OK!
After my 1970 "On-Card All-Star" project, where I added all-star banners on the actual base card of starters for the previous year's All-Star game, I've decided to move along to the 1974 set, trying to best mimic what Topps did with the All-Star cards from other sports that year.
Let's begging with the American League, and first base, which was Chicago White Sox great Dick Allen:
If
you look at what Topps did with their hockey, basketball and football
sets around that year, they went with a bold, in-your-face all-star
field on cards.
I
always liked the way the 1974 all-star cards looked in the other
sports, especially football with their dedicated black templates which
was totally different from "regular cards".
But for this, I leaned more toward the hockey and basketball card all-star designs, so here you have it.
For
Dick Allen, it was his sixth All-Star nod, with one more to follow in
1974 in a career that is Hall-worthy in my opinion when taken in context
of the era.
The man was a beast at the plate, putting up numbers that were consistently up in the league-leaders year after year.
Needless
to say, he took home the Rookie of the Year in 1964, and in 1972
would take home the MVP trophy while with the White Sox when he paced
the American League with 37 homers and 113 RBI's, while just missing out
on the Triple Crown, batting .308, just ten points off the
league-leading mark by perennial winner Rod Carew.
By the time he left the game at the age of 35, Allen hit over 350 homers, batted .292 and scored 1099 runs with 1119 RBI's.
The seven-time all-star also led his league in triples once, walks once, on-base-percentage twice and slugging three times.
I'm
not saying the man is a lock-tight Hall of Fame candidate, but I do
think in light of some of the guys already in, HE should also be in
there.
The fact that the most support he got was an 18.9% showing in 1996 seems like a joke to me.
What do you all think?