Wanted! - 1980 Topps

Percent Completed: 98.8%

Red indicates pending trade...

# Player # Player # Player 17 Bruce Sutter 540 Pete Rose 35 Luis Tiant 650 Joe Morgan 400 George Foster 450 George Brett 510 Ron Cey 260 Al Oliver 526 Phillies Team Card

Topps Cards That Never Were - 1980 Thurman Munson

This feature was always a favorite on the blog, and I enjoy creating these cards.  Previously, I've focused solely on Hall of Fame players who for some inexplicable reason were not afforded a Topps card after their final seasons.  For this go round, I'm going to showcase a 1980 Thurman Munson card that should have been printed after his death on August 2, 1979.

Munson was 32 years old at the time of his death and was in the midst of his 11th season with the Bronx Bombers.  Munson was a fan favorite, first Yankee captain since Lou Gehrig, and was the equivalent of a reinforced concrete wall behind the dish.  Munson is so well known for his defensive prowess that he appears often as a cameo in other players cards when it features a play at the plate.

For more detailed information about Thurman Munson, check out his Wiki page.  And without further ado, after an 18 month hiatus, I bring you a Topps Card That Never Was...

    

If you have requests, please leave a comment!

Topps Cards That Never Were: 1980 Lou Brock

For me, following up that Killebrew card has been some hard work. The Killer card came out awesome. I think sky blue background nearly matches the card color, so every card I’ve made since seems to pale in comparison (I have a backlog already!).

Will this deter me from making more missing HOFer Topps cards? I didn’t think so. The Killer card has also seemed to spark a friendly rivalry in the card-o-sphere. Check out White Sox Cards post, and see some of his past “cards that never were” work. Awesome.

Up next is an attempt at Lou Brock’s final 1979 season, which gives birth to a 1980’s Topps. After doing some research on Lou’s last hurrah, I cannot understand why Topps left him out of the 1980’s set.

Lou’s last season was on par with his previous 18 seasons, and it ranks as one of the best final seasons of a HOFer. Unlike Aaron and Killer who had subpar batting averages in their last year, Brock shined through with a .304 average, which was 11 points higher than his career average!

Heck, Lou was even selected for the All-Star game, which makes his presence that much more missed from the 1980 set.

As far as the cards, the 1980 template is a real pain. The banner flag is difficult to cut around, and I still am having trouble getting the exact font types. If anyone has suggestions for font sizes and types, let me know and I can update the cards.

Version 1 - Classic Topps Pose

(Photo Courtesy of Steve's Baseball Photography Pages)

Version 2 - Thinking About Third
(Photo Courtesy of Steve's Baseball Photography Pages)

Here is Sweet Lou’s line from 1979 in 80 Topps format:

YEAR	CLUB	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	AVG
1979	Cardinals	120	405	56	123	15	4	5	38	.304

I’m baffled at his absence from this set.

PS - If you've got a request for a HOFer's missing last Topps Card, let me know in the comment box, and I'll give it a shot.