All-Star Managers and Coaches

I haven't really been making post with regular themes lately, other than cards I have added to my collection, and although I did get a few hanging boxes lately ('19 Topps and '19 Heritage), they didn't contain anything special, and I didn't really want to waste a post on a random hanging box just for the sake of posting.
With that being said, the idea popped into my head last night to post all of the All-Star Manager and Coach cards I have made. I am coming up on the All-Star Manager and Coach cards in the 1993 Topps set, so that's where I got the idea from.

Let's start in 1983. This is the first set I really started making them in, although I had definitely added them to the checklists of earlier sets.  There isn't really that many places to search for All-Star coaches. Wikipedia and BB Reference do tell us the managers, though. For the '82 game, it was Billy Martin and Bob Lemon for the AL, and Tony LaRussa for the NL. Bob Lemon was fired after the '81 season, so in a normal year, the managers from the previous seasons' World Series game would be the All-Star managers. For the '82 game, Billy Martin was chosen to be the replacement in the AL. Here are their '83 Topps All-Star cards.

 I just finished making these cards a few weeks ago, and I really wish Topps would've given us All-Star manager and coach cards in all of their sets, but especially the '84 set.

 I haven't done '85, but here are the '86 Topps AS MGR cards, as well as one for Bobby Cox, the only coach I could find in the '85 game.

 In 1987, they didn't have the positions on the front, but the Managers were Howser and Herzog, and the coaches McNamara, Johnson, and Lasorda, each of whom would be All-Star managers in following years (McNamara and Johnson in the '87 game, and Lasorda in the '89 game.

 I haven't toyed with the '88 set, so here are the '89 cards, again with coaches.

 1990 didn't have positions listed again. Tommy Lasorda and Tony LaRussa managed the '89 game for leading their clubs to the '88 World Series.

 1991 didn't have positions listed again, but it was LaRussa and Roger Craig as the managers. I haven't got around to making the Craig, so the one you see down below Tony is a Joe Morgan coach card.

 I pulled out all of the stops in 1992, making backs to the entire set, something I will probably never do again. The Managers were Lou Piniella and LaRussa (again), and you can tell with the first few cards that I was just starting out, and that the last ones I was definitely getting better. I chose random stats and standings to put on the back of each one.

 There were a number of coaches in the '93 All-Star game, as you can see here. The managers were Bobby Cox and Cito Gaston.

After the '94 set, Topps put All-Stars in the 1995 set, and they were left out of the set until 2003, when they put in (guess what??) Managers!!!  I still will add coaches to the 2003-present sets.

As soon as I finish the coach cards in the 1993 Topps set, I will work on the All-Star manager and coach cards, with Bobby Cox and Tom Kelly being the managers for the '92 game.

I have finished the '84 set recently, have been making headway in the '93 set, and am 3 teams done from finishing the '81 Topps checklist. With all that being done, I am thinking about adding another thing to my plate by creating a Twitter account, mainly to post alot of the customs I make. I just don't want to mess up if I do create the account and I want to do everything professionally and not appear like a noob. So, a few questions...

First, what should I post? A random card? Groups of cards? A card of the day? What would attract people to follow my account?

Second, I notice there are a number of baseball players who I have made customs of that own Twitter accounts. Should I try to add them as followers first, and them post customs of them and tag them? Should I just post, and see if I can get the players as followers if these customs spread by word of mouth?

Third, should I add all of the MLB team accounts? Would Topps kill me if I added them and they saw that I was making customs using their designs?

I'm probably forgetting a few other questions, but these were the main ones. I don't even know if anyone would want to follow a Topps Cards that Never Were Twitter page, but if there is enough interest, I could create one. #ToppsCardsthatNeverWere.

Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy

Missing No-Hitters

Night Owl made a nice post a few days ago about no-hitters and the lack of recognition of Dodger no-hitters on cards. Well, my blog is all about lack of recognition. I try to recognize everyone who put on a MLB uniform by giving them a card (well, at least from the 1983-2001 Topps sets), and when I got to thinking about it, Topps has done a poor job at recognizing no-hitters during that period as well. There are a few highlight cards during that period (1984 had some, and Topps started making them in every set again for a while starting with the 1997 set), but many of the no-hitters in that period were missed. The 1990 season had about 12 by itself, let alone all of the random ones from 1984 through 1995. I have made a good number of highlight cards, so I thought I would show off the ones I have made so far celebrating no-hitters and perfect games.

Here we go, starting with the 1989 set. I know I said that the '85-'88 sets are missing cards, but I am kind of on a time crunch today and didn't have time to make cards from those sets, but I may update the post at a later time. Here is what may be the last no-hitter against the future world champs. Tom Browning pitched a perfect game against the future world champion Los Angeles Dodgers on September 16, 1988. He got a card in the '89 Fleer, Score, and a few other sets, but no '89 Topps card.

There were a good number of no-hitters in 1990, and I made cards for many of them in the 1991 Topps set. Among them are the combined one that Mark Langston and Mike Witt pitched, Randy Johnson's one against the Tigers, Dave Stewart's, Fernando Valenzuela's, Terry Mulholland's, and Dave Stieb's. On all except for the Langston/Witt and Stewart ones, other people provided the photos I believe, and I think they were all from the original games, so I apologize for the blurriness. 

 1991 had a good number of no-no's as well, and I completed the 1992 Topps set, and also made backs for it, so here you go. I have Bret Saberhagen's no-no, Denny Martinez's perfect game, Wilson Alvarez's no-hitter, combined no-hitters by the Baltimore Orioles and Atlanta Braves, and Nolan Ryan's 7th and final career no-hitter.

1992 only had 1 no-hitter, the one pitched by Kevin Gross. Here is his 1993 Topps highlight card.

1993 had no-hitters thrown by Chris Bosio, Jim Abbott, and Darryl Kile. I used the 1994 Topps preview design for these, and like how they turned out, making them a little different than a normal 1994 Topps card.

For the 1994 season/1995 Topps set, I have done Kenny Rogers' perfect game, Kent Mercker's no-hitter, and Scott Erickson's no-hitter.

I probably wouldn't have known about Ramon Martinez's no-hitter in 1995 had it not been mentioned on the back of 1 or 2 of his cards, and had Night Owl not made his post the other day. I believe there is only 1 card mentioning it in the 1996 sets for some reason. Here is his 1996 Topps card for the no-hitter.

And that about wraps it up. Topps did a better job catching all of the no-hitters and putting them on cards from the 1997 through about the 2010 decade. I hope you have enjoyed all of these missing no-hitter cards. Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy