when topps didn't, gio does

it's been a while since i made a custom card - a couple of years, i think - but i remember enough from my time churning them out that i can say the motivation for making them (customs of the non-art variety) stems from missed opportunities by those who made the real cards. someone was left off of a checklist? make a custom. didn't care for the photo the "real one" used? make a custom. significant event not covered by a highlight or record breaker card? make a custom. rookie not given a card? make a custom. player switched teams and the "wrong" team was represented in a set? make a custom. veteran fan favorite not given a proper send off? make a custom.

those were the reasons i and many others made and make custom cards, and there is none better in the game than gio from when topps had (base)balls. gio takes his creations a step further than most and produces physical, professionally printed sets that are fun to collect.

back in october of 2024, he dropped his "series 18" set that covered all six of the reasons for making customs that i gave above, with fantastic results. let's have a look.

1970 topps bert blyleven

bert made his big league debut in 1970, so could have been included in a later series. he was 19!

1971 topps larry doby and jon matlack

topps hadn't produced stand alone coach cards since the 1950's, but they've had at least one recently in the topps now universe. a doby expos card would have been sweet. as for matlack, he debuted in 1971 and, unlike blyleven, was included as part of a late series release. that card, however, was a three-player rookie card (with old friend ted martinez), so gio gave him his own solo rookie card.

1972 topps rusty staub traded

le grand orange was traded from the expos to the mets on april 5, 1972. that was later than the transactions involving steve carlton, joe morgan, and frank robinson, but still plenty of time for topps to include a traded card in the late series. they chose not to. 

1973 topps sadaharu oh

this is just a straight up "fantasy" card of the japanese legend. oh and the yomiuri giants won their 9th straight title in 1973.

1974 topps graig nettles

gio makes an improvement upon nettles' actual 1974 topps card

1975 topps steve blass and felipe alou

both blass and alou finished their major league careers in april of 1974 and so didn't make the 1975 topps checklist. gio gives them both a proper final tribute send off. i believe the blass is the second 1975 card he's made for blass. as for alou, his brother matty also played his last game in 1974 and was also denied a card. gio corrected that omission as well.

1976 topps red sox combo card

combo cards didn't really make it into the 1970's at topps. they were big in the 60's and have rebounded in the 2000's. having a card of the three red sox stud outfielders is great, similar to the card gio made for the dodgers' 30 home run quartet. i don't think he's tackled the legendary dodger infield yet though!

1977 topps frank robinson and gene tenace

both robinson and tenace were included in the 1977 topps set, but robinson was just a small part of the indians' team card and really deserved a final tribute to salute the end of his playing days in 1976. as for tenace, he received an airbrushed card from topps (and o-pee-chee) in 1977 following his signing with the padres in the offseason. one last look at tenace as an oakland athletic is welcomed!

1978 topps paul molitor and bob horner

a solo rookie card for molitor, who appeared in the set on a 4-in-1 card, and a "missing" rookie card for bob horner. in horner's case, there were no late series or traded or update sets issued in 1978, so it's more of a fantasy card. horner was drafted by the braves on june 6, 1978 and debuted in the big leagues less than two weeks later, going on to be named the national league's rookie of the year. 

gio was kind enough to include two copies of the molitor and horner cards for my 1978 topps master set.

1979 topps tom lasorda and billy martin

freddie patek wasn't the only all-star left without a banner in the 1979 topps set, as the managers of the 1978 midsummer classic were pretty much ignored. lasorda was present on the dodger team card, but martin was no longer the skipper of the yankees when the 1978 season ended so he wasn't in the set at all. i would welcome a return of solo manager cards to topps flagship, along with stadium cards.

here's the bonus card in the set - a 1973 kellogg's willie mays card

complete with stats on the back!

what a fantastic set!

then, last july, gio issued his 1980s career cappers set featuring retired greats who should have been better treated by topps at the end of their careers.

1980 topps jim hunter and lou brock

hunter was shut out in 1980, and brock only got half of a highlight card.

1981 topps willie horton and willie mccovey

horton's big league career ended in 1980, but he played in the pirates' organization for the next two seasons. in fact, his only real 1981 card is a tcma minor league card with the portland beavers, as for mccovey, he at least got a card from fleer in 1981 but nothing from topps or donruss.

1983 topps willie stargell

it's a willie parade! stargell was included in the donruss and fleer sets in '83, but not topps. topps didn't include wilver in their 2018 1983 anniversary insert sets, either.

1984 topps jim kaat, carl yastrzemski, gaylord perry, and johnny bench

three of these four were included on the iconic (yet disappointing) 1984 topps highlight card as retiring legends, but kitty kaat was nowhere to be found in '84 - not even in fleer or donruss. bench and yaz got 1984 all-star design cards from topps in 2019, but not regular cards that would have had their career stats on the back. kaat and perry were omitted altogether.

1985 topps amos otis and jim palmer

there were no cards of either otis or palmer in 1985. seeing otis in topps' 2020 1985 anniversary set would have been a miracle, but i was hoping to see palmer. no dice.

1987 topps george foster, cesar cedeno, and tony perez

the only 1987 card of any of these three stars was perez's 1987 fleer card. none of them were featured by topps in 2017 or 2022, either. it would be nice to see some foster and cedeno cards these days.

1988 topps phil niekro, reggie jackson, and steve garvey

all three of these players were given cards by score in 1988, and reggie also had a fleer card. niekro actually appeared in 1988 topps, but on a highlight card with his brother, joe, and as an indian. he finished his career as a brave, so gio's card is appreciated. 

like me, gio is a proponent of steve garvey as a hall of famer, and per my request, gio added an extra garvey card to my order for my collection. here's the back of garvey's 1988 topps career capper:

i've created a stat back for my version of garvey's card that should have been, with a front that was created by punk rock paint.

1989 topps don sutton, graig nettles, and steve carlton

once again, score to the rescue in 1989, at least by way of cards for sutton and nettles. there were no cards of carlton to be had aside from his baseball talk card (that shows him as a cardinal). sutton at least had a box bottom card, but that's not the same as a final tribute. of the three, a missing nettles card is the biggest head scratcher since he was on the expos roster the entire season. by the way, gio and i used the same photo of old man sutton for our 1989 cards. 

the bonus card in this set was a 1981 topps saduharo oh card

most recntly, gio announced the sale of his 1976 topps "power roll" dice game set. this is a masterpiece. the set includes 25 cards in the 1976 topps style, a pair of six sided dice, two mini pencils, a "wthballs" pinback button, and two pieces of bazooka gum. he went all out, for sure, and the cherry on top is that most of the cards feature verifiable 1976 season action shots, thanks to the presence of the various bicentennial patches on the players' sleeves.

my set took an adventure across the united states before arriving, but it's here and it is glorious. of course, gio added an extra steve garvey card

for my collection which is always appreciated. here's the back of garvey's card:

snake eyes for a garvey home run!

if you like custom cards or just miss the players of the 1970s, i strongly encourage you to check out gio's work. 

when the all-stars go blue

with 2024 topps series 2, topps maintained their habit of including the all-star design from the flagship sets from 35 years prior for past and current stars.  this year, sandy koufax was featured

and i am reminded that the design from 1989 topps featured blue backgrounds for national leaguers (red for american leaguers). here's kirk gibson's card from 1989 as a refresher

that one featured gibby as an all-star pinch hitter which was a nice touch. 

other dodgers included this year is mookie betts

along with freddie freeman and shohei ohtani, whose cards i showed in a previous post. i am still missing jackie robinson and clayton kershaw, but i did pick up another dodger all-star card

steve garvey gets the 1989 all-star treatment only in autograph form. in fact, the first one i picked up was the black parallel

which looks pretty sharp. garvey, of course, wasn't active in 1989 and i believe this is the first time he's been featured on a 1989 design.

koufax has another 1989 card in series 2, and it's pretty sharp in my opinion

the 1989 design doesn't seem as bad with an older, colorized photo as some other 1980's designs do, and topps seems like they are getting better at colorizing these photos, too.

the loser in all this is the 1982 topps flagship all-star design, as topps didn't start the 35th anniversary design tributes until 2018. in 2017, as you'll recall, they were still going with the 30th anniversary design. i am also a fan of the 1991 topps flagship all-star card design, but will have to get through the 1990 design next year first. 

not so random grab bag

jay from card hemorrhage recently posted about 25-card grab bags that he was selling as a way of paring down his collection. one of the cards shown in his post was this 1977 topps ed goodson card signed by goodson himself!

being the collector that i am, i asked how likely it would be that my grab bag included the goodson, and jay said he would make it so. following on the heels of my recent post regarding goodson signing a 1978 topps card for me, i was very happy to add this card to my collection. i also have a signed 1976 topps card, so i have the full topps run of goodson dodger cards signed by the man himself.

the pack was fun to open and wade through, and came with vintage as advertised:

even some dodgers/orioles who would become dodgers or were previously dodgers

powell would have been a teammate of ed goodson back in 1977. the tommy davis comes from the 1976 sspc set (copyright 1975). i have called it 1975 in the past but i think someone corrected me.  jay guaranteed cards from that set, and in addition to tommy davis, i received cards of art howe and ross grimsley

i recognized grimsley but not howe.

here's a 1981 donruss paul householder card

that reminded me of my dad. he collected householder cards from 1981 through 1984 or so. someone had told him that householder was the next mickey mantle i think.

here's a 1981 topps dave bristol/giants team card.

i was not a fan of the combo manager/team cards that topps used from 1979 through 1981. my opinion was based on the 1978 set which had them separated. it wasn't until later that i realized the '78 set was the anomaly from 1975 - 1981.

greg minton hot pack! here's a 1981 topps sticker and 1989 topps card of the righthander:

sadly no 1978 topps card, although jay does use that as his avatar.

there were some more modern cards in the package, but i'll show just a couple of them. here's a 1994 topps gold parallel of tim bogar

with a joe oliver sighting.

and here's another parallel - a 2020 topps update brock holt walgreens yellow card

lots of fun cards for sure! check out jay's post and pick one up for yourself!

red eddie

it's been over a year since i acquired this card

but this post kept getting delayed for one reason or another. not today.

the card is a fairly elusive piece of cardboard that comes from the 1989 version of the active batting leaders topps put in hanger/blister packs back then.  there's also a green version from 1990 that i wrote about here. in that post i mentioned that it would probably take some time for me to track down the 1989 card. i was wrong.

i was actually pretty close to pulling the trigger on a sealed version

that would have also given me 100 1989 topps base cards for use as kindling or what have you. fortunately, i checked on sportlots and found a very reasonably priced murray card for sale. here's the back 

which provides pretty much all you need to know about what makes a player one of the active batting leaders.  murray, of course, went on to pass the 3,000 hit milestone but saw his average dip to .287. murray's .295 average at the time of this card would put him 12th among active players today - right behind albert pujols (whose average is in decline) and just ahead of freddie freeman.

that made me wonder - can you guess who the 10 active players are who have a better career batting average than pujols? i certainly would not have been able to do so.

350 is a magic number - dressed to the 9s

a few weeks ago i noted that i was pondering the idea of adding a number type mini-collection to my collection. of the options i considered - 190, 272, 350, or none at all - i decided to go with 350.

i am posting cards from the same year of each decade, and so far i've shown the 8s, 7s, 6s, 3s, 2s, 1s, and 4s. this post will be all about the 9s.

1959 topps #350

ernie banks makes his second appearance at number 350 in these posts, but his first chronologically. as the back of his card states, he was the national league's mvp in 1958 as he led the league in home runs and rbi (and slugging percentage). he would repeat as mvp in 1959, but was featured on card number 10 in the 1960 set.

1969 topps #350

richie allen had a strong season in 1968 and put up nearly identical numbers in 1969. the phillies weren't winning and traded allen to the cardinals in what became known as the curt flood trade. he eventually won the mvp award with the white sox in 1972 before returning to the phillies in 1975,

1979 topps #350 

garry templeton led the national league in triples in 1977 as his card back states, but he also led the league in that category in 1978. weird that the card doesn't mention that. he went on to lead the league in triples for the third year in a row in 1979, and also led the league with 211 hits that year. he may be best remembered as basically the guy the cardinals traded away to get ozzie smith, but he was a solid player in his own right. 

1989 topps #350

andy van slyke led the league in triples in 1988, just like templeton a decade before him. we know this thanks to the italicized text that topps started using to denote things like this. and, like templeton, van slyke was traded by the cardinals. he had a down year in 1989 but rebounded to help lead the pirates to back-to-back-to-back nlcs losses from 1990 - 1992.

1999 topps #350

larry walker followed up his 1997 mvp year with a batting title in 1998 as seen with red italicized text on the back of his 1999 card. walker led the league in batting again in '99, posting a career high .379 average.

2009 topps #350

dustin pedroia was the american league mvp in 2008, giving us two reigning mvp's on card number 350 in this post. he finished second in the league in batting average to joe mauer by just a couple of thousandths, but did lead the league in runs, hits, and doubles. he hit .346 in the alcs as well, but the red sox fell to the devil rays.

2019 topps #350

nick markakis had a solid career, and i wondered if this numbering was somewhat of a lifetime achievement award. he went on to play through the 2020 season, however, so i think this was a result of the very strong start he had to the 2018 campaign. he was batting around .330 well in to the summer and was a big part of the braves' national league championship that year.

i am tracking a few things in an effort to find any consistency with number 350, although there really isn't any. still, i am keeping track of the following occurrences, now through two posts:

number of reigning rookies of the year: 1 (kris bryant)

number of reigning mvps: 4 (ernie banks, frank robinson, robin yount, dustin pedroia)

number of reigning cy young winners: 0

number of reigning world series champions: 2 (keith hernandez, joe carter)

number of reigning pennant winners: 7 (frank robinson, steve garvey, robin yount, jack clark, keith hernandez, joe carter, clayton kershaw)

number of reigning league leaders: 16 (ernie banks - home runs, rbi; ernie banks - home runs; mel stottlemyre - complete games; willie mccovey - home runs; billy williams - runs, hits; garry templeton - triples; robin yount - hits, doubles; keith hernandez - walks; andy vanslyke - triples; kenny lofton - sb; larry walker - batting average; chase utley - runs; dustin pedroia - hits, runs; david ortiz - doubles, rbi; clayton kershaw - wins, era; dj lemahieu - batting average)

subset types: 2 (all-time all-stars, postseason highlights (3))

number of repeat players: 1 (ernie banks)

number of dodgers: 2 (steve garvey, clayton kershaw)

frequency of teams: cardinals (6), cubs (5), astros (4), mets (4), twins (3), yankees (3), braves (3), dodgers (2), a's (2), reds (2), brewers (2), giants (2), phillies (2), rockies (2), red sox (2), white sox, indians, blue jays, angels, rangers, orioles, rays, padres, pirates

i will have another post with another run of cards soon - stay tuned!