1971 Alt-Topps

Here is another design that I only had a black and white image to work with. I tried to replicate it using a similar shot of the great Roberto Clemente. The Font is reminiscent of Topps 1971 football cards. That plus the photo of Clemente drove may decision to make this an Alt-1971 set. 

One quirk about this prototype is the oddly specific player position. Here it defines Clemente's position as "Right Field" instead of the more generic "Outfield".

As usual, I created base cards of the MVP and Cy Young Award Winners. In 1971 the NL Cy Young winner was Fergie Jenkins.  Always a workhorse for the Cubs, Jenkins led the league in complete games and innings pitched. He also led in Wins with 24. He also led in strikeouts to walk ratio with an outrageous 7.11 to 1. The next closest was Tom Seaver with 4.74 to 1.

The AL Cy Young winner was Vida Blue. Blue also had 24 victories and was simply lights-out in 1971. He led the league in Pitching Ratio and ERA, and averaged 8.7 strikeouts per 9 innings. His performance also garnered the AL MVP.

The NL MVP was cardinals third-baseman, Joe Torre. A Gold Glove catcher for the Braves, he was dealt to the Cardinals in 1969 after his offensive stats began to sag. The Cards made him a corner man and his numbers went right back up. In 1971 he led the NL in RBI's, Batting Average, Hits and Total Bases.

Since the AL MVP already has a card, I decided to make a base card of 1971 Comeback Player of the Year. This was Norm Cash's second time winning the award. In 1965 he hit .223 with 7 homers in the first half of the season.  In the second half he batted .307 with 23 dingers. After hitting .259 with 15 homers in 1970 his first half of 1971 rose to .293 with 20 homers and an All Star start.

Even More 1979 Alt-Topps

World Series, All-Stars and Leaders

Oddly, Topps did not have post season cards in the real 1979 set. Fortunately, I make the rules for the Alt-Topps version. After winning games 1 & 2, the Dodgers lost 4 straight to the Yankees.

For the 1979 All-Stars I changed up the base cards just a little.  Here is Sweet Lou giving Pudge a closer look at his spikes. I'm sure they laughed it off and had a few drinks together after the game, right?

Vida Blue crossed the bay in 1978 and Earned his 3rd All-Star start. He was the first pitcher to start in both leagues. Since then he's been joined by Clemens, Randy Johnson, Halliday and Scherzer.

In 1978 Ron LeFlore led the leagues in runs and stolen bases. In 1980 he would lead the NL in stolen bases with 97 for the Expos. Rounding out the top 3 are Julio Cruz and Bump Wills. Cruz had a career high 59 and would later play 2B for the 1983 "Winning Ugly" Sox. Bump was, of course, the son of stolen base artist Maury.

J.R. Richard won his first strikeout title in 1978. He repeated that feat in 1979. By 1980 he was out of the game. Tragic story. The other two are future Hall of Famers, Niekro and Seaver. 

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As usual, if you want to help me fill out this set, leave your suggestions in the comment section.  I'll create a few more cards for this set and post them later this month.

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.

1972 Topps All Star Cards : The Battery

For the first and only time (still) both All Star starting pitchers were African-American. Vida Blue was having an insane year in 1971. He clinched the Cy Young and MVP for the AL. He led the league in ERA and shutouts and came in second in wins and strikeouts. In the all Star game he gave up 3 earned runs in 3 innings on 2 homers. Johnny bench hit a 2-run homer in the 2nd and Hank Aaron soloed in the 3rd.

Doc Ellis fared about the same in the All Star game. After going nearly unscathed in the first 2 innings, he gave up 4 runs on 2 homers in the 3rd and was saddled with a loss in his only All Star appearance.

In his 6th consecutive All Star start, Bill Freehan handled the catching duties for 7 innings before turning them over to Thurman Munson. Always the workhorse, Freehan led the league with 144 games behind the plate for the Tigers in 1971.

1971 was an in-between year for Johnny Bench. He was the NL MVP in 1970 and 1972. For 1971 he would have to be content with his 3rd straight All Star start and his 4th straight Gold Glove. In the game he went 2 for 4 with a single and a 2 run homer.

1972 Topps Cy Young Award - Vida Blue

In 1972 Topps released 6 "Awards" cards. These cards had pictures of the trophies on them.  I always thought that was kind of strange. Over the next few posts I will be putting pictures of the award winners on the cards.  I added facsimile autographs to identify the players while trying to keep the original look of the cards.

It is a rare feat that a pitcher win the MVP award. However, since the creation of the Cy Young award in 1956, there has never been a pitcher who won the league MVP award then did not win the Cy Young award. Vida Blue went into the 1971 season with only 10 Major League starts under his belt. He went on to have his best season of a great career. He had career highs in wins 24, ERA 1.82, complete games 24, shutouts 8, and strikeouts 301.

1972 Topps MVP Award - Vida Blue

In 1972 Topps released 6 "Awards" cards. These cards had pictures of the trophies on them.  I always thought that was kind of strange. Over the next few posts I will be putting pictures of the award winners on the cards.  I added facsimile autographs to identify the players while trying to keep the original look of the cards.

Vida Blue went 24-8 with  301 strikeouts and a 1.82 ERA in 1971. He was also the winning pitcher of the mid-season classic that summer. Although the A's fell to the Orioles in the post-season, Vida and his teammate, Sal Bando were number 1 and 2 in MVP voting.