Friday, January 31, 2014

TOPPS 1976 "ALL-TIME ALL-STARS"- AN EXPANDED VIEW #6: OUTFIELDERS (1ST SET OF THREE)

Today we move on to the outfield for my "all-time all-stars" expanded sub-set from 1976.
The Sporting News went and picked three American Leaguers for their all-time outfield: Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb and Ted Williams.
And while many can't really argue with an outfield like that, it's fair to say the National league had their own powerhouse outfield trio that stacked up pretty well with their A.L. counterpart.
For this installment, the first of three for the outfield, I teamed the "Bambino" up with Giant great Willie Mays.
Take a look at the Ruth card as issued by Topps in 1976, as well as my design for the Mays card:



There's no question as to Babe Ruth's place in all-time baseball history, and picking him on ANY all-time team goes without saying, and I feel the same way about Willie Mays, the "Say-Hey Kid".
Even back in 1976 when the Sporting News was picking players in celebration of the 100th year of Major League ball, Mays would have been an obvious choice had they picked both American League and National League rosters.
Nice combo of players here: arguable the greatest American League player of all-time along with possibly the greatest National League player. Just awesome.
Who are the other two N.L. guys that fill out the outfield? Well you can pretty much guess, but if not keep an eye out here as I post them up in the next couple of weeks along with Cobb and Williams.