1997 Topps Alan Trammell

I've been away from this blog for awhile, but I'm back, and just in time to finish the 2nd series. This card is interesting for a few reasons. First, it would've been the final Topps card of Alan Trammell. I also did a custom 1978 Topps rookie card of Alan, featuring him, Paul Molitor, Ozzie Smith, and Eddie Murray. So this card marks the first time in my set that I have done a custom rookie and final Topps card of a player. The only other player so far to get 2 cards in Nolan Ryan (a 1967 Topps rookie with Tom Seaver, and a 1994 Topps Season Highlights card highlighting the fight he had with Robin Ventura during his final season).
The 2nd reason this card is interesting is that card #25 (the last card in Series 1) was also from 1997 Topps, a 1997 Topps Alejandro Pena sunset card.
The final thing that makes this card interesting is that it is card #7. After Mickey Mantle died in 1995, Topps chose to make a Mantle card as #7 in the 1996 Topps set. After 1996, Topps chose to retire card #7 in honor of Mantle, so most of the Topps sets in the next 20 years would not feature a card #7. I had forgot about this until the other day, and decided that since I am completing Topps sets and had planned to fillin any holes number-wise, that I should fill in the missing #7 cards in the Topps sets that had them. This 1997 Topps Alan Trammell will be the first.

It's truly a shame that Trammell didn't get a final Topps card in the 1997 set. Most of the other sets that year (Fleer, Collector's Choice, Score, Pinnacle, and Upper Deck) gave him one, but not Topps. As I did the research for this card, I thought I would be swung towards the side of him being worthy of the Hall of Fame, but I am still unsure. He missed probably 20 games per season, and only had 1 or 2 spectacular seasons, and missed almost all of 1992 due to injury. I think he would've put up maybe a full season or 2 of decent stats with all the time he missed, and that would've got him closer to 3,000 hits (maybe 200-300 hits shy), but he really didn't have the power or speed that I assumed he had, and after typing in his Batting Averages, I would've guessed that his career totals would've been closer to .260-.270, not .280. I guess he was consistant for his era, but I think that he belongs in the Hall of Very, Very Good (the best you can be without getting into the Hall), not the Hall of Fame, and I am sad to state that, being a huge Detroit Tiger fan.

Series 3 starts off next with a 1999 Topps sunset card of Denny Martinez. I have put a link to the checklist of cards I plan on making in the future on the right hand side of the blog, and have also put some of my favorite blogs on the right as well. Check them out, there are some great custom makers out there, and as always, feel free to leave comments, suggestions, and ideas in the comment section. Thanks for reading.
-Jeremy