Cards That Never Were - 31st Series Checklist - Yogi Berra

Despite spotty posting at best recently, I have amassed more than enough cards to require another checklist. With the passing of Yogi Berra this past September, I decide to include his photo on this checklist.  Coincidentally, Yogi also appeared in this series. He was part of the All Star Game Honorary Captains series I created a couple months before his passing.  Given the retro seventies/eighties design of my checklist, I chose a photo of Yogi during his stint as a coach on the Astros. This series, as usual, includes several Cards That Never Were that were originally posted on my other blog, Rating the Rookies.  As always you can click here to see all the cards from this series in one page. 

1980 Topps Ken Griffey All Star MVP

Going Horizontal

Been gone for a while, but I have some unfinished business. Here is one of my running themes. I've been making horizontal cards in sets that didn't normally have them. For the subject I've been using the All Star Game MVP from that season. And yes, I do understand that the 1980 All Star MVP would not be included in the 1980 set, but my blog, my rules.  In 1980 the senior Griffey showed why the NL (at that time) was the "Senior Circuit".

Coming off a 48 home run season, the Cubs Dave Kingman was the fans choice in left field for the 1980 All Star game. But Kingman was also just coming off the disabled list with a shoulder injury. In the third inning Kingman re-injured his shoulder trying to throw Rod Carew out at second. Ken Griffey Sr. came in and went 2 for 3 with a homer. The National League went on to win their 9th straight All Star Game 4-2.

It ain't over 'til it's over....

With the passing of a baseball legend, I just wanted to pay tribute in the only way I know. Here are a couple cards I made in the past featuring Yogi.

Checking in with "Rating the Rookies"

This has been a busy time for me and I haven't really had the time to commit to this blog. Although I haven't been very busy on this blog, I have still been occasionally creating Cards That Never Were for my other blog, Rating The Rookies.

**********

Here is a 1975 Topps card for Lloyd Allen and a 1973 Topps card for Winston Llenas. They shared a 1970 Rookie Stars card while on the Angels. You can see that post here.

**********

Craig Reynolds, Lamar Johnson, Johnnie LeMaster and Jerry Manuel all share a Rookie Infielders card in the 1976 Topps set. 

 **********

Jim Miles and Jan Dukes were both on a Senators Rookie Stars card in 1971. Here they are representing the same team in 1968 and 1971 repectively.

**********

In the 1963 set Rogelio Alvarez, Dave Roberts, Bob Saverine and Tommy Harper share a Rookie Stars card.

**********

Sammy Ellis and Mel Queen were both on the 1964 Reds Rookie Stars card.

Do You "Bunt"?

Apparently, I do.   

I never really saw the point of collecting "virtual" cards. Especially since I've been making virtual cards for this blog for the past 4 years or so. But curiosity finally got the best of me and I had to check out Topps Bunt. To my surprise, I came across this Harmon Killebrew Topps Bunt Card using the same design I used for the 1971 Topps All Star Cards That Never Were.

 Admittedly, the design was not entirely mine. I lifted it from the World Series cards from that set. 

 Nonetheless, I'm kinda stoked that they used a design that I had a hand in creating. 

And I am not the only blogger who's CTNW designs were used by Topps Bunt. Over at The Baseball Card Blog, the writers created a 1965 Topps All Star set. Their design was also incorporated into Topps Bunt.  Here is their design. Basically they made an All Star designation for the regular issue 1965 cards. This is The Baseball Card Blog's version of a 1965 Topps Brooks Robinson All Star card: 

And this is the Topps Bunt version:

On these cards, Topps Bunt utilized the design element that we had also used to create our Cards That Never Were. But on this card of Yogi Berra, the entire card was identical to the one created by Uncle Doc's Closet. Here is the one by Topps Bunt:

And here is the Uncle Doc version:

Did some Topps intern not realize that this was a fake card? Or did he know it was fake and just didn't care? In reality, the design belongs to Topps in the first place and they probably actually paid for the rights to use Berra's image.

I can't speak for the other bloggers, but I am not the least bit upset, offended or otherwise outraged by the Topps Bunt versions of these cards. Quite the opposite. I'm hoping that they use more of our designs. The whole reason I made most of these cards is because I thought Topps should have made them themselves. With the recent addition of Archives, Heritage and now Bunt cards, Topps will have more chances to create the cards they missed the first time around.