Even More For 1963 Fleer

In my previous post I pointed out some other types of cards that might have been included in the 1963 Fleer set had it not been cut short due to Topps' lawsuit. In my last post I added manager, rookie and team cards. But what set would be complete without leader cards?

Again I made one example from the American League and one from the National. Not a bad selection of players either. Five out of six are in the Hall of Fame now.  I tried to remain true to the Fleer design, but when I was done it looks reminiscent of Topps 1964 Leader cards.

Also missing from the initial 66 cards were World Series cards. Not necessarily essential, but usually a source of action shots in the 1960's when most cards were posed. Again, one card example featuring the National League team, and one for the American League.

 I decided to go with black and white photos out of necessity. While I could find a few color photos of the 1962 Series. Topps colorized their WS cards in the early 60's but revered to black and white in the later part of the decade.

One of my favorite subsets, the All Star cards, were notably missing from the 1963 Topps set. When Topps did  include All Stars, they weren't often the starting All Stars from the previous season. Often they were labeled "Sporting News All Star" but often that wasn't the case either.

In my examples, both players were Sporting News All Stars in 1963.  Luis Aparicio played starting shortstop in the 1962 All Star Games while a member of the White Sox. In 1963 he was the backup to Zoilo Versalles . Johnny Edwards was the Sporting News All Star in 1963 but was a backup to Ed Bailey of the Giants in the 1963 All Star game. Edwards took over for Bailey as the Reds catcher in 1961 when Bailey was traded to the Giants. Edwards, a three time All Star and two time Gold Glove catcher was succeeded by Johnny Bench in 1968.

In the Original 66 cards was the rookie card of Maury Wills. On that card, instead of the usual player drawing, Fleer put "N.L. Most Valuable Player '62". They replicated that for their 1998 Mickey Mantle insert card. I made a Rookie of the Year card for Ken Hubbs using the same design.

While most sets of this era didn't have "Award" cards, it seem like a logical extension. So here is the other R.O.Y. from 1962, Tom Tresh and the 1962 Cy Young Award winner, Don Drysdale.

2016 NLDS: Cubs vs. Giants

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.

1976 Topps Robin Roberts

Robin Roberts was in seven straight All Star games and pitched 6 straight 20 win seasons for the Phillies in the 1950s. After a dismal 1-10 record in 1961 he was sold to the Yankees. He spent spring training with the Yanks but was released without ever seeing action in a regular season game. He was picked up by the Orioles where he went 42-36 over 3 and a half seasons. He spent the second half of 1965 and the first half of '66 with the Astros. The Cubs picked him in July of 1966. He went 2-3 and retired at the end of the season at the age of 40. He entered the Hall of Fame in 1976.

2003 Topps Gary Carter

This one is just rubbing salt in Mets fans' wounds. First the Giants eliminate them in the wildcard game, now they have to see Gary Carter in a Giants uniform. After 4 straight All Star seasons in New York, Carter struggled with injuries in 1989. He played in just 50 games and hit .183. After the season. He played three more years, 1990 with the Giants, 1991 with the Dodgers and in 1992 he retired after playing his final season in Montreal. The Expos retired his number 8. The Nationals un-retired it along with the retired numbers of Rusty Staub, Andre Dawson and Tim Raines. Fortunately, the Montreal Canadiens rescued them and they are hanging from the stadium rafters. 

Carter was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2003 on his sixth ballot. Hard to believe it took that many vote for an eleven-time All Star, five-time Silver Slugger, three-time Gold Glove and two-time All Star Game MVP.

30 Tribute Card Project - Part 2

     In my last post I wrote about the latest project I decided to take on. It is based on this article on the Sports Collectors Daily website. In that post I showed the cards on that list that Topps actually made in one form or another and was able to check numbers 1,3,8, and 20 off the list.    

    Today I am going to present cards made by fellow card geeks that I found elsewhere on the web. Some of these have multiple versions on the internet. I chose these particular cards in order to get a variety of the sites I like onto the list without too much repetition. 

    First is #5 on the list 1957 Jackie Robinson.  Robinson was traded to the Giants after the 1959 season. But Robinson had other plans. He had already decided to retire. This card was created by one of my favorite sites, Dick Allen Hall of Fame. Unfortunately that site has been idle for a while now but the creator is now working on the DickAllen15.com, the official Dick Allen website. 

   Topps produced a card of Robinson sporting a giants uniform as part of the 2009 National promo set. but for whatever reason the made it a 1959 card. This card just makes more sense.

     Next is # 6, 1961 Ted Williams. Williams retired after the 1960 season and he went out with style. He hit a homer in his last at bat September 28, 1960. This card is courtesy of  Keith Conforti. I've seen his cards in several locations on the web. To see most of them in one place, here is a link to his Picasa Web Album.

    #11 is the 1966 version of Yogi Berra. Berra had actually retired after the 1963 season to become the Yankees manager in 1964. After losing the World Series to the Cardinals, Berra was fired. He return as a "Player/Coach" of the Mets in 1965 but played in only 4 games. His 1965 Topps card listed him as catcher-coach. This card can be found on Uncle Doc's Card Closet. 

    A few cards on this list have been made by multiple collectors. #13 on the list is one of the more frequently produced. In fact I made a 1967 Sandy Koufax All-Star card myself not that long ago. This one comes from Bob Lemke's Blog. Bob is THE leader in creating Cards That Never Were. He has been producing them for years. 

 

     The #14 card on the list was created for White Sox Cards. As a White Sox fan and a fan of custom cards, I am a regular follower of this site. Robin Roberts was dropped by the Astros in July of 1966 after winning just 3 games in 12 starts. He didn't fare much better when the Cubs signed him 9 days later. He won 2 in 9 starts then hung up his cleats at the end of the season.  Still, it's always nice to see a Hall of Famer in a hometown uniform.

    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:

1.       1952 Joe DiMaggio X

2.       1956 Ralph Kiner

3.       1957 Bob Feller X

4.       1957 Phil Rizzuto

5.       1957 Jackie Robinson X 

6.       1961 Ted Williams X 

7.       1962 Jackie Jensen

8.       1964 Stan Musial X

9.       1964 Early Wynn

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

17.   1969 Roger Maris 

18.   1969 Eddie Mathews

19.   1970 Don Drysdale

20.   1972 Ernie Banks X

21.   1973 Maury Wills

22.   1974 Willie Mays

23.   1977 Hank Aaron

24.   1977 Frank Robinson

25.   1978 Brooks Robinson 

26.   1978 Jim Wynn

27.   1980 Lou Brock

28.   1980 Thuman Munson

29.   1984 Johnny Bench

30. 1984 Carl Yastrzemski

To be continued......

1976 All Star Game Honorary Captains: Robin Roberts & Bob Lemon

 To get myself in the mood for tonight's All Star Game here are 2 more Honorary Captains from the 1976 Midsummer Classic:

1976 Topps Robin Roberts All Star

Coinciding with the Bicentennial Celebration, the All Star Game was played in the city where the Declaration of Independence was signed, Philadelphia. Hometown hero, Robin Roberts was elected to the class of 1976 Hall of Fame and was made Honorary Captain of the N.L. Team.

1976 Topps Bob Lemon All Star

Bob Lemon was also voted into the Hall of Fame in 1976 and he Captained the A.L. All Stars. 

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.