VINTAGE SPECIAL! "MISSING" 1954 WILSON'S FRANKS DUKE SNIDER

On the blog today, my "missing" 1954 Wilson's Franks card for the "Duke of Flatbush", Duke Snider of the Brooklyn Dodgers:

From my wildly successful custom set released a few months ago, Snider would have been another great card had it been originally released way back when!

Snider really was incredibly underrated over his career, which sadly (for him) coincided with the careers of men like Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays and Hank Aaron.

Nevertheless, all he would do in the Majors was hit, finishing his career in 1964, capping off a great 18-year Major League career that saw him make eight All-Star teams while posting six seasons where he finished in the top-10 for N.L. MVP.

Snider was an absolute beast of a hitter through the 1950's with the Dodgers, driving in over 100 runs six times, 30+ homers six times including five straight seasons of 40 or more, five years of scoring over 100 runs and seven seasons of .300 hitting or better.

A HUGE cog in the Brooklyn Dodger machine of the 1950s, he was also part of the "Holy Trinity of New York center-fielders of the era, along with Willie Mays of the New York Giants and Mickey Mantle of the New York Yankees.

What a time it must have been to be a young baseball fan!

OPC IMAGE VARIATION: 1977 RICK MONDAY

On the blog today, we look at the image variation for Rick Monday and his 1977 OPC & Topps cards, after his trade from the Northside of Chicago to the sunny West Coast and the Los Angeles Dodgers:

OPC version

Topps version

While Topps was stuck going with Monday still suited up and designated as a Cub, the fine folks at OPC did their airbrushing best to get him in as a Dodger, leading to the gem you see here.

A solid player who also gained some attention for his flag-saving maneuver in the outfield one day when some clowns were trying to burn an American flag, Monday was in his prime when these cards would have been pulled from packs in that glorious Summer of 1977.
After putting in some good seasons with the A’s between 1966 and 1971, Monday was traded for pitcher Ken Holtzman over the Winter of 1971/72, and he didn’t disappoint the Cubs’ faithful, averaging about 20 homers a season with about 60 runs batted in.
He had his best season in Chicago in 1976 when he slammed a career-high 32 homers with 77 RBIs, which got him traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers which netted the Cubs future batting champ Bill Buckner and infielder Ivan DeJesus.
He’d go on to play the last eight seasons of his career in L.A., retiring after the 1984 campaign with a career .264 average, with 1619 hits and 241 homers, along with 775 RBIs and 950 runs scored, while being a part of the World Champion 1981 Dodger team.
One of the better overall #1 picks from the draft for sure!

 

REVISITING: "MISSING IN ACTION" 1976 IVAN DeJESUS

From way back in 2015, today we revisit my "missing" 1976 card for Ivan DeJesus, originally for a project for my buddy Jim, who was creating a master 1976 set, including many players originally left out of the classic set:

Turns out DeJesus played in 63 games for the Dodgers in 1975, good for 99 plate appearances and 87 at-bats.

He hit .184 with a couple of doubles and a triple, with 10 runs scored and two runs batted in.

It really wasn't until 1977, now as a Chicago Cub, that he would become a full-time Major League player. 

By the time he retired as a player after the 1988 season, he played for the Dodgers, Cubs, Phillies, Cardinals, Yankees, Giants and Tigers over the course of 15 seasons, and finished with a .254 average with 1167 hits and 194 stolen bases.

Between 1977 and 1980 he had some solid seasons for the Cubs, even leading the National League in runs scored in 1978 with 104, and twice topping 40 stolen bases (in 1978 and 1980).

I just always figured he came up with the Cubs. Goes to show you learn something new every day!

WTHBALLS CUSTOM SET SPOTLIGHT: 1890 "BASEBALL CHAMPIONS" WILLIE KEELER

On the blog today, my "19th Century Base Ball Champions" card for the great Willie Keeler, fellow Brooklynite and one of the greatest hitters for average the game has ever seen:

"Wee Willie" was one of those players whose career jumped out at me when I was a 10-year-old with my first Macmillan Baseball Encyclopedia, seeing his stats for the first time, being blown away.

First off, his eight straight seasons of 200+ hits was unsurpassed until a man by the name of Ichiro came along, with Keeler collecting as many as 239 hits in 1897 and hitting as high as .424 that very same year.

Between 1892 and 1906 he never hit below .300, taking home two batting titles while scoring 100+ runs a year eight straight seasons, with a high of 165 in 1894 with the Baltimore Orioles.

By the time he hung up the spikes after the 1910 season, he finished with a .341 average, with 2932 hits, 1719 runs scored and 495 stolen bases, incredibly striking out only 136 times over 9619 plate appearances!

That is an AVERAGE of only seven strikeouts per season over his career!

Just an amazing career that led to him being one of the first players selected for the Hall of Fame, which happened in 1939 when he was named on 207 of 274 ballots cast.

One of baseball's early historical figures, he passed away on New Years, 1923, only 50 years of age.

"Hit 'em where they ain't"!

 

"CLASSIC BASEBALL" CUSTOM WTHBALLS SET: SANDY KOUFAX

On the blog today, we add "The Left Arm of God" Sandy Koufax to my ongoing "Classic Baseball" custom set, to be released in the near future in multiple series celebrating the game I love so much:

The years between 1961 and 1966 were amazing, but it was the 1963-1966 period in particular that was just unconscious, and what got him into Cooperstown.

Just look at the numbers, all in FOUR seasons of play:

A 97-27 record, with four E.R.A. crowns, three years of a sub-2.00 mark, 31 shutouts, 89 complete games and 1228 strikeouts, with three of those years topping 300+ K's!

He took home three Cy Young Awards, finished third in 1964, and won the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1963, with two other second-place finishes in 1965 and 1966, his final two years of Major League ball.

In the postseason he was equally as brilliant, being voted MVP of the World Series in both 1963 and 1965, leading the Dodgers to championships.

He posted a 4-3 lifetime record with a 0.95 earned run average, two shutouts and 61 strikeouts in 57 innings of work.

In his three losses in postseason play, he gave up THREE earned runs! So it's not like he choked in those games either.

Sadly we all know how his career ended because of arm troubles, causing him to retire at the age of only 30.

Man how I wish we could have seen him pitch into the 1970's!

Would have been awesome to see him on those card-issues into the mid-decade, no?

That five year stretch was so awesome that he was elected in the Hall on his first try, being named to 86.9% of the ballot.

There are some out there that feel he didn't "perform" long enough to warrant a Hall selection, let alone a first-year induction.

And most of the time I'd agree.

However we are talking some rarified stuff here, so with Koufax it was indeed a no-brainer.

What do you all think? Anybody out there think Koufax didn't perform long enough for a Hall of Fame induction?

 

THE WHOLE NINE: SERIES 2- 1958 CAREER-CAPPER ROY CAMPANELLA

On the blog today, my 1958 "Career-Capper" for all-time great Roy Campanella, from my recent "Whole Nine: Series 2" set released a few months back:

Fun custom set to produce!

The tragic story of how Roy Campanella's career ended so quickly is burned into all our baseball drenched minds, suffering a paralyzing car accident during the off-season before the 1958 season began.

Once Campanella began his Major League career after a brilliant run in the Negro Leagues that started when he was a teenager, he would certainly NOT disappoint the Brooklyn Dodger faithful: three times he was M.V.P. (1951, 1953, 1955) and an important part of the strong Dodger teams of the decade along with Duke Snider, Jackie Robinson, and Gil Hodges.

Though unable to play Major League ball until the age of 26 because of segregation, he still managed to hit 242 lifetime homers, with a high of 41 in 1953, as well as drive in 856 runs in his short ten-year career.

During his second M.V.P. season, Campy led the Brooklyn offense by driving in a league-leading 142 runs while hitting .312 and scoring 103 runs. One of the top-offensive catcher seasons in baseball history.

Tragically, as he was getting prepared to move to Los Angeles with the rest of the Dodgers over the Winter of 1957-58, Campanella was driving home to Long Island and hit a patch of ice near his home, flipping his car over and breaking his neck in the process, rendering him paralyzed from the shoulders down.

The L.A. Fans would never get to see the future Hall of Famer play in Chavez Ravine.

In my opinion, considering his delayed MLB action, "Campy" would be my pick as the greatest catcher in MLB history, even in front of Johnny Bench, though Josh Gibson would top them all.

 

REVISITING A POST FROM 2016: MISSING IN ACTION 1977 JIM LYTTLE

On the blog today, let's revisit a post from 2016, that of my "missing in action" card for former outfielder Jim Lyttle:

This would be a “missing” 1977 card for a guy who was never a full-time player, but still put together an eight-year career between 1969-1976.

Lyttle capped off his career with a final year in 1976 split between the Montreal Expos and Los Angeles Dodgers, where he hit a combined .248 with 38 hits over 153 at-bats in 65 games.
Originally up with the Yanks, he’d play in the Bronx until 1972 when he put in a lone season for the Chicago White Sox before moving on to the Expos where he would play until his move to L.A.
All told Lyttle batted .248 for his career with 176 hits in 710 at-bats over 391 games, with his 1970 season being his best when he hit .310 for the Yanks over 87 games played.

Looking further into his career I saw that he played seven seasons in Japan after his Major League career, putting up some solid numbers for Hiroshima.

In both 1978 and 1981 he hit 33 homers and drove in 100+ runs, and closed out his Japanese career with 166 taters with 529 R.B.I.'s. after retiring for good in 1983.

REVISITING A TEN-YEAR-OLD POST: 1975 CY YOUNG SUB-SET: 1965 WINNERS

Fun card/post to revisit today: from April of 2014, my 1975 Cy Young winners for 1965 sub-set, imagining if Topps also created a Cy Young set to go along with their wildly popular MVP set in that beautiful, colorful set from just under 50 years ago:

Here's the original write-up for the post from eons ago:

"We're up to 1965 on my Cy Young sub-set for the 1975 set, and once again we are visited by Mr. Sandy Koufax, who would have won his third such award in a row had there been voting for both leagues back then.

Koufax is joined by Minnesota Twins pitcher Jim "Mudcat" Grant, who was selected by the people at SABR as the probable winner in the American League.

For Koufax it was business as usual, as he posted another monster season on the hill, going 26-8 with a 2.04 earned run average and a then Major League record 382 strikeouts.

He also threw eight shutouts among his league-leading 27 complete games, and threw in two saves for good measure.

He also finished second behind Willie Mays for the National League Most Valuable Player award, receiving six first-place votes to Mays' nine.

After 30 some-odd years of looking at his stats I'm still blown away by them! 

What a freaking run of domination.

Over in the American League, Jim Grant came out of nowhere to post what is easily his best year as a Major League pitcher, going 21-7 with a 3.30 E.R.A., a league-leading six shutouts and 142 strikeouts.

Up until the 1965 season, Grant's top win total his previous seven seasons in the bigs was 15 in 1961 for the Cleveland Indians.

For HIS efforts in 1965 he finished sixth in M.V.P. voting, behind teammate Zoilo Versalles in Minnesota's improbable run to the World Series, where they lost to, (who else?), Sandy Koufax and his Los Angeles Dodgers.

Next up, 1966, where the Twins and Dodgers are represented once again, this time with Koufax being joined by Twins' pitcher Jim Kaat."

 

GIMMIE A DO-OVER: 1969 JIM "MUDCAT" GRANT

On the blog today, we go and give Jim "Mudcat" Grant a do-over for his 1969 card, which Topps originally had with an image of him from years prior, when he was with the Cleveland Indians, airbrushing his cap for a non-descript image to have him "suited up" with the brand new MLB Montreal Expos franchise:

My re-do for Mudcat

As issued by Topps

Here I have a very nice photo of the pitcher showing him with the team he pitched for in 1968, the Los Angeles Dodgers, making for an attractive alternative!

I can create cards for “Mudcat” all day long, and I can't really understand why Topps didn't include him in their 1970 set since he appeared in 41 games in 1969, posting an 8-11 record with a 4.42 earned run average in 114 innings of work, split between the Montreal Expos and St. Louis Cardinals.
He'd go on to pitch two more seasons, for both the Oakland A's and Pittsburgh Pirates before retiring at the end of the 1971 season.
Overall he put in a very nice 14-year career that saw him go 145-119 with a 3.63 ERA and 1267 strikeouts over 571 games and 2442 innings pitched.
His finest season was 1965 for the American League champ Minnesota Twins when he finished with a 21-7 record, the win total leading the league, as well as leading in winning percentage (.750) and shutouts (6).
But I also have to point out his incredibly underrated 1970 season.
That year, in what turned out to be his second to last in the Majors, Grant was used as a reliever, appearing in 80 games with the Pirates and A's, good for 135.1 innings, while posting fantastic numbers by season's end, going 8-3 with 24 saves and a sparkling 1.86 E.R.A.!
Not too shabby!

SPECIAL REQUEST: DO-OVER FOR MY 1971 "MINOR LEAGUE DAYS" DON DRYSDALE: LEGENDS EDITION

We card collectors can be quite the fickle bunch!

And today is a good example, as I go and "fix" a card that has bugged me ever since I originally created it, my 1971 "Minor League Days" card for Don Drysdale, which I originally designed as part of the "current player" set, that is, with some color elements, with today's version the more appropriate "Legends Edition" black and white design, which is how it should have been created in the first place:

"Big D" retired at a young 32 years of age, and it's fun imagining his career extending into the mid-70's or so, something we didn't get to see.

The fresh-faced 18-year-old you see here on this card went 11-11 for the Montreal Royals, posting an ERA of 3.33 over 173 innings, with three shutouts and only 80 strikeouts.

He'd make his MLB debut in 1956 and show the Brooklyn faithfull what he was capable of, going 5-5 with a very nice 2.64 ERA over 99 innings of work, completing two of his 12 starts while relieving in another 13 games for the eventual N.L. champs.

He'd go one to become a true ace, posting double-digit wins every full year of his career, making eight All-Star teams, taking home the Cy Young Award in 1962, and posting seven seasons of sub-3.00 ERAs.

Though he did eventually make the Hall of Fame, he retired with a 209-166 career record, a 2.95 earned run average and 2486 strikeouts. Excellent numbers of course, but arguably borderline stats for the Hall (think Jack Morris, Luis Tiant, etc).
So imagine if he was able to tack on some more wins and maybe even reach 3000 strikeouts, which at the time of his retirement only the great Walter Johnson had done in Major League history.
The man WAS a beast though, intimidating batters along contemporary hurler Bob Gibson like few before or since, five times leading the National League in plunked batsmen, just to let them know who was boss.
Love guys like that!
Only wish we would have been able to see him pitch more, and more importantly regale us with stories a lot longer than his short 56 years, shockingly passing away in 1993.

"CLASSIC BASEBALL" CUSTOM WTHBALLS SET: STEVE GARVEY

Let's go and add "Mr. Clean", Steve Garvey to my future custom "Classic Baseball" set, celebrating the sport I have obsessed over for the past 45 years or so:

Just a nice portrait shot of the man who would anchor those great Los Angeles Dodger teams of the late-70s/early-80s.

Garvey made his Major League debut in 1969 as a 20-year-old, appearing in three games, going 1-for-3 at the plate.

Of course, we all know that the man would go on to be a perennial All-Star first baseman, and for ME, a lock for the Hall of Fame.

The fact that he was the premier first baseman in the National League from the mid-70’s through the mid-80’s, an All-Star year in and year out doesn't seem to matter to most however.
Modern metrics be damned, the man topped 200-hits six times, took home the NL MVP in 1974, won four Gold Gloves and strung together a run of 1207 consecutive games played, which is still the NL record.
The anchor of the powerhouse Los Angeles Dodgers teams of the era, they took over from Cincinnati as the preeminent team in the Senior Circuit in the late-70s, reaching the World Series three times over five seasons between 1977 and 1981, winning it all that final year, beating the New York Yankees and exacting some sweet revenge for their two losses in 77/78.
I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a few hundred times: the fact that this man is NOT in the Hall of Fame, representing his era of Major League baseball, is a joke. Flat out nonsense. Beyond the numbers, the personality, the leader of a team that was shattering attendance records, helping popularize the game further, the man was an All-Star year in-year out.
In my book, seeing that the most support he ever received was 42.6%, which was in his second-year of eligibility in 1994, is nothing short of a mark on what the Hall of Fame is.

That goes for Dave Parker and Dale Murphy as well!

 

WTHBALLS GUM PACK CUSTOM SET: STEVE GARVEY

Up on the blog today, my mini-card for another guy who I feel should be in the Hall of Fame, Steve Garvey, from my "Gum Pack" special set released not too long ago:

Garvey made his Major League debut in 1969 as a 20-year-old, appearing in three games, going 1-for-3 at the plate.

Of course, we all know that the man would go on to be a perennial All-Star first baseman, and for ME, a lock for the Hall of Fame.

The fact that he was the premier first baseman in the National League from the mid-70’s through the mid-80’s, an All-Star year in and year out doesn't seem to matter to most however.
Modern metrics be damned, the man topped 200-hits six times, took home the NL MVP in 1974, won four Gold Gloves and strung together a run of 1207 consecutive games played, which is still the NL record.
The anchor of the powerhouse Los Angeles Dodgers teams of the era, they took over from Cincinnati as the preeminent team in the Senior Circuit in the late-70s, reaching the World Series three times over five seasons between 1977 and 1981, winning it all that final year, beating the New York Yankees and exacting some sweet revenge for their two losses in 77/78.
I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a few hundred times: the fact that this man is NOT in the Hall of Fame, representing his era of Major League baseball, is a joke. Flat out nonsense. Beyond the numbers, the personality, the leader of a team that was shattering attendance records, helping popularize the game further, the man was an All-Star year in-year out.
In my book, seeing that the most support he ever received was 42.6%, which was in his second-year of eligibility in 1994, is nothing short of a mark on what the Hall of Fame is.

That goes for Dave Parker and Dale Murphy as well!

 

WTHBALLS "BASEBALL ICONS" SPECIAL SET: SANDY KOUFAX

Today we add the great Sandy Koufax, fellow Brooklynite and "The Left Arm of God" to my future custom set, "Icons of Baseball", an artier set using backdrops of the player's home field in popping color:

I love anything to do with Koufax, and any chance to design a card for him is jumped at.

Koufax and the "Left Arm of God" legend has only gotten bigger over time.

The years between 1961 and 1966 were amazing, but it was the 1963-1966 period in particular that was just unconscious, and what got him into Cooperstown.

Just look at the numbers, all in FOUR seasons of play:

A 97-27 record, with four E.R.A. crowns, three years of a sub-2.00 mark, 31 shutouts, 89 complete games and 1228 strikeouts, with three of those years topping 300+ K's!

He took home three Cy Young Awards, finished third in 1964, and won the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1963, with two other second-place finishes in 1965 and 1966, his final two years of Major League ball.

In the postseason he was equally as brilliant, being voted MVP of the World Series in both 1963 and 1965, leading the Dodgers to championships.

He posted a 4-3 lifetime record with a 0.95 earned run average, two shutouts and 61 strikeouts in 57 innings of work.

In his three losses in postseason play, he gave up THREE earned runs! So it's not like he choked in those games either.

Sadly we all know how his career ended because of arm troubles, causing him to retire at the age of only 30.

Man how I wish we could have seen him pitch into the 1970's!

Would have been awesome to see him on those card-issues into the mid-decade, no?

That five year stretch was so awesome that he was elected in the Hall on his first try, being named to 86.9% of the ballot.

There are some out there that feel he didn't "perform" long enough to warrant a Hall selection, let alone a first-year induction.

And most of the time I'd agree.

However we are talking some rarified stuff here, so with Koufax it was indeed a no-brainer.

What do you all think? Anybody out there think Koufax didn't perform long enough for a Hall of Fame induction?

1960S ALL-DECADE TEAM: N.L. LEFT-HANDED PITCHER: SANDY KOUFAX

Today we come to my pick for the National League's left-handed pitcher of the 1960s, and honestly, who else would it be other than Dodger great Sandy Koufax:

Koufax and the "Left Arm of God" legend has only gotten bigger over time.

The years between 1961 and 1966 were amazing, but it was the 1963-1966 period in particular that was just unconscious, and what got him into Cooperstown.

Just look at the numbers, all in FOUR seasons of play:

A 97-27 record, with four E.R.A. crowns, three years of a sub-2.00 mark, 31 shutouts, 89 complete games and 1228 strikeouts, with three of those years topping 300+ K's!

He took home three Cy Young Awards, finished third in 1964, and won the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1963, with two other second-place finishes in 1965 and 1966, his final two years of Major League ball.

In the postseason he was equally as brilliant, being voted MVP of the World Series in both 1963 and 1965, leading the Dodgers to championships.

He posted a 4-3 lifetime record with a 0.95 earned run average, two shutouts and 61 strikeouts in 57 innings of work.

In his three losses in postseason play, he gave up THREE earned runs! So it's not like he choked in those games either.

Sadly we all know how his career ended because of arm troubles, causing him to retire at the age of only 30.

Man how I wish we could have seen him pitch into the 1970's!

Would have been awesome to see him on those card-issues into the mid-decade, no?

That five year stretch was so awesome that he was elected in the Hall on his first try, being named to 86.9% of the ballot.

There are some out there that feel he didn't "perform" long enough to warrant a Hall selection, let alone a first-year induction.

And most of the time I'd agree.

However we are talking some rarified stuff here, so with Koufax it was indeed a no-brainer.

What do you all think? Anybody out there think Koufax didn't perform long enough for a Hall of Fame induction?

"CLASSIC BASEBALL" CUSTOM WTHBALLS SET: DON NEWCOMBE

Today we go and add the very first recipient of the Cy Young Award, Brooklyn Dodgers ace Don Newcombe, to my custom "Classic Baseball" set:

Just a beautiful photo of the original Black Ace, the first African-American 20-game winner in either the American or National Leagues, when he first turned in 20 wins in 1951.

The N.L. Rookie of the Year in 1949 when he posted 17 wins for the Dodgers, he followed that up with 19 wins in 1950 before the first of his three 20-win seasons the following year.

Sadly for him, he would spend the next two years in the military, losing two peak seasons to serving his country before coming back in 1954 when he would go 9-8 over 29 games.

In 1955 he'd be in the 20-win circle once again, helping the Dodgers win the World Series as he would go 20-5 and finishing seventh in the MVP race, the last year without an Award dedicated to pitchers.

And then came 1956...

For Don Newcombe, 1956 was a magical year. He was a monster on the mound, going 27-7 with a 3.06 earned run average and five shutouts and leading the Dodgers to another face-off with the New York Yankees in the World Series.

Not only did that get him the very first Cy Young Award, but it also bagged him a Most Valuable Player Award, thus making him the answer to a clever trivia question: who was the only pitcher to win a Rookie of the Year, Cy Young and M.V.P.? (He would be joined in this by Detroit Tiger pitcher Justin Verlander in 2011).

Sadly for him however, it would be the peak, followed by a quick decline at only 31 years of age, winning 11 games in 1957 before managing just 26 wins over the last three years of his career, which came to a close in 1960 after a split year between the Cincinnati reds and Cleveland Indians.

All told, the man won the aforementioned awards while posting 153 wins against just 96 losses, good for a very nice .614 winning percentage, with a 3.57 earned run average and 24 shutouts over 360 games.

 

REVISITING A 10-YEAR OLD POST: 1977 "MISSING" AL DOWNING CARD

 

On the blog today, we revisit a blog post that originally "aired" here on June 8th, 2014, my "missing" 1977 card for former "Black Ace" Al Downing:

Here's the original write-up I had for the card way back when:

"Quick-who was the last New York Yankee pitcher to lead the league in strikeouts?

If you guessed today's profiled player, Al Downing, good for you!

Believe it or not, Downing was indeed the last Yankee strikeout leader, way back in 1964 when he led the American League in K's with 217 at the nice young age of 23.

The sky was the limit with Downing then, along with the Yankees' other young guns Jim Bouton and Mel Stottlemyre.

Sadly, as it usually does in professional sports, the best laid plans never seem to work out, as Bouton wore out his welcome, and his arm, in a few short years, while Downing followed with arm troubles by the 1968 season, still only 27.

After finding himself in Oakland and Milwaukee in 1970, he moved on to the Los Angeles Dodgers and had a remarkable comeback year, going 20-9 with a 2.68 earned run average and a league-leading five shutouts.

Those numbers got him a third place finish in Cy Young voting, and some M.V.P. consideration as well.

But after a decent 1972 season where he sported a 9-9 record with a sub-3.00 E.R.A., he could never again stay healthy enough for a full year.

He'd pitch in no more than 22 games in any one season before hanging them up after twelve games in 1977.

Now, it's definitely arguable, but I think he should have had a card in Topps' 1977 set after appearing in 17 games, good for 46.2 innings and a 1-2 record in 1976.

Lord knows there were guys in that set that had much less of a distinguished resume, yet Downing was finishing up his 16th year on the mound, with a very nice 3.22 E.R.A., 123 wins and over 1600 strikeouts.

So allow me to "fix" that here with my own 1977 Al Downing card, using a decent action shot of him during the same period.

One more thing: take a look at his rookie year in 1963.

It was actually quite an underrated freshman year!

All he did was go 13-5 with a 2.56 earned run average, as well as four shutouts and 171 K's. Throw in a league-leading 5.8 hits-allowed-per-nine-innings and 8.8 strikeouts-per-nine-innings, it seems probable that if it wasn't for another great rookie pitcher, Gary Peters of the Chicago White Sox, Downing could very well have taken home the award himself."

MISSING ALL-STAR MANAGER: 1979 TOMMY LASORDA

Time to go and create a "missing" 1979 National league All-Star manager card for the skipper who led the Senior League to another Midsummer classic win over the American League in 1978, Los Angeles Dodgers skipper Tommy Lasorda:

Lasorda was given the honor of course because of his pennant winning season of 1977, when he guided the Dodgers to the World Series where they would lose to the New York Yankees.

It was the first Series appearance as manager for Lasorda, something he would repeat the following season, as well as 1981 and 1988, the latter two years bringing the City of Angels World Championships.

Though he skippered the Dodgers for four games in 1976, the 1977 season was the first full year at the helm of the team, and it would lead to an incredible 21 year run that saw him win two championships (1981 and 1988), with two other pennants thrown in (1977 and 1978).

Between 1976 and 1996, Lasorda led the Dodgers to 1599 wins and a .526 winning percentage, while becoming an icon in the baseball and cultural realm.

Funny enough, Lasorda would guide the Dodgers to 98 wins in his first full season as manager, and that would be the high-mark in a season for wins during his tenure.

However, he would lead the team to seven different seasons of 90+ wins, as well as seven first place finishes in the National League West.

He grew to be a legend in Los Angeles, and growing up as a kid loving baseball in the 70's and 80's his legendary status made its way East to Brooklyn, New York with my friends and I in our Italian neighborhood!

 

1960S ALL-DECADE TEAM: N.L. SHORTSTOP MAURY WILLS

Good day everyone!

On the blog today, my pick for the National League's top shortstop of the 1960s, Los Angeles Dodgers speedster Maury Wills:

While no one really dominated the position over the decade, I went with the stolen base machine, who did everything the Dodgers could have hoped for.

It's not like it was a pity-pick though, as Wills really did have a good decade, leading the league in steals six straight years between 1960-65, with a high of 104 that took the baseball world by storm in 1962, leading to his Most Valuable Player Award.

He also finished in third for M.V.P. in 1965, when he stole 94 bases to go along with his 186 hits and 92 runs scored for Los Angeles. 

During the decade Wills topped 170 hits seven times, with a high of 208 in 1962 (even though that total didn't get him a .300 batting average because of his 695 at-bats in 165 games!).

All that contributed to the Dodgers making three World Series appearances, taking home two titles in 1963 and 1965, while he was named to seven All-Star teams in addition to being awarded two Gold Gloves.

Not too shabby.

1960'S CAREER-CAPPERS INSERTS: SANDY KOUFAX

Good day all.

Today's blog post has my Sandy Koufax special insert that was part of my "1960s Career-Cappers" set released a few years ago, one of the more popular custom sets I've created over the years:

Koufax was unstoppable yet again in 1966, posting an incredible 27-9 record along with a 1.72 earned run average and 317 strikeouts in 41 starts, along with five shutouts and 27 complete games, before shocking the world with his premature retirement because of arm problems.
Along with an easy Cy Young Award, giving him an unprecedented third such claim to baseball’s top pitching prize, he finished second to the Pirates’ Roberto Clemente for league MVP.
It was the fifth season in a row that Koufax overpowered National League batters, leading the league in ERA each and every time, along with THREE 25+ win & 300+ strikeout campaigns.
But sadly and shockingly, Koufax would have to retire at the top of his game because of the aforementioned recurring arm problems that could have left him without the use of his left arm the rest of his life.
Rather than suffer long-term injury, Koufax left the game and many of us to wonder so many “what-if’s” had he been able to continue on into the 1970’s.

Easily the youngest player in this set who retired during the decade of the 1960s, he still produced enough legendary moments in his career to leave a lasting legacy as one of the great pitchers in the sport's history.

MISSING ALL-STAR MANAGER: 1976 WALT ALSTON

Good day all.

On the blog today, we fill in the gap left by Topps regarding "missing" all-star cards for managers, with today's card a 1976 All-Star card for Los Angeles Dodgers legendary manager Walt Alston:

Alston led the National League to a win in the 1975 game, leading the Senior League based off his 1974 pennant which saw the Dodgers lose to the three-peat Oakland A's.

Alston, whose playing career totaled one single at-bat in one game for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1936, parlayed his knowledge into a Hall of Fame managerial career that began in 1954 with the (then) Brooklyn Dodgers.

Over the next 23 years he brought home seven pennants, four world championships, and 2040 wins, with 10 90+ win campaigns.

Think about this: the man average 89 wins a season over almost a quarter of a century! Incredible!

Of course, Alston managed legends from Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella to Duke Snider  and Gil Hodges to Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax right through to Steve Garvey and Ron Cey. What a tenure.

1976 would be his last season as manager, handing off to another lifer, Tommy Lasorda for the 1977 season.

In his last season of 1976, Alston won 90 games and had the Dodgers in second place, his 15th season of either a first or second place finish.

In 1983, his stellar career was topped off when he was voted into the Hall of Fame.