Working on '78 Topps and such

Just a reminder to anyone who cares, in my last post, I announced a contest where the prize is 3 custom cards off of my checklists. I will have up to 5 winners, and all you need to do to enter is leave a comment on the post.

I have been trying to work on making some checklists during my lunch break at work. Currently, I am working on the 1978 Topps checklist. I have finished the missing players for the entire National League, and am working on the American League now. The checklists aren't that hard, since Topps actually put most of the 40-man rosters on cards in the '70's. After the '78 checklist is finished, I will work on the '77 set, then '76, '75, and so on until the '70's are finished.

The templates are a work in progress. So far, I have '78's for the Braves and Tigers. I've found that Topps has made several designs for '70's sets on their custom page, but they aren't totally true to the original designs (only one color design, for instance), and just as a rule, if you are trying to help cross some cards off of my list by making them, I probably won't use any that have the Topps templates, unless they match the colors of the teams that are on the original cards. With that being said, I will try my best to make templates for the sets. I am working on putting my loose baseball cards into binders, and in a few months once that is done, I will have some free time available to make checklists and templates with.

Here is the link to the '78 set, along with the templates that I have, and just for a treat, here are the 2 '78's I've done so far. The Tigers ones are done by Giovanni from When Topps Had Balls.

Finally, here is a link to an awesome post that my friend Beny made with a list (and pictures!!!!) of most of the fonts from every Topps set from 1951 to the present. It is so awesome, and has allowed me and others to make customs that are almost spot-on to the real cards. Beny put a ton of work into the page, and I wish there was a Go Fund Me page or something to thank him for doing the font page.

Hope you enjoy the '78 page. Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy

1978 Topps Ted Turner

Recently, I made the last 2 cards for the 1st Series (1981 Minnie Minoso, and 1997 Alejandro Pena), and made the first 3 for the Second (1980 Disco Demolition Night Highlights, 1990 Bo Jackson All-Star Game Highlights, and 1993 Topps Stadium Club Derek Jeter 1st Day Issue). I had saved them as drafts, and planned on posting them 1 by 1, maybe 2 per week, until I was caught up. Unfortunatly, Blogger had other ideas, and posted them on the days they were first made as drafts, so I am now up to card #29, but some of the last 5 cards are out of order, so just throwing that out there in case you missed the last few cards.

Today's card is a 1978 Topps card of Ted Turner, who managed the Atlanta Braves for 1 game in 1977 against the Pittsburgh Pirates. I don't believe any card company has made a card of Mr. Turner, and I only saw 2 customs when I went searching on Google. Ted took over for manager Dave Bristol after the Braves lost 15 games. Ted had the Braves rallying in his lone game, down 2-1 in the 8th. With a runner on, he sent Darrel Chaney to pinch-hit, and Chaney hit a ground-rule Double. If it wouldn't have went over the wall, the run would've scored and the game would've been tied. Pirates manager Chuck Tanner (who would manage the Braves later in his career) sent in Goose Gossage, who retired the side and got the Save. After the game, Commissioner Bowie Kuhn declared that someone who owned part of a team couldn't manage it, and that was Turner's last game on the field. Braves coach Vern Benson took over for Turner, and later in the season, a man named Bobby Cox would manage the team. 34 years later, Cox would be inducted into the Hall of Fame, so it wasn't a totally bad year for the Braves in 1977. Turner would own the Braves until 1996, the year after they would win their only World Championship Trophy for him.

1978 Topps Rookie Infielders

If things play out like I think they will in the Hall of Fame voting in the next year, this card would've been the rookie card of 4 Hall of Famers. Topps made a seperate card for Eddie Murray in the 1978 set, and didn't include Ozzie Smith (his rookie would appear in 1979. I found an awesome blog called KOD14 in my search for photos, and though there's not much information about it, I believe I got the basic idea of the blog. The blog's writer and a few other people participated in a computer-based simulation using real MLB teams from various years. For every team, they took the rosters, and made Topps cards for the players who Topps left off (kind of like I am trying to do with my 1992 Topps set on my other blog). Being an Out of the Park Baseball fan, I really like the concept of the blog, and it almost looks like they are using OOTP. Well, one of the teams was the 1978 San Diego Padres, so the writer made a regular 1978 Topps card of Ozzie Smith. I looked at the writer's other blogs on his profile, and it looks like the group did a few more seasons and made more cards as well. I might have to contact them and see if I can get in on it. Back to this card, I wish Topps would've had the forsight to put Murray and Smith on this card. It would've been one of the most popular cards of that decade.