1964-65 Topps Hockey Checklist - Cards That Never Were - 23rd Series

The majority of this series is the seemingly never ending stream of 1973 All Star cards. The truth is I really enjoyed playing around with this set and creating different cards that were consistent with the original set designs. I followed that theme up with a football and a hockey card. I keep vowing to myself that I will incorporate more football and hockey cards into this blog but I always fall short. If nothing else, there are some nice looking football and hockey checklist cards that I can adapt. This one in particular I had to really squeeze to fit all 25 cards. But I think it was worth it.

1972-73 Topps Conn Smythe Trophy - Bobby Orr

In the 1972-73 hockey set Topps made cards of the trophies rather than the trophy winners. This is similar to what they did in their 1972 baseball set. A while back I updated those cards to make them more appealing to me. Now I am giving the same treatment to the hockey cards. 

The Conn Smythe Trophy is given to the MVP of the Stanley Cup playoffs. In 1972 it was awarded to Bobby Orr of the Boston Bruins. Orr actually accumulated quite a bit of hardware for his 1971-72 efforts, but more on that later. The card itself originally looked like this:

I modified it a bit to include the player's name while trying to be consistent with the set. Here is Bobby Orr's base card from that set:

1957 Topps Jim Brown

In 1957 Jim Brown was named the NFL Rookie of the Year by the United Press as well as the Most Valuable Player by the Associated Press and The Sporting News (Y.A. Tittle was the UPI MVP). The Cleveland Browns 1st pick (6th overall) led the league in rushing his rookie year. He would go on to be the league leading rusher in 8 of his 9 years in the NFL.

I think Topps missed an opportunity when making their 1994 Football Archives set. They could have included cards like this one and cards of the other key players and rookies missing from the original set similar to the Baseball Archives sets.

In 1955 United Press International began recognizing the top rookie in the NFL. Since then there have been several incarnations of the NFL Rookie of the Year award. Many of them were overlapping. But NFL cards have lagged badly. Oddly the very first ROYs were included in the 1955 Bowman and 1956 Topps sets.

But from 1957 until 1988 there was exactly 4 ROYs included in all the sets from Topps, Fleer and Philadelphia. 1 NFL and 2 AFL ROYs from Topps and 1 AFL ROY from Fleer.

 It wasn't until 1989 when rookies began to appear.  In 1989 Topps added a "Traded" series. That series was in response to the new competition from Score and Pro Set who included several rookie players in their sets. 

1973 Topps All Star Cards - American League West

The Oakland A's is where I really have to stretch this concept. With seven All Stars (including coach Dick Williams) but only 1 starter, I attempted to make a manager/coach type card. But 6 photos were too many to squeeze into the coach boxes. This was the next best option.

For the White Sox I was able to use the same format as the Mets. With Dick Allen Starting and May and Wood in reserves, this style fit nicely.

Carew was the sole representative from the Twin Cities so I didn't need a new card for him.

The Royals boasted 6 All Stars but no starters. One of the more questionable moves of the All Star game was when Cookie Rojas pinch hit for Rod Carew against Bill Stoneman. Having a right hander who was hitting .261 in 1972 pinch hit for a left hander who led the league in batting average, against a right handed pitcher? Crazy, right? Nope, 2 run homer! Earl Weaver is a mad genius.

Nolan Ryan was the sole rep of the California Angels but never saw action. I broke from using action shots on the individual All Star cards because this is just a great picture. Ryan never actually played in this uniform. By 1972 the hats had a capital "A" and they had adopted the same elastic waistband look that dominated baseball in the 1970s. This must have been a promo shot after his trade in 1971 or possibly they were still wearing these unis in spring training in 1972. Either way it was too cool to pass up.

In their first year in Texas, the Rangers sent Toby Harrah to represent the team in the All Star game. He didn't play.

1973 Topps All Star Cards - National League West

The Reds had 2 starting All Stars on their roster, Johnny Bench and the All Star MVP Joe Morgan. Clay Carroll and Gary Nolan were both reserves. For Nolan it was his only All Star game. For Carroll it was his second and final. Neither pitcher left the bullpen.

Don Sutton was the Dodgers' sole representative in the 1972 game. He pitched 2 scoreless innings giving up only 1 hit no walks and striking out 2.

Both Astros would play a part in the NL win in the 1972 ASG. Cedeno came in to relieve Willy Mays in centerfield in the 6th. He would single and score an Hank Aaron's 2 run blast to put the NL ahead in the 6th inning. Lee May was the starting first baseman for the NL and drove in the tying run in the 9th.

Hank Aaron was the only Brave on the NL roster. 

The Giants were represented by Chris Speier and manager Charlie Fox who acted as 3rd base coach in the 1972 ASG.

Nate Colbert scored the winning run in the wrong uniform. In 1972 both the home and away uniforms for the Padres were mustard colored the only distinction between home and away was that the home unis had "Padres" across the chest while the away had "San Diego". Colbert wore the one with "San Diego" despite playing in Atlanta with the NL hosting.