1965 Topps Combo Card: Dynamic Duo

One more custom combo card to round out the week. Perhaps a few more next week...

1965 Topps Combo Card: Athletic Aarons

"Big League Buddies" strikes again, this time with Hank and Tommie Aaron of the Milwaukee Braves.

1965 Topps Custom Combo Cards

I love combo cards, those goofy-titled cards of more than one player. As I've moved toward downsizing my collection, combo cards have become a major focus.

I also love 1965 Topps. It's one of my favorite sets, yet it's the only Topps set from the 1960s without combo cards. Go figure.

Therefore, I've decided to remedy the situation with a few custom combo cards for 1965 Topps. Here's the first.

When an All-Star is not an All-Star: NL edition

If you were like me, you blindly accepted the Topps All-Star team subsets as factual representations of real life. In the Topps universe, Shane Rawley and Dwight Gooden were All Stars in 1987, since they were included in its 1988 All-Star subset. And yet, neither of them was an All Star in 1987.

Rawley was an All Star in 1986, and he did have a great 1987 season, posting a career-best 17 wins for the mediocre Phillies. But that's not the point. The point is that Topps unilaterally decided that the voters got it wrong when they put pitchers not named Rawley or Gooden on the team. Or maybe Topps didn't want to make an All-Star card of Sid Fernandez? It's all unclear, but it got me thinking.

Just how many of Topps's 1988 All Stars were actually on the 1987 teams? Let's look at the starting lineups.

1. Eric Davis                   LF       1. Rickey Henderson             CF
2. Ryne Sandberg                2B       2. Don Mattingly                1B
3. Andre Dawson                 CF       3. Wade Boggs                   3B
4. Mike Schmidt                 3B       4. George Bell                  LF
5. Jack Clark                   1B       5. Dave Winfield                RF
6. Darryl Strawberry            RF       6. Cal Ripken                   SS
7. Gary Carter                   C       7. Terry Kennedy                 C
8. Ozzie Smith                  SS       8. Willie Randolph              2B
9. Mike Scott                    P       9. Bret Saberhagen               P

For the National League, Dawson, Smith, Clark, and Steve Bedrosian got Topps All-Star cards, and over in the American League, Randolph, Bell, Winfield, Mattingly, Boggs, and Tom Henke got cards. Tony Gwynn, Juan Samuel, Tim Raines, and Tim Wallach, represented in the Topps All-Star lineup, were NL reserves, and Kirby Puckett, Matt Nokes, and Alan Trammell, all three Topps All Stars, were reserves for the American League. But Benny Santiago? Not an All Star. Roger Clemens? Not an All Star. Jimmy Key? Dwight Gooden? Nope and nope. And no Shane Rawley, either.

The other side of that meant that Eric Davis, Ryne Sandberg, Mike Schmidt, Darryl Strawberry, Gary Carter, Mike Scott, Sid Fernandez, Mark Langston, Rickey Henderson, Cal Ripken, Terry Kennedy, and Bret Saberhagen weren't in the regular Topps All Star subset. (They were included in the Glossy All-Star mail-away set and the glossy All Stars found in rack packs, but so what? Not everybody had the cash to send away for the larger All Star set, and it wasn't a guarantee that your drugstore carried rack packs (which were also more expensive than wax packs).)

One of Topps's "things" would be to include an All-Star right-handed starting pitcher and an All-Star left-handed starting pitcher in their All Star subset. So for the NL, these should have been Mike Scott (RHP) and Sid Fernandez (LHP). And for the AL, Bret Saberhagen (RHP) and Mark Langston (LHP). So, because they should exist, here are your 1988 Topps National League All Stars.

 

Custom 1966 Leaders Cards

Pulled a card at random—1967 NL Home Run Leaders—and made a couple of customs. Nineteen sixty-six was a big year for John Lennon!

Joy of The Completed Page: 1976 Topps

A couple years ago I made a custom set of 43 "missing" 1976 Topps Traded cards. Scans of their fronts and backs can be viewed on the separate "1976 Topps Traded Missing Cards" page on our blog. Here are two of them, added into my set. They look great in pages!

Let's Talk About 2014 Topps Heritage High Numbers

We're a few months away, but I've started thinking about the 2014 Topps Heritage High Numbers set. Will it be an online-only factory set, or released in packs? Who will be included? Who will be overlooked? If we use the 2013 installment as a template, it's probable that each team will be represented, with somewhere between one and five cards apiece.

 Much like the "traded" sets from back in the day, the high-numbers set is mostly a showcase of young players and XRCs—although with so many draft, prospects, and minor league sets these days, there are virtually zero players who could have an XRC—with fewer traded veterans in their new uniforms. It's also a way for Topps to produce cards of players not included in the regular series. But with a checklist of only 100 cards, Topps has to be choosy about who's represented.

That said, here's a quick list of 25 players who may be part of Heritage High Numbers for 2014:

1. Masahiro Tanaka, New York Yankees

2. George Springer, Houston Astros

3. Jose Abreu, Chicago White Sox

4. Marcus Stroman, Toronto Blue Jays

5. Mookie Betts, Boston Red Sox

6. Brock Holt, Boston Red Sox

7. Jake Peavy, San Francisco Giants

8. Chase Headley, New York Yankees

9. Rougned Odor, Texas Rangers

10. Kevin Kiermaier, Tampa Bay Rays

11. C.J. Cron, LA Angels

12. Yangveris Solarte, San Diego Padres

13. Gregory Polanco, Pittsburgh Pirates

14. Tommy La Stella, Atlanta Braves

15. Jacob deGrom, New York Mets

16. Jake Petricka, Chicago White Sox

17. Joakim Soria, Detroit Tigers

18. Huston Street, LA Angels

19. Brandon McCarthy, New York Yankees

20. Jeff Samardzjia, Oakland Athletics

21. Ike Davis, Pittsburgh Pirates

22. Jose Lobaton, Washington Nationals

23. Nelson Cruz, Baltimore Orioles

24. Dellin Betances, New York Yankees

25. Oscar Taveras, St. Louis Cardinals

Imagination Reclamation

We take our custom cards seriously around here. At one point we had a whole separate page of this blog dedicated to custom cards from around the Web. And while that page went the way of much on the Internet, our love of customs remains. Here are a few of our favorites we've created over the years, and don't forget to check out our new page presenting the 1978 Topps "Traded" set all in one place...

New Custom Set: 1978 Topps Traded

So. There are a ton of great interpretations out there on the Web of what an extended series would look like for 1978 Topps. Here's my take: the three-headed design co-opt Topps used for its 1980–81 basketball set. To spice up the idea, I've added noted draft picks from the 1978 drafts. So on top of all-star-caliber players who changed teams either right before the start of or during the season (like Bert Blyleven, Vida Blue, Dennis Eckersley, Gaylord Perry, and Bobby Bonds—twice) and a few common players, I've included somewhere in the neighborhood of 17 draft picks who went on to star in the majors.

This should be a fun project. I'll probably add them to our Facebook page as I complete them. Here's my checklist:

	1	Bobby Bonds	White Sox
		Rawly Eastwick	Phillies
		Mel Hall	Cubs Draft Pick
	2	Jim Essian	A's
		Danny Heep	Astros Draft Pick
		Gaylord Perry	Padres
	3	Bill North	Dodgers
		Tim Wallach	Angels Draft Pick
		Shane Rawley	Mariners
	4	Cal Ripken Jr.	Orioles Draft Pick
		Vida Blue	Giants
		Ryne Sandberg	Phillies Draft Pick
	5	Rudy May	Expos
		Hubie Brooks	Mets Draft Pick
		Al Hrabosky	Royals
	6	John Mayberry	Blue Jays
		Rick Wise	Indians
		Bob Horner	Braves Draft Pick
	7	Gene Garber	Braves
		Kirk Gibson	Tigers Draft Pick
		Pablo Torrealba	White Sox
	8	Ben Oglivie	Brewers
		Jim Bouton	Braves
		Kent Hrbek	Twins Draft Pick
	9	Jerry Remy	Red Sox
		Manny Sanguillen	Pirates
		Bobby Bonds	Rangers
	10	Steve Renko	A's
		Claudell Washington	White Sox
		Andy Hawkins	Padres Draft Pick
	11	Rico Carty	Blue Jays
		Steve Balboni	Yankees Draft Pick
		Willie Horton	Indians
	12	Andy Messersmith	Yankees
		Ken Holtzman	Cubs
		Dave Stieb	Blue Jays Draft Pick
	13	Lloyd Moseby	Blue Jays Draft Pick
		Andy Etchebarren	Brewers
		Bud Harrelson	Phillies
	14	Mike Morgan	A's Draft Pick
		Dennis Eckersley	Red Sox
		George Hendrick	Cardinals
	15	Tom Brunansky	Angels Draft Pick
		Bert Blyleven	Pirates
		Jay Johnstone	Yankees
	16	Buddy Biancalana	Royals Draft Pick
		Rick Miller	Angels
		Nick Esasky	Reds Draft Pick

Why You Should Care About Bubblegum Art

Have you ever heard of Pat Riot? If you're a voracious reader of The Baseball Card Blog and have devoured all of its pages, then I'll assume you know who he is. But if you're new to the blog (welcome!), you have to check his work out. His re-faced cards are little masterpieces of pop-culture art.

It's been a while since we heard from him, but Riot's got a new show coming up in Los Angeles. Opening May 25th at the Known Gallery and titled "Out of Left Field," it promises a full gallery of baseball-card and bubblegum art.

What is bubblegum art? Well, it's kind of exactly what it sounds like: art made out of chewed bubblegum. I'll admit it, that sounds gross. I mean, I've been to the gum wall in Seattle, and while impressive, that much chewed gum is disgusting. And yet... check out these photos that Pat forwarded us...

But back to the main question: Why should you care? Besides Riot's work being classic pointillism, and besides it being created using an unexpected material, it's actually great.

I've been thinking a lot about sports art lately. Maybe it's because creating custom cards is fast becoming my favorite hobby, or maybe because The Baseball Card Blog's own Travis Peterson is featured in Beckett Sports Card Monthly in their June "Art" issue. But sports art walks a fine line between legitimate and that horrible, dreadful catch-all word so beloved by critics: irreverent.

If anything, creating sports artwork out of gum is definitely reverential. And if I were Riot, I wouldn't be surprised if the Baseball Reliquary came knocking when all is said and done. Actually, the more I think about it the more this pairing makes sense: they're both based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area; one creates reverential baseball art and the other collects and curates it; and they're both out of the mainstream.

Riot's show will also feature a lot of his re-faced baseball card work. You can read all about the show here.

1965 Topps All-Star Cards

They just don't exist. You know, 1965 is probably my favorite design of the Topps 1960s, and yet for whatever the reason, it was the one year that didn't include combo cards. It also didn't include all-star cards, which made sense at the time, I guess.

But all-star cards and Topps go together like ham and cheese, like Marshmallow Fluff and Wonder Bread. It's odd to me that the company didn't include separate all-star cards—or even an all-star emblem on regular cards from 1963 to 1967. It makes no sense, especially when you consider that Topps' set checklists got larger as the decade wore on. It could've been easy to add a subset, and even easier to do an emblem on the players' respective regular cards. Regular-card designs from these years allowed a little wiggle room, as seen with the Topps All-Star Rookie trophy, begun in 1961 and used throughout the decade.

It's with this background that I present my take on the 1965 all-star card. I chose to do an emblem rather than a subset. There were some great players in the 1964 All-Star Game starting lineups, and at least one guy—Ron Hunt—who would be appreciated more today if his all-star status had been recognized in some lasting way.

I will post the other 17 cards to our Facebook page in the next few days...

Elvis Presley Heroes: 1965

I had trouble deciding what to call Elvis' teams throughout his career. The Tupelo Hound Dogs? The Memphis Kings? The Hollywood Headliners? Or something like "The Jumpsuits"? I decided to combine the first two for this card. Here's a closeup of the team logo...

Because It Should Exist: 1971 Topps Greatest Moments Elvis Presley

Like Travis, I haven't posted in a long time. (The Baseball Card Blog is lucky that, like the railroads used to be, Mike posts on a schedule you can set your watch to.) I've been kicking around a fan set idea for a long time: Elvis Presley Heroes. It would be a collection of 50 or so cards from across Presley's career and life, done in the style of each year. Because his years roughly match those of Mantle and Aaron, his cards would roughly match those two stars.

Here's one I put together tonight. I plan to put together the rest of them over the next few months, if the project can hold my interest.

1976 Topps Traded: The Missing Cards - #115T Ken Holtzman (part 2)

I'm calling this Missing Card "part two" because Holtzman was traded twice in 1976: in April from the A's to the Orioles as part of the Reggie Jackson trade, and then at the June trade deadline to the Yankees. To see the front of "part one," check out our Facebook page.

(And yes, I plan on creating backs and pairing them with fronts in a permanent gallery page when the "Missing Cards" project is complete.)

1976 Topps Traded: The Missing Cards - #319T Pedro Garcia

Pedro Garcia was an unremarkable player. After a nice rookie year in 1973 (if hitting .245 can be considered "nice") his production dropped off the map. He was shipped to Motor City for Gary Sutherland near the trading deadline in 1976. He mopped up his career in 1977 with the new Toronto Blue Jays.

I chose this headline because it seems like this is what Topps would've done: say something nice rather than say nothing at all.

1976 Topps Traded: The Missing Cards - #149T Tommy Davis

Did you know? Tommy Davis played for 10 different teams in less than a 10-season span, despite spending 3 of those seasons with the Baltimore Orioles.

But does that matter? Having proven early in his career that he was a steady, effective hitter, his was a valuable bat to have in pinch-hit situations. If you have a few moments, check out the Wikipedia entry about Davis.

Davis ended the 1976 season with the Kansas City Royals. His 1977 Topps card pictures him in a Kansas City uniform. He was never pictured in an Angels uniform.

1976 Topps Traded: The Missing Cards - #26T Andy Thornton

Let's talk about lopsided trades: Andre Thornton was traded straight up to the Cleveland Indians prior to the 1977 season for Jackie Brown. While not exactly Milt Pappas for Frank Robinson, with 20-20 hindsight it was an incredible deal for Cleveland.

1976 Topps Traded: The Missing Cards - #48T Joe Ferguson

Ferguson was famous for a few things: his home-run heroics in the 1974 World Series while a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers; his record-setting 1973 season when he made only three errors behind the plate; he had a bazooka for an arm, which helped gun down runners as an outfielder; and there was another athletic Joe Ferguson who was famous at the exact same time. I can think only one other occurrence of this off the top of my head: Eddie Murray, the great slugger for the Baltimore Orioles and Eddie Murray the kicker for the Detroit Lions.