THE MISSING ALL STAR CARDS: 1973 TOPPS: NATIONAL LEAGUE

Here we have the final installment in my series of "missing all star cards" between 1971 and 1973. This time, for the '73 all stars from the National League, I gave them a red stripe running across the bottom, following the design introduced on my American League cards yesterday.
Of note is the fact that Willie Stargell is portrayed as a first baseman, with an action shot of him obviously manning that position. Yet for the second year in a row he was voted in as an outfielder.
One other noteworthy thing to mention is the fact that Roberto Clemente's card was a bit of a "memorial" card, as by the time it was released, he already died in a plane crash while on an aid mission to help victims of an earthquake in Nicaragua in December of 1972.
Well, this wraps up the "missing all stars" thread, and it was definitely fun to work on. I've been contemplating recreating all star cards from 1970 and 1974 where the "all star" designation is on the players' regular issue card instead of an all star sub set. If time allows I'll get that posted up sooner rather than later.

THE MISSING ALL STAR CARDS: 1972 TOPPS: NATIONAL LEAGUE

Today we have the National League all stars for the 1972 Topps set, as voted by the fans for the '71 game in Detroit. That is, if Topps would have gone ahead and designated all stars as they did later in the decade.
For the N.L. players, I gave a green bar across the bottom, as opposed to the red bar I gave the A.L. players (posted yesterday).
While the bulk of the N.L. was represented  by all star stalwarts like Aaron, Mays and Bench, we do have a couple of players who were starters for only a single all star game: Dock Ellis and Buddy Harrelson.
Of course we all know Ellis was the pitcher who gave up Reggie Jackson's mammoth blast in the bottom of the Third Inning, taking the loss as the American League won their first Mis-Summer Classic since 1962, 6-4.

THE MISSING ALL-STAR CARDS: 1971 TOPPS: NATIONAL LEAGUE

Today we have the 1971 Topps National League all stars "that never were".

For the N.L. players who were elected starters in 1970, I used a yellow border and star to designate "all star" status, as opposed to the red I used on the A.L. guys.

A couple of items of note: Rich (Dick) Allen is shown on his card as an outfielder even though he was voted in as the starting 1st Baseman. Also, as I profiled before: this is the first Topps baseball card showing a player with a mustache. Ever. Incredible after 20 years of producing cards at that time.

For Tom Seaver this would have been his only all star card until 1982, when he was on Cincinnati. Pretty amazing when you think about it. For all his domination in the 1970's, it was guys like Dock Ellis, Randy Jones, Andy Messersmith and Jerry Reuss that got all star starts over him.

Chicago was well represented with their middle infielders: Glenn Beckert and Don Kessinger. Of course, this was before the "Big Red Machine" dominated all star voting pretty much the rest of the decade.

Rico Carty was voted in for the 1970 game due to his white-hot hitting, ending the season as the N.L. batting champ with a super .366 batting average to go along with 25 homers and 101 R.B.I.'s.

Tomorrow I'll have the A.L. starting nine depicted on the 1972 Topps set, followed by the N.L. team on Thursday.