Topps All-Star Misses: 1959 AL Outfield

In 1959 Topps' AL All Star outfield consisted of Mickey Mantle, Al Kaline and Roy Sievers. Of the three, only Mantle started in the 1958 ASG. Al Kaline was 9th inning defensive substitute for Ted Williams. The other two starting All Star outfielders were Bob Cerv of the Athletics and Jackie Jensen of the Red Sox.

In 1958 for Topps credited the All Star Selections to "Sport Magazine".  (They would repeat this in 1960.)  In 1959 the All Atar selections were supposedly from The Sporting News. This wasn't accurate either as Ted Williams was the only Sporting News All Star in 1958 to represent the American League outfield.  In 1959 the only AL outfielder selected was Minnie Minoso, who at that time was playing for the Cleveland Indians.

Who probably didn't merit inclusion in the 1959 Topps All-Star set, but was in it anyway?

Roy Sievers

He was not an All Star in 1958, but he finished 6th in MVP voting playing left field for the Senators. Sievers was primarily a first baseman in 1959. He was named a reserve in both All Star games that year, he only saw action in the first game as a pinch hitter. 

Topps All-Star Misses: 1960 AL Outfield

 In 1960 Topps had Mantle, Maris and Kaline as its AL All Star outfielders.  All three of them started one of the 1959 ASGs.  Kaline started game one,  Maris and Mantle started the second game.  That left three other 1959 ASG starters that did not have All Star cards in the 1960 set.  Minnie Minoso was the most egregious offense. He not only started all four ASGS in 1959 and 1960, but he was also a Sporting News All Star in both 1959 and 1960.

Rocky Colavito started the first All Star game in 1959 and was a reserve in the second game.  He led the AL with 42 homers in 1959 and was 4th in MVP voting.

Ted Williams would get his last All Star start in the second ASG of 1959.  By 1960 he was already under contract with Fleer and wouldn't have another Topps card until his manager cards in 1969.

Topps All-Star Misses: 1961 AL Outfield

Topps 1961 All-Star AL outfield contained  Mantle, Maris and Kaline.  Mantle an Maris both started in the two 1960 All Star games and were also 1961 Sporting News All Stars.  Joining them in the outfield for the 1960 games was the "Cuban Comet" Minnie Minoso.  The 3rd 1961 Sporting News All Star outfielder was Rocky Colavito.  Therefore both Minnie and Rocky were worthy of cards in this subset.

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

Al Kaline:

 Al Kaline, a future Hall of Famer played in both 1960 and both 1961 ASGs.  He even started the second 1961 ASG.  Plus he was an impressive 5 for 9 in the 4 games.  Nobody doubts "Mr. Tiger's"  bona fides. Since he was a starter in neither of the 1960 contests and he was not selected to The Sporting News All Star team in 1961 (or for that matter, not in 1960 either), his inclusion in this set is questionable.

Series 2 Packs - Sold Out!!!

Here is the second pack of physical cards from this blog.  I am selling these through this site for $10.00 per pack plus $4.50 shipping. Please use the link:

Sold Out

I was hoping to have these done by opening day.  I just barely made it. This group is split between my "Barrier-Breakers" series and some of the baseball legends we lost this past year.  You can also buy them individually on eBay. My seller's name there is ctnwblog_8.

So, what's in each pack?

12 Cards That Never Were plus a special insert.

The insert card is a 1969 Joe Morgan Deckle.

All cards are professionally printed.

Front and Back.

The backs are formatted in a style consistent with their year.

The front of the cards are glossy.

The backs are not.

These are similar in look and feel to the Topps Archives cards.

This pack is made up of cards from my "Barrier-Breaker" series, featuring the first Black player on each team.

It also includes some legendary players that we lost this past year.

For those that wish to buy the cards individually,

They are currently available on eBay. 

My user name on eBay is ctnwblog_8.

Don't forget to comment on my give-away post for a chance to win a 1968 Gibson, or Seaver or BOTH!

Barrier Breakers: 1951 Minnie Minoso - Chicago White Sox

 

Although Orestes "Minnie" Minoso broke the color line for the White Sox in 1951, he made his MLB debut on the Indians in April of 1949. He hit .188 in 20 plate appearances with 2 walks and 2 hit-by-pitch. He spent the rest of '49 and '50 in San Diego of the PCL hitting .297 and .339 respectively. That earned him a short-lived promotion to the Indians in 1951.  It was short-lived because he was dealt to the South-Siders in a six-player, three-team swap. Once on the Sox, he batted .324 with 10 homers and 74 RBIs.  He also led the league with 31 stolen bases and 14 triples, was 4th in MVP voting and second in Rookie of the Year voting.

Minnie is a favorite of mine and has been featured on this blog several times.  This 1951 Bowman first appeared here in August of 2011.  I also made a 1951 Topps card for him as an Indian.

I've made several cards of the Cuban Comet over the years, but wanted to find another to make for this post.  I settled on a 1965 "Career Capper".  I considered a 1963 Fleer card featuring him on the Senators because he doesn't have a card in a Washington uniform.  But decided that this post was about the White Sox.  That'll be a project for another day.

MLB Dream Bracket Alt-Topps Cards Part 2

Another simulated game featuring the All-Time lineups of the White Sox and the Royals begins today at 10 am Eastern time.  And again I put together 4 cards of each team, One pitcher and three position players. For the Sox I took the knuckler, Wilbur Wood, Minnie Minoso, Luke Appling and Carlton Fisk.  For the Royals I have the side-armed Dan Quisenberry, George Brett, Bo Jackson and Freddie Patek.

The cards themselves a based on an unused Topps prototype, presumably from the late sixties. And more info on the games themselves can be found here,

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.