REVISITING A BLOG POST FROM MARCH, 2014: A 1978 DREAM ROOKIE CARD

Thought it'd be fun to go way back and revisit my blog post from March 14th of 2014, featuring a "fantasy" rookie card featuring four pretty good infielders making their Big League debuts about that time:

 

Now, would THAT have been a rookie card to collect or what!?

Of course three of the four would indeed have their rookie appearances in that wonderful 1978 set: Paul Molitor, Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker.

However that fourth player, legend Ozzie Smith, would have to wait until the following year to get his baseball card debut.

Here's the original post I wrote up back then:

"Yeah I know, I'm pushing it imagining a once in a lifetime rookie card like this.

Topps didn't even have a rookie card for "infielders" in their 1978 set.

But man, what a card THIS could have been! Two Hall of Famers and two others who arguably should find their way in at some point.

Of course we all know that Molitor and Trammel were on the same card in the 1978 set, making for an already fantastic rookie card for collectors.

But with Whitaker on another card, and Ozzie Smith ignored altogether that year, I took all four of them and created a "dream-card" for people that care about these things!

It reminds me of the dream-card they gave out at a card convention years ago that featured Tom Seaver and Nolan Ryan on a 1967 rookie card.

Can you imagine how incredible that would have been?! To have a rookie card featuring THOSE two?! 

Could have been THE rookie card for the decade…

Oh well, hope you all can at least enjoy THIS creation here…"

A MISSING ROOKIE CUP- 1979 PAUL MOLITOR

Time to go ahead a “fix” the 1979 Paul Molitor Topps card, his first “solo” card after being on a multi-player card the year before with another future Hall of Famer, Alan Trammell. On the 1979 card, I’ve gone ahead and placed the Topps “All-Star Rookie” trophy, which Topps stopped using in 1978:

Molitor finished second in the American League Rookie of the Year race in 1978, to Trammell’s teammate and another (hopefully) future Hall of Famer, Lou Whitaker.
Molitor put in a wonderful rookie year, hitting .273 with 73 runs scored and 30 stolen bases, over 125 games and 521 at-bats.
Of course, all he’d do the rest of the way was put in 21 seasons of All-Star baseball, topping 200 hits four times, 100 runs five times, batting over .300 12 times, and finishing up with over 3000 hits, a .300 avergae, 600 doubles and just under 1800 runs scored.
I was always mesmerized by the seasons he put in the 1990’s, as it seemed like he got BETTER in his 30’s, shaking the injury-bug, driving in 100 runs for the only two times in his career, collecting three of the four 200-hit seasons and topping a .320 batting average five times!
The man was incredible.
I can only imagine what his final stats would have been had he not missed about three seasons worth of playing time earlier in his career.
Nevertheless, he was a cinch for the Hall of Fame, getting elected on his first year of eligibility in 2004.

ALLOW A MAN A MOMENT AND A DREAM...MY 1978 "DREAM" ROOKIE CARD

Take a look at this:

Yeah I know, I'm pushing it imagining a once in a lifetime rookie card like this.

Topps didn't even have a rookie card for "infielders" in their 1978 set.

But man, what a card THIS could have been! Two Hall of Famers and two others who arguably should find their way in at some point.

Of course we all know that Molitor and Trammel were on the same card in the 1978 set, making for an already fantastic rookie card for collectors.

But with Whitaker on another card, and Ozzie Smith ignored altogether that year, I took all four of them and created a "dream-card" for people that care about these things!

It reminds me of the dream-card they gave out at a card convention years ago that featured Tom Seaver and Nolan Ryan on a 1967 rookie card.

Can you imagine how incredible that would have been?! To have a rookie card featuring THOSE two?! 

Anyway, for the 1978 dream card I have here, I also used a different Molitor image, since the one Topps used on their rookie card was a colorized black and white shot, and not an attractive image to say the least.

Could have been THE rookie card for the decade…

Oh well, hope you all can at least enjoy THIS creation here…

DEDICATED "ROOKIE CARDS" #5: 1978 PAUL MOLITOR

Paul Molitor was always one of my favorite players that DIDN'T play for the NY Yankees.

It always seemed that this future Hall of Famer would slip under the radar year after year and post great numbers while being overshadowed by one teammate or another, whether it was Robin Yount, Roberto Alomar or even Joe Carter.

Today I've gone and designed a "dedicated" rookie card for him in the 1978 set, as opposed to the multi-player rookie card he appeared on that Topps produced. (Even though having a rookie of both Molitor and Alan Trammell IS pretty awesome!)

What makes the card even uglier from Molitor's standpoint is his image was originally a black-and-white photo that Topps "colored" for the card.

Time to give Molitor a nicer rookie don't you think? Take a look at what Topps put out there (card #707), and my design which follows:

Hopefully Trammell will get into the Hall one day as well.

Would have been a nice rookie for us collectors!

Molitor really was a hit machine, and I can't help but wonder just how many hits he could have ended up with in his career if he didn't suffer three injury-plagued years along with TWO baseball strikes.

I would think it's a safe bet to make that he could easily have had another 400 hits on top of his already awesome 3319 total! Just look his stats up, he missed a chunk of games during his playing days, and still ended up with the aforementioned hit total as well as over 600 doubles, 234 homers, 500 stolen bases and 1782 runs scored!

One of my favorite items about Molitor's career was in 1993 when the guy drove in over 100 runs for the FIRST TIME at the age of 36. Then he repeats the feat in 1996 when he drove in 113 runs for the Twins while hitting only 9 homers at the age of 39! 

The guy was simply amazing, yet soft-spoken and professional in every sense of the word.

*On a side note: I've always found it quite impressive that two of the three future Hall of Famers taken within the first five picks of the first round in the 1970's were BOTH from the University of Minnesota, Dave Winfield in 1973 and Molitor in 1977. Damn good pedigree right there.
(By the way: the OTHER future Hall of Famer picked within the first five picks of any draft during the decade was Robin Yount, picked just ahead of Winfield in 1973 and Molitor's future long time teammate. Go figure).

MISSING TOPPS ROOKIE ALL-STARS: 1979 PAUL MOLITOR AND OZZIE SMITH

During the decade of the 1970's, Topps was in the (awesome) habit of naming a "Rookie All-Star Team" at the end of each season and honoring them the following year with a "rookie trophy" on their baseball card.

I loved these cards and wasn't happy when the 1979 cards came out and realized the rookie all-stars were not to be found.

Later on I learned that for whatever reason Topps also omitted the rookie all-star designation on their 1974 set (I wasn't collecting yet when that set came out). So these two sets were the only ones during the 1970's that were missing this

Looking back all these years later, looks like Topps didn't mess up too badly since all the players on the 1973 and 1978 rookie all-star teams didn't end up as superstars. You did have some decent guys like Bob Horner, Davey Lopes and Gary Matthews, but the rest were players that were easily forgotten over time. That is, except for two: Paul Molitor and Ozzie Smith.

Off all the players that missed out on having a cool trophy on their card, these two players were the only ones that went on to the Hall of Fame, legitimate superstars, so I figured I'd fix that right here and now.

Here are Molitor and Smith's 1979 cards with the Topps rookie all-star trophy (using the 1978 trophy) in it's proper place on the card front.

Note that for the Molitor card, I also "corrected" his position to second base since the original card has him as a shortstop. Kind of odd since he predominantly played second in 1978, not short. To top it off Topps even selected him as the all-star second baseman for their rookie team. Weird...