1972-73 O Pee Chee Hockey Award Cards

Cleaning Out the Closet: 

Part 3 - Abandoned Projects

Once again I find myself unable to post to this blog in a timely manner. So here are some more abandoned projects from the closet.

This one is a bit different. I made these and planned to use them individually but just got bored with the whole idea. So I'm dumping them all at once. It is similar to my take on the 1972 Topps award cards. I simply replaced the photo of the award with a photo of the award winner. 

So here are the cards I made but hadn't published yet:

 

I had already posted these 2 cards in earlier posts:

And here are the original cards from that set. As you can see there was no room for the player's name so I offset the photo similar to the regular issue cards of that year:

Boring, right? Aren't you glad I didn't drag this out over 5 more posts?

1954 Red Heart Willie Mays

New York Giants CTNW Favorites #1

Of course the number 1 New York Giant was the Say Hey Kid. Mays was fairly well represented on cardboard during his career. Even though he missed the entire 1953 season due to military obligations, he had a 1953 Topps card. In 1954 he was in both the Topps and Bowman sets. I chose to depict him on a 1954 Red Heart card. First because in 1954 the Giant were World Series Champs. There were a few other popular odd-ball cards I considered using. There were 1954 Dandee cards which were inserted into bags of chips, 1954 Wilson Franks cards which were inserted into hot dog packages. The Red Heart cards were inserted into dog food bags.

1949 Bowman Monte Irvin

New York Giants CTNW Favorites #2

Monte Irvin wasn't technically the first black player on the New York Giants. He made his first Major League appearance on July 8, 1949. The same day that Hank Thompson made his first appearance in a Giants uniform. (Thompson was also the first black ballplayer on the St. Louis Browns in 1947.) Thompson was the leadoff batter and Irvin came in to pinch hit in the top of the 8th. On that particular day the Giants were playing the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Dodgers by the, of course, had the great Jackie Robinson. In addition the Giants were facing  a black battery of Don Newcombe and Roy Campanella. The Dodgers beat the Giants that afternoon in Ebbets Field 4-3.

1954 Topps Leo Durocher

New York Giants CTNW Favorites #3

In 1954 Leo Durocher led the Giants to their first World Series championship in 21 years.  This was Durocher's only championship as a manager. He had won 2 pennants earlier. In 1941 with the Dodgers and in 1951 with the Giants. Both times he lost the World Series to the Yankees. In 1954 he beat Al Lopez's Cleveland Indians. For his efforts Leo won his 3rd and final Sporting News Manager of the Year award.

1952 Bowman Hoyt Wilhelm

New York Giants CTNW Favorites #4

Just 3 months shy of his 30th birthday, Hoyt Wilhelm made his major league debut. The "rookie" had already led a full life. He had played 8 years of minor league ball interrupted by a 3 year tour of duty during World War II. His MLB career would span 21 seasons and end just days before his 50th birthday.

In 1952 he finished 2nd in Rookie of the year voting to another reliever, Joe Black. Both pitcher had 15 wins. Although Black had a lower ERA with 2.15, Wilhelm was the 1952 Pitching Leader with a 2.43 ERA because Black was a few innings short of the minimum. In his first Major League at bat Wilhelm hit his one and only career home run.