Topps All-Star Misses: 1969 AL Outfield

In 1969 the Topps AL All-Star outfield included Carl Yastrzemski, Tony Oliva and Willie Horton.  Of those three, Yaz and Horton were starters in the 1968 All Star Game. None of them were named to the 1969 Sporting News All Star team.  Joining Yaz and Horton as a starter in the 1968 outfield was Hondo. Frank Howard was also a 1969 Sporting News All Star selection. This makes his omission even more glaring.

Joining the "Capitol Punisher" on the 1969 Sporting News Roster was Paul Blair.  Blair had a career year in 1969.  He had personal bests in Hits, HRs, RBIs and slugging.  He also earned his 2nd of 8 Gold Gloves and was 11th in MVP voting.

Rounding out The Sporting News All Star Selections for the AL outfield was Reggie Jackson. Despite making his MLB debut in 1967, Jackson didn't have a Topps card until 1969.  How cool would it have been if he also had an All Star card that year? He certainly deserved it, as he was also a starter in the 1969 MLB All Star Game.

Who probably didn't merit inclusion in the 1969 Topps All-Star set, but was in it anyway?

Tony Oliva

The newly minted Hall of Famer, Tony Oliva was on the All Star team every year from 1964-1971, but he wasn't a starter in 1968 or 1969.  He wasn't selected to The Sporting News in 1968 or 1969 either. A great player with a great list of accomplishments, but he just doesn't belong here.

1973 Alt-Topps

Time for some more rejected Topps prototypes.  Despite the name on this one, there is no mistaking the great Yogi Berra.  Given the uniform, I decided to make this into a 1973 Alt-Topps set.  To the right is my best attempt at cleaning up this mockup card. The fonts aren't an exact match but capture the intent. The style is somewhat reminiscent of the 1972 Topps football set (albeit a more pedestrian version). It seems pretty basic especially by today's standards but still adaptable to many different uses.

In case you are wondering "Who is Len Brown?" He was a long-time Topps employee credited with writing the bios on the backs of cards among many other duties. There is a terrific article about him here.

As usual, I've made cards of the eventual MVPs and Cy Young award winners.

The AL MVP was Mr. October.  But in 1973 he had yet to live up to that name. Although the A's won the 1972 World Series, Reggie did not play.  He was injured on a double-steal.  He collided with Bill Freehan in Game 5 of the ALCS.

In The NL it was Charlie Hustle. In 1973 Rose led the league with a .338 batting average and a career high 230 hits. 

Jim Palmer won his first of 3 career Cy Young awards in 1973. He won 22 games and led the AL with a 2.40 ERA. He also came in second in MVP voting to Reggie Jackson.













Tom Seaver was also the recipient of three career Cy Young awards.  In 1973 he won his second. He won 19 games, and led the league in strikeouts, ERA, WHIP and complete games. I went with a horizontal version and this psychedelic picture from his 1972 Sports Illustrated photo shoot.

To be continued...

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Just as I've done in previous Alt-Topps posts, this post contains the base cards, I'll make a couple more posts with various subsets. And, of course, I'll make as many request as I can an hopefully post them in a few weeks. Just post your requests (or even ideas for other subsets, etc) in the comment section.  Thanks.

The 1980 Donruss Set That Never Was

We all know that Topps monopoly on baseball cards was broken up by a court ruling in 1980. In 1981 we had Fleer and Donruss cards as well as Topps.  In anticipation of the ruling Donruss created these 1980 prototypes.  These can still be found. A quick look at COMC.com shows this panel currently selling for $855.28. (not sure what the 28 cents is for, postage?)

The panel included Reggie Jackson, George Brett and a blank template.  I wasn't the first and I probably won't be the last to use this template for card creations. I made a card of Dan Quisenberry back in 2014 using this design. I've also seen a few other custom cards using this format on the interwebs.

Elements of this design made it into the 1981 Donruss set. Here is a Cy Young Card of Steve Carlton.  You can see the similarities in the banner design.

You can also see the similarities in the banner design of the 1980 Topps cards. If this had been released in 1980, I could see Topps taking issue with the design.

The photos they used also made it into the 1981 set. A cropped version of the Reggie photo made it onto one of his three base cards. 

Donruss even had a bit of revisionist history in regards to the 1980 set. In 2002 they came out with a 1980 "What if?" set including this Reggie Jackson card. It didn't resemble the 1980 prototype at all. 

The Brett photo found its way onto two cards in 1981, his base card and his MVP card.

A cropped version of the same photo can be seen here on an advertisement for the new 1981 Donruss cards.

Okay, that's enough for the baseball card history segment of this post.  The reason I am posting this in the first place is to make these prototypes into a complete set.  

I'm going to follow my normal template of making base cards of the eventual season MVPs and Cy Young award winner.  Then in subsequent posts, I'll fill in the various other elements that make a complete baseball card set.

In the AL, George Brett won the MVP in 1980. That card has already been made for us.  In the NL it was another big hitting third baseman and future Hall of Famer, Mike Schmidt.  You can see my adaptation of the prototype's design.

The Cy Young Award winners were Steve Stone and Steve Carlton. For Carlton this was his 3rd of 4 Cy Youngs. His 24 wins helped the Phillies to their first ever World Series Championship. He was also 3-0 in four post season starts.  Steve Stone was having a career year in Baltimore. He had a 25 wins. That was a full ten wins more than his previous high of 15 with the 1977 Southside Hitmen. He also had a career high of 149 strikeouts. Tendinitis in his shoulder dropped his numbers to 4-7 in just 15 games in 1981. He retired at 34. 

For Donruss, the first few years the set was, well, basic. They didn't have designated rookie cards, or team cards, or leader cards, or all-stars, or post season cards. You get the idea.  My 1980 set that never was will have all that and more.  Those of you that actually read this far into the post can of course request cards as usual or even submit ideas for subsets that I didn't include.

To be continued....

It's Like Deja Vu All Over Again

MLB Dream Bracket Alt-Topps Cards Pt. 12

Yankees v Reds

In a surprise to absolutely nobody, the All-Time Yankees were the Dream Bracket winners. They beet the Reds in seven games.  After falling behind three games to two, the Bombers won game 6 on a Joltin' Joe homer in the 8th inning. The complete story and video is here.

Overall, I felt the Bracket would have been more interesting if they had also teamed up with MLB: The Show.  This is what the Players'Association did.  The graphics would have made this more interesting to watch. But I kept myself amused making 149 different cards to go along with this.

Now we need to get back to real baseball.

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These cards are base on the MLB Dream Bracket.  Not sure who picked the "all-time players". It is a product of Twitch, Out of the Park and Draft Kings.  I take no responsibility for their choices, good or bad.  The cards themselves are based on a rejected Topps design from the late sixties.

To check the status of the bracket click here.

More 1976 Alt-Topps

Managers / Team Cards, Rookie cards and Traded

 I was unimpressed with what turned out to be the base cards in this set.  However as I created the subsets based on the mock-up, the design became more appealing.

I included the manager in the team card similar to the Topps team cards from 1975-1981 (except for 1978). 

Of course I had to use the famous Cubs floaty-head style team card.

In 1976 the AL Rookie of the Year was Mark (The Bird) Fidrych. In the NL Pat Zachry and Butch Metzger tied for the honor. Since all three were pitchers, I put them on the same card. I threw in a future Cy Young award winner, Pete Vuckovich, to round out the rookie card.

I think it was mandatory that I include the card that famously wasn't included in the original 1976 Topps Traded set, Reggie Jackson.

 Vada Pinson never actually saw any action in the 1976 season. He was released by the Brewers at the end Spring Training.  This would be the last stop in a great career for him. 

Even More 1972 Alt-Topps

World Series, All-Star, Leaders and Traded Cards

I'm not done yet. 

Here is what I imagine the World Series cards would look like in my Bizzaro Universe 1972 Topps set.

And the All Star cards.  I went with a Detroit Tigers color scheme because the 1971 classic was played at Tiger Stadium.  Hard to believe that 1971 is still the only season in which both starting pitchers were African-American. 

As a side-note, the Pirates fielded a line up that featured African Americans in every position also in 1971 for the first time in MLB history.  This wasn't done with any forethought of creating history as most of the regular line up featured black players. It was more of a happenstance due to injuries.

For the Leaders cards, I adopted the format Topps used in 1970 and 1971.

In the real 1972 set Topps began making late-series Traded cards. I mimicked that here using the original concept model, John Mayberry and another famous guy who wasn't in the original 1972 Topps Traded sub-set.

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I thought I'd try something different. Just wondering if anybody actually reads this all the way to the bottom. If you did, I'll take a few requests for this alternative set. If you have a player you'd like to see, base or sub-set, just post it in the comments before October 15th.  Then I'll do what I can to create those cards and make a final posting under the 1972 Alt-Topps heading by the end of the month.

2016 A.L. Wildcard Game: Orioles vs. Blue Jays

For the 2016 postseason I am making Cards That Never Were of Hall of Famers from each team but with a couple of twists. The first twist is that they will appear on cards that coincide with the year they were inducted into Cooperstown. The second twist is that these are not the teams they are best known for playing.

Tonight is the first wildcard game with the Orioles taking on the Blue Jays. For this match up I have chosen a couple of former teammates and two players who are often mentioned when it comes to which hat should be worn on your HOF plaque.

1993 Topps Reggie Jackson

First representing the Orioles is Reggie Jackson. Jackson spent the 1976 season in Baltimore. In all Jackson played 21 seasons and in 2820 games. Only 134 of them in an Orioles uniform. And despite the fact that he played more games for the Kansas City/Oakland A's (1346) and the California Angels (687), he chose a Yankees cap for his HOF plaque. He played 653 games in New York and was inducted wearing a Yankees cap in 1993.

2001 Topps Dave Winfield

Dave Winfield, who played with Jackson onthe Yankees in 1981, is here representing the Toronto Blue Jays. His only season with the Jays was in 1992 and also got him his only World Series ring. Winfield played 153 of his 2973 career regular season games in a Blue Jays uniform. When he was enshrined in 2001 he chose to wear a Padres cap. He had played 9 season and 1172 games for the Yankees and 8 seasons and 1117 games in San Diego. A much closer divide than Reggie's but it still caused outrage in New York. Those poor Yankees, always ignored by the mainstream media.

1976 Hostess Reggie Jackson

Baltimore Orioles CTNW Favorites #5

It's been a while since I've put together a top 5 "Fan Favorites" set. Just as a reminder, these are not necessarily the 5 best players from the franchise. They are just cards I decided to make of players that I like. So as David Letterman used to say before Stupid Pet Tricks, "This is only an exhibition. This is not a competition. Please, no wagering."

Reggie's season in Baltimore was never really preserved on cardboard. Although there have been several custom cards created in honor of his single season in Baltimore, this might be the first custom snack-cake-card. 

Reggie Jackson was traded to the Orioles just days before the start of the 1976 season. After the season he was granted free agency and went to the Yankees in November of 1976. Topps went from having him in an A's uniform on his 1976 issue to a poorly airbrushed Yankee uniform on his 1977 issue. 

Topps did created a pre-release proof card of him in an Orioles uniform but on a Yankees card.

By the time the actual set was released the photo was replaced with the airbrushed version.

There have been several versions of Cards That Never Were of Jackson as an Oriole including this alteration of the Topps proof card found on Camden Chat:

There have also been several custom cards of Jackson on 1976 Topps cards. Here are 4 I found with a quick google search. The 2 regular issue Topps cards are Bob Lemke's, the 1st traded card comes from White Sox Cards, the 2nd from The Baseball Card Blog. 

1973 Topps All Star Cards : American League Outfield

After winning the MVP in the 1970 All Star game, Carl Yastzemski went 0-3 in both the 1971 and 1972 midsummer classic.

Bobby Murcer hit a career high 33 homers in 1972 and was awarded the Gold Glove. In his 2nd All Star game he was hitless in 3 at bats.

Reggie Jackson had a double and a single in the 1972 All Star game but was stranded on base both times. In the 1972 ALCS Jackson stole home in game 5 to help the A's win the pennant, but the hamstring injury sustained on that play prevented him from playing in the World Series.

1982 Donruss Reggie Jackson

California Angels CTNW Favorites #2

When Reggie Jackson became a free agent after the 1981 season, he expressed his desire to return to the west coast. Angels owner, Gene Autry signed him to a 5 year  contract. Reggie had another All Star season and tied Gorman Thomas for the league lead in home runs. The Angels won their division but lost the AL pennant to the Milwaukee Brewers.

Although the Angels signed Reggie Jackson in January of 1982, none of the major card companies had cards showing him on his new team. Only the 1982 Topps Traded set showed Jackson in an Angels uniform. In 1982 Topps was still the only card company with an update set.

1967 Topps Athletics Rookies - Jackson & Kubiak

Kansas City Athletics CTNW Favorites #2

By 1967 there were signs of things to come for the A's. Charlie Finley bought the team in 1960 after Arnold Johnson's death. He immediately swore off trades with the Yankees and in the midst of several marketing gimmicks he began rebuilding the team. 

When the amateur draft began in 1965 the A's drafted Rick Monday. In 1966 they drafted Reggie Jackson and in 1967 Vida Blue. The '67 team had several young players who would be part of the championship teams of '72, '73 and '74. They had a 25 year old Bert Campaneris, a 23 year old Sal Bando, a 22 year old Blue Moon Odom, a 21 year old Catfish Hunter, a 21 year old Dave Duncan, and a 20 year old Joe Rudi. 

They also had 2 players making their major  league debut in Reggie Jackson and switch-hitting utilityman Ted Kubiak. Jackson would not have a Topps card until 1969. Although I have seen plenty of very good 1968 Topps Reggie Jackson Cards That Never Were, I haven't seen a 1967 version. He was the #2 overall pick in the 1966 draft. He hit 23 homers in just 68 games while averaging just under .300 as a minor leaguer in 1966. Evidently this wasn't enough to convince Topps to include him on a 1967 card.  

Sunday Shout-Out

This will be a regular feature of this blog. I have a number of sites that I like checking out. There are so many people making Cards That Never Were. I will try to link people who happened across my blog to these other sites. For my first "Shout-Out":

White Sox Cards:

This is one of my favorite blogs and one of the main reasons is because of his version of "Cards That Never Were". He includes many pre-rookie cards and star players on unfamiliar teams with a slant toward Chicago players and teams. 

  

He also created "WSC Birth Year Cards". These feature recent White Sox players on cards issued in their birth year.

Please click on the links above to check out all of his creations and be sure to check his blog for other cool cards plus White Sox game summaries.