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.

Cards That Never Were - 33rd Series Checklist - Milt Pappas

These things come around quickly with 2 separate blogs contributing to the Cards That Never Were. Twelve of these cards are from my sister site Rating The Rookies. Other notable subsets are league leader cards that never were and my latest theme, Throwback Thursday. As usual you can look at all the cards in this series without all those boring words by clicking here.

On this checklist, I used an inset photo of Milt Pappas. Pappas passed away this April at the age of 76. He pitched a no hitter for the Cubs in 1972 which was one questionable ball away from a perfect game. The three time All Star pitched for the Orioles, Reds, Braves and Cubs from 1957-1973.

Below is a terrific shot of Pappas and Cubs teammate Glenn Beckert at the 100th anniversary of Wrigley Field in 2014. It's worth a thousand words.

TBT - Chicago White Sox 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.

This should be labeled Part 1 because the White Sox  have so many throw back looks. Add that to the fact that they are my team, and you know there will be others.

Back in April, the Sox wore their home alternate uniforms. These are basically the same design as the 1983 "Wining Ugly" unis. Here is Adam Eaton in his throwback uni on a 1983 Topps Card That Never Was. On the inset, head-shot I used a photo of him wearing the spring training cap. The retro "Batter Up" logo is actually from this era as well. It was never on the cap but was on the warm-ups and the jackets.

As a point of comparison, I included this 1983 Topps Harold Baines card. As you can see the uniform is pretty close. The 50th anniversary (1933-1983) All Star Patch is on Eaton's left sleeve but the right sleeve has a black diamond "Eddie" patch in memory of Eddie Einhorn. Einhorn was a long time Sox Vice Chairman who passed away earlier this year.  Also in 1983 they were still sporting the Sans-a-belt look. This was a look the Sox chose to leave out of the current version.