TBT - Texas Rangers Edition

Last month the Astros hosted the Rangers in an All-Texas turn-back-the-clock game. Both teams wore 1986 era uniforms. The Rangers actually had the same away greys from 1985-1993. Here ia my attempt to mimic the 1991 Donruss Nolan Ryan card.  Lucas Harrell cooperated by striking a similar pose.

Both Harrell and Ryan pitched for the Astros and the Rangers. Nolan led the league with 18 losses in 1973. Lucas led the league with losses in 2013 with 17.  He also led in bases on balls that year. Ryan led the league in walks nine times.  The similarities seem to end there. On the bright side, Ryan pitched until he was nearly 47.  Harrell is a relatively young 31 year old.  Things can change in 15 years.

TBT - St. Louis Cardinals Edition

Last Saturday the Cardinals celebrated the 90th anniversary of their 1926 World Series championship by wearing their 1927 "World Champion" uniforms. Cards from this era are scarce so I decided to copy the 1971 Laughlin World Series cards. 

These featured cartoon drawings of  players, highlights or factoids about the games. There were several different variations of these cards issued by Fleer in 1970, 1971 and again in 1980.  I chose third-baseman Jhonny Peralta to take the place of Hall of Fame player-manager Rogers Hornsby. 

Can't really compare the uniform to a cartoon so I included a photo of Hall of Fame pitcher, (Grover Cleveland) Pete Alexander. I found this colorized version posted on several pages on the interwebs and I am not sure who to credit with the colorization. As usual the main differences are the modern cut of the uniform including the shorter sleeves and of course the socks. Oddly the socks look closer to the cartoon than the photo.

TBT - Houston Astros Edition

This was a tricky one again. The Astros wore throwback uniforms reminiscent of their 1986 season. This was in honor of 1986 Cy Young award winner Mike Scott who threw out the first pitch. For this week's throwback Thursday card, I made a 1986 Topps card of Jose Altuve. The only problem is that the uniform they chose was rarely worn. It is very similar to the tequila-sunrise unis of the late '70s early '80s. But there are some differences.  As a result, I was unable to find a decent card for side-by-side comparisons.







The most obvious difference between this uni and the earlier versions is that it is paired with a black cap instead of the orange. Also the collar is entirely black instead of striped. And finally there is no number on the pants. As I said, it was a rare combination that the Astros used sparingly from 1983-1986. When looking for an old card to compare unis, the best I could come up with were some Mother's Cookies cards. So here is Nolan Ryan in a similar uniform on this 1985 Mothers Cookies Card.

TBT - Chicago Cubs Breakfast Cereal Edition

Guess what I found in my box of Rizzo's! A 1980 style 3-D Jake Arrieta. 

In the Chicagoland area you can still find boxes of Anthony Rizzo's Cereal at the local Jewel grocery store.  Unfortunately, they don't really have "Free Retro Baseball Cards". But they are packed with 8 essential vitamins and minerals plus the box is a "Collector's Edition".

On the 6th, The A's played host to the Cubbies for a 1980's throwback game. The Cubs wore their light blue pinstripes.  I found this card of Hall of Famer Bruce Sutter. Too bad it is a pre-bearded Sutter. It would have been nice to draw a comparison between the uniforms and the beards.

TBT - Oakland A's Edition

Last week the Swingin' A's hosted an Eighties party and invited the Chicago Cubs. Jake Arrieta spoiled their party by pitching 8 scoreless innings allowing only 4 baserunners. The Cubs beat the A's 4-0.  I tried to recreate Rickey Henderson's iconic rookie card for rookie shortstop, Marcus Semien. The uniforms looked great even though the hosiery was inconsistent, as has been the norm for these turn-back-the-clock games.  None the less, it was a very colorful, and fun to watch game.

TBT - Boston Red Sox Edition

On the MLB's "Turn Back the Clock" day, the Red Sox wore the uniforms of their pennant winning season, 1975.  There was much discussion about the choice of sleeve patch on Twitter. It is a Massachusetts Bicentennial patch. Did they wear it in 1975 or 1976? How come it is not on any 1976 Topps cards? Not even the World Series card?  

After a bit of "internet investigation" the answers are: yes and yes, just Topps being Topps, and because they didn't wear them during the World Series. When looking for pictures that showed the patch, I found these two press photos: The first shows Harmon Killebrew in a Royals uniform breaking up a double play. Rick Burleson appears to have the patch on his left sleeve. 

In the next picture we see Carlton Fisk sliding into home against Brian Downing of the White Sox. Downing is wearing the Sox's new for 1976 pajamas uniforms. Fisk also has that patch on his left sleeve. So we can determine this is from 1976 and since Killebrew only played in KC in 1975, we know these patches were worn both years.

As for why the patches are absent from the 1976 set, the best explanation has been repeated many time by fellow blogger, Jim from Downington, its "just Topps being Topps". Which is also why this 1978 Rick Wise card shows the patch two years after they stopped wearing them. There are plenty of photos from the 1975 World Series on the interwebs but none show the patch. So that explains its absence on the World Series card.

One final puzzle regarding the sleeve patch, Every card I have looked at has the patch on the left sleeve. Every card except for the 1977 Tom House card. So how did Tom House managed to have this patch on his right sleeve while everybody else's were on the left? The only explanation I can come up with is that he is a left hand pitcher. I found another left-handed pitcher wearing it on his right sleeve: "The Spaceman" Bill Lee.  

Additionally, Starmarket, a local supermarket chain, put out a team set of photos in 1976. These were studio shots of the players in their home jerseys without hats. Other than the wonderful collection of 1976 hair styles, you can see patches in most (not all) of the photos. Again the only two with the patches on the right sleeve were the two lefties, Lee and House. Although the patch is barely in view, you can see the edges of it on the right sleeve and its absence on the left.  It is clearly present on the left sleeve of Rico Petrocelli.

Before this turned into an investigation about which year and which arm this bicentennial patch was from, It was supposed to compare the look of Drew Pomeranz and Fergie Jenkins. The 1977 card has a nice view of the uniform and the offending patch on his left sleeve. I chose to compare these two because Pomeranz wears Fergie's old number 31. Fergie's number 31 is retired by the Cubs. He wore that number for the Rangers and the Red Sox after leaving Chicago but neither team has retired it.

The new uniforms look right but the proportions seem off. The chest lettering seems a bit smaller on the reproductions. Also given that Pomeranz is a lefty, shouldn't he have worn the patch on his right sleeve? Other than that, they look very good, one of my favorites this year.

TBT - Atlanta Braves Edition

Last week the MLB held a Turn Back the Clock day in 4 cities. Also known as Throwback Wednesday? One of the more peculiar match-ups was the Reds wearing their 2000 era uniforms playing the Braves in their 1970 era uniforms. Predictably the Reds uniforms looked very close to their 15 year old counterparts. The Braves on the other hand, not so much.  First of all the material is just wrong. Is it possible to duplicate that retro grey flannel look and still have the comfort and fit of today's uniforms? If somebody can figure that out, they may just have a goldmine. The other obvious difference was the lack of the Indian Brave on the sleeve.  

I chose to compare the homerun trot of Freddie Freeman against the homerun trot of Hank Aaron on his 1972 Topps In Action card for this week's TBT pairing.  You can see Ivan De Jesus Jr. in the background of the Freeman card sporting the Reds retro uniform. Although the inspiration for these two unis are three decades apart, the fit and the material makes it look like they could belong on the field together. Overall it was a pretty weak effort on the part of the Braves who have some of the best looking uniforms in baseball and some great throwback uniforms to choose from.

TBT - Baltimore Orioles Edition

On the Friday before the All Star break, the Orioles celebrated the 50th anniversary of their 1966 World Series championship. The team sported the same unis as their 1966 counterparts. Their opponents, the L.A. Angels didn't play along and just wore their everyday 2016 away uniforms.

The differences in the 1966 and 2016 uniforms are not dramatic. The main differences being the Orioles script on the '66 uni is slightly different and not underscored and the 2016 caps have a white field behind the cartoon bird. I chose to compare a picture of 2016 shortstop Jonathan Schoop turning a double-play with 1966 second baseman Davey Johnson doing the same. While looking for a Topps card that showed the Orioles home uniforms of this era, I came up short. Perhaps I should say Topps came up short. Although the Orioles uniforms changed in 1966 most cards from 1966-1970 showed home uniforms from 1965 or older or showed the away uniform. 

Rather than use a card from the early seventies to compare the uniforms, I made two Card That Never Were for this post. Davey Johnson was an obvious choice. Topps had included him on a "Rookie Stars" card in the 1965 set, the year in which he made his MLB debut. In 1966 Johnson had earned a starting role as second baseman for the World Series Champs and even a Rookie of the Year nomination. But he didn't earn his own Topps card. Instead he was put on a second, late series "Rookie Stars" card in 1966. So here is a second year card of Davey Johnson that would never have appeared in a 1966 Topps set. It is an action shot of him actually wearing a current uniform.

TBT - St. Louis Cardinals Edition

A couple weeks ago the Cardinals played the Mariners in a game featuring throwback unis. The Cards wore the away uniforms similar to those worn in 1977-78 and 1981-1984. For this Throwback Thursday I couldn't help but compare a couple of cats. First is a 2016 shot of Cardinals reliever Tyler Lyons in his throwback uni. 

The next is Jim Kaat in his 25th and final MLB season. Although by 1983 the 44 year old lefty was relegated to bullpen duty, most of his games were as a starter.  He had 180 career complete games and was a 20 game winner three times.  Kaat was also a perennial Gold Glove winner on the mound. He won 16 in a row from 1962-1977 for the Twins, White Sox and Phillies. He also was a four time All Star and was named the AL pitcher of the year by the Sporting News. In 1982 he finally got a World Series ring as a member of the Cardinals.

TBT - Seattle Mariners Edition

On June 25th the Mariners suited up in the uniforms they wore from 1981-1986. They played the Cardinals who also wore unis from the same era. The Mariners won 5-4. Ketel Marte singled to lead off the second and scored on a throwing error by Jhonny Peralta. 

I made this 1986 card of Marte to compare it to a similar card of the late Dave Henderson. Henderson was a first round draft pick of the Mariners in 1977. A career .258 hitter, Hendu put up big numbers after the regular season ended. He was .298 overall in the post-season and hit .324 with 4 homers in 20 World Series games. Unfortunately, we lost him just after last Christmas. He was 57. 

Just a note about the cards. The Mariners wore basically the same uniform design for home and away at that time. The only difference is the home was white and the away was grey. On the Hendu card, it looks more grey than white but you can see how well it matches the one Marte is wearing. The other thing is that Henderson is wearing #42. His last game was in 1994 and the MLB retired #42 in honor of Jackie Robinson in 1997. The last thing I want to point out is all the empty seats behind Henderson.  I know that the average MLB attendance has gone up dramatically since the mid eighties, but this is ridiculous.

TBT - Cincinnati Reds Edition

Last week the Reds donned their Big Red Machine era uniforms and officially retired Pete Rose's number. Although his number was never "officially" retired, the only other player to wear #14 since 1963 was Pete Rose Jr.  Junior played a total of 11 games for the Reds in September of 1997.

The Reds throwback uniforms were technically their 1976 uniforms. You can see the bicentennial patch on the right sleeve. But I liked the look of Joe Morgan's 1974 card and decided to mimic it using the Reds current second baseman, Brandon Phillips.

TBT - Tampa Bay Rays Edition

This past Saturday, the Rays broke out their "Faux-Back" uniforms and took on the Giants who wore their 1978-82 orange road uniforms. I decided to make a 1979 Kellogg's Card That Never Was for Evan Longoria. 

 Since these are fake throwbacks, I don't have a card to compare, but here is the cereal box, instead. It was Kellogg's 10th year of inserting 3D cards into their cereal boxes. Their sugary cereal was still begged for by card-collecting kids. They looked forward to finding Pete Rose, George Brett or Reggie Jackson among their Frosted Flakes while watching Scrappy Doo on Saturday morning before heading off to Little League. 

TBT - San Diego Padres Edition

Yesterday, Ichiro passed Pete Rose on the all time hits list. That is a total of both his hits in the Major League and the Japan Pacific League. When Rose broke Ty Cobb's record in 1985 he was playing against the Padres. Ichiro and the Marlins were also playing against the San Diego Padres.

The Padres were wearing throwback uniforms last night. It would have been just too perfect if these had been 1985 era unis but they were wearing their 90's era unis. The Padres wore this style from 1991-2001. Here is a 1993 Topps throwback card of Melvin Upton Jr. from yesterday's game. As a point of contrast here is the late, great Tony Gwynn on his actual 1993 Topps card.  Mr. Padre passed away two years ago today.  As usual, the exposed stirrups are missing. The other difference is the matte finish of the modern batting helmet.

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Bonus Thowback Thursday Contest

Last week I borrowed this card from The Phillies Room showing David Hernandez wearing the 1976 pillbox cap. 

I stated that I could not find a single baseball card from any year/manufacturer to feature that hat. The closest I could find was this cover of The Sporting News from 1976 featuring Larry Bowa.

So I put out this challenge: If anybody can find a card featuring this cap on a 1976 Phillies player or coach, I will send them ten '70s era cards from the team of their choice. 

It can be a local team issue card, a card from another team with a Phillie in the background, or even a recent "retro" card (IE Archives, UD Vintage, Allen & Ginter, etc.).  It just has to be an actual card that shows the Phillies pillbox cap.

 Just to be clear, I don't need the physical card just a link to a picture of it. On COMC.com, eBay or whatever.

TBT - Kansas City Royals Edition

This past week there were two games featuring uniforms from 1976. On Saturday the Indians hosted the Royals and both wore 1976 era unis.  Friday the Phillies donned their rarely used and even more rarely photographed pillbox hats along with their 1976 home uniforms. They played the Brewers in their 1976 era uniforms.

Here is a card from the Indians/Royals game of starting pitcher Ian Kennedy. Kennedy led the league in 2011 with 21 wins for the Diamondbacks. After the loss to Cleveland this past week his record for Kansas City is 4-4.

As a point of comparison, I chose this 1976 Topps card of Steve Mingori. Mingori was a bullpen pitcher for the Indians and the Royals from 1970-1979. Although his overall record was 18-33 he had a respectable ERA of 3.03. The uniforms look pretty similar but the way they are worn is fairly typical for the different eras. Kennedy wears his uniform much looser and Mingori is sporting the visible stirrups.

I chose to do the Royals TBT by default. I was beaten to the punch on the other three teams by two other bloggers. Both of whom have been doing these throwback style cards longer than I have. And both of these blogs are regular reads for me.

Over at The Phillies Room, Jim has created several 1976 Topps style "Chachi" cards to commemorate this game. I took his card of David Hernandez and put it next to a 1976 Topps card of Steve Carlton for comparison. The uniforms look almost right. It looks like the Phillies logo and number were a bit lower on the jersey and Carlton appears to be wearing a black belt instead of the color coordinated belt the Phillies normally wore.

As far as that pillbox hat, I could not find a single baseball card from any year/manufacturer to feature that hat. The closest I could find was this cover of The Sporting News from 1976 featuring Larry Bowa.

At The Shlabotnik Report, "Joe" posted cards of Jimmy Nelson of the Brewers and Tyler Naquin of the Indians in their full retro unis. I paired Naquin up with a 1976 Topps card of Charlie Spikes, one of the great names in baseball. Other than the helmet which is sporting the current logo, The uniforms look very good.

I had a tougher time finding a 1976 card that showed this version of the Brewers away uniform.  The best I could do was this head and shoulders shot of Rick Austin looking very 1976 in his Brewers trucker cap and "Boogie Nights" mustache. 

TBT - Chicago White Sox Edition Part Deux

Throwback Thursday

Ok this will be a quick and dirty post I will try to actually publish every Thursday. I will make a retro card of a current player from the era of the throwback uni he is wearing. I will also post an actual card from that era as a comparison point.

This is labeled "Part Deux" because the White Sox have had several throwback looks in the past few years (plus they are my favorite team). This one is from last season when they broke out the 1976 look (minus the shorts).  I had to do a little revisionist history to make this work. As a result we get two Cards That Never Were for the price of one.

First is Tyler Saladino, the Sox's back-up shortstop. I chose him because this is a nice action shot that shows of the 1976 throwback uniforms nicely. It also shows off a typical White Sox home crowd.

 Sad.




In the 1976 Topps set the Sox were understandably depicted in their 1971-1975 red uniforms. Also the cards color schemes reflected the team colors. Therefore I had to alter the 1976 Topps White Sox cards color scheme to go along with their new (for 1976) look.

For a comparison I needed to cheat a little. I found this great shot of Jorge Orta (with a cameo by Thurman Munson), so I used it to remake his 1976 Topps card with the modified color scheme.

TBT - Milwaukee Brewers Edition

Throwback Thursday

Ok this will be a quick and dirty post I will try to actually publish every Thursday. I will make a retro card of a current player from the era of the throwback uni he is wearing. I will also post an actual card from that era as a comparison point.

The Brewers have been wearing a version of their 1982 World Series uniform during Friday home games this season. I say a "version" because the general design is the same. But as you can see this is a modern button-down uniform. It lacks the polyester pullover and sans-a-belt slacks look they were sporting during that era. The new unis also have a name on the back which was missing on the original version.

I made this card of Chase Anderson. Anderson came to the Brewers in the off season in a trade that also brought second baseman, Aaron Hill. In exchange Milwaukee sent pitcher Tyler Wagner and shortstop Jean Segura. Although Segura and Hill have done well this season both pitchers have struggled. Anderson is currently 2-6 with a 5.33 ERA.

I chose 1982 Cy Young award winner Pete Vuckovich as a comparison card. Vuckovich was a colorful pitcher and a fan favorite for his antics on the mound.

That translated into a roll in "Major League", He played Yankees first baseman, Clu Haywood. One of my favorite lines of the movie is when announcer Harry Doyle (Bob Uecker) says "Heywood leads the league in most offensive categories, including nose hair. When this guy sneezes, he looks like a party favor".

Another interesting thing about Vuckovich is that he wore two different shoes. Not one for interviews means his motives are kinda sketchy. I read in one place that he claimed his feet were different sizes. But that wouldn't explain the different brands or why at first he wore different colors until the umpires put an end to it. You can see the 2 different shoes on this 1982 Milwaukee Police Department issued baseball card.