a virtual monopoly on baseball cards. I used the format of the 1959 Fleer Ted Williams set.

In 1959 Early Wynn won the Cy Young and led the AL in wins for the AL Champs, the Chicago White Sox. He also came in 3rd in MVP voting behind teammates Nellie Fox and Luis Aparicio.