Ideas for new cards

While thinking of ideas for cards to make in the future, I came up with 2 ideas. The first one was to possibly make some cards of players that attempted a comeback or signed a minor league deal with a club but never made it back to the Majors (1991 Jim Palmer, 1994 Traded Jesse Barfield, among others). One of the blogs I follow (Jays Custom Cards and Stuff) had a few cards of St. Louis Cardinal players who signed Minor League Deals but never made it to the Bigs. Unfortunately, I don't believe his blog is up anymore.

The second idea I had was to make cards of some notable Big Leaguers who were replacement players in Spring Training 1995 during the MLB strike. I was only 11 when the strike occurred, so I didn't know much about what was going on and I wish so much that I was older and would've had the sense to keep records on all of the replacement players and found a way to get pictures of them. My parents got the newspaper back then so I had access to box scores at least. I even had tickets to a Detroit Tigers game that year in Spring Training but something happened and I wasn't able to go. If only I was old enough to drive.....I did go to another game that spring, but by then the strike was over and it was the old players I was used to.

I did some searches of some of the bigger name replacement players like Oil Can Boyd for the White Sox and Willie (Guillermo) Hernandez for the Yankees and was unable to find pictures of them for their respective teams during the 1995 Spring Training season, but I think I can photoshop those 2 ok. I would love to make cards of every replacement player in 1995, but I think even finding the names of the players on rosters would be tremendously difficult, let alone finding pictures of a majority of career minor leaguers and players who hadn't been in the Majors in 2-10 years. Plus even if I did, probably 90% of them would need their uniforms to be changed. So I have decided to make cards of only the bigger named players or ones that strike me as interesting.

That begs the question, if the replacement rosters were finalized around let's say, February of 1995, should I make the cards in the 1995 set or the 1994 Traded set?  The '95 Series 1 set would've focused on players from the '94 season and the replacements probably wouldn't get a card till Series 2, which was put out well after the strike was over. The '94 Traded set was put out before the replacement players were needed and while people still believed the strike would end sometime in the winter. Plus, I think the '94 design is a lot harder to work with than the '95 design.

I'm still not sure what to do, but part of me is leaning toward just doing the '94 design since it would be more realistic that Topps would've put replacement players in an Traded set (or a special edition '94 Traded Series 2 that would've maybe been released in March or April of 1995 had the strike continued. It's kind of a stretch, but although I personally think labor unions are a good thing, I kind of wish the replacement players would've got into a few regular season games before the strike ended. It would've been interesting to see players who played more for the love of the game, and we would've got cards of many people that just slipped out of view after the spring of '95.

I would appreciate your input on what design to use for the cards. Once I'm back at the house, I have a Dick Pole card to post, I might do another Pole card, but then I think I will make a '90 Willie Hernandez final card and his either '94 Traded or '95 replacement card to go with it. Thanks for any thoughts, ideas, and help.

-Jeremy

2005 Bowman Kelly Hunt

I first heard about Kelly Hunt 10 years ago. I lived in Lakeland, FL, and Kelly played First Base for my hometown Lakeland Tigers. Kelly had a great year, ranking among the league leaders in HRs, 2Bs, and RBIs. During the season, I got to know Kelly, and found that we had a few things in common, including our Christian faith, taste in books, and music. After the last game of the season, Kelly gave me his bat, and we kept in touch for a few years. Kelly never made it to the Majors, but I think he deserved a card in 2005. If a few injuries would've happened in 2006, I think Kelly would've realistically been in Detroit. He tore up AA that year. Unfortunately, Kelly never got a Bowman card, so here is my version of his 2005 card.

I might make a few more cards that aren't in the 'Dick Pole Project', but rest assured, I will get back to the project shortly. Thanks for checking out today's card.
-Jeremy

1996 Topps Dick Pole/Bobby Bonds/Wendell Kim/Bob Lillis

Well, I got over the shock of losing all of my custom card data and decided to start over from scratch. It won't affect this blog much, since the only thing I really repeatedly use on it is the "Jeremy's Custom Cards" logo. But my other blog will be basically starting from having 1992 Topps templates for all 28 temas to having to make templates for 22 teams. Sad day.

back on topic, today's card in the Dick Pole Project is his 1996 Topps card. I modeled it after the '96 Topps prospect subset. It also features Giants coaches Bobby Bonds, Wendell Kim, and Bob Lillis. I really like it.

I hope to work on Pole's '97 Topps card later in the week. Thanks for checking out my card.
- Jeremy

1995 Topps Dick Pole/Bobby Bonds

It's been a while since I've blogged last, but I am back with a new card for the Dick Pole Project.

Today's card is his 1995 Topps card. I chose to base it off of the All-Star subset from the '95 set (although I think for any Manager cards I make in that set will have the regular player design). I think it works pretty well. I have an idea to make his '96 card using the Prospects subset design and put 4 coaches on a card, but that one may not work, I will just have to wait and see.

In 1994, Pole's pitchers weren't as good as in 1993, but he had a Maris-like year from Matt Williams and a (at that time) career year from Barry Bonds on the offense, but the strike killed it all. I would look upset like Pole did if the team I was on had its season ruined by a strike too.

I would love to hear comments on this or any other cards, and ideas for more projects in my custsom set. Thanks for reading.
-Jeremy

1994 Topps Dick Pole

The lastest card in the Dick Pole Project is his 1994 Topps card. After a year in which he was either coaching in the minors or not in organized baseball, Dick Pole joined the San Francisco Giants staff in 1993. He inhereted a great team, and helped John Burkett and Bill Swift become 20-game winners. Unfortunately, for the Giants, MLB was still in the 2-division format, and the Giants won 103 games, only to finish 2nd in the NL West behind the Atlanta Braves. I never got why the Braves were in the West, when the NL could've made a team like the Chicago Cubs be in the West.

I already have the front to Pole's 1995 Topps card done, and I think the card is going to turn out great. I used the All-Star border from the '95 Topps set, and put 2 coaches on the card, so Pole's card also features Bobby Bonds. I'm pretty sure the back will be like the '95 Topps All-Star back, with coach bios instead of stats.
-Thanks for checking out card #5 of the Dick Pole Project.

1992 Topps Dick Pole

Dick Pole's 1992 Topps card is modeled after his card I made for my other blog, Completing the 1992 Topps set. For the coach cards in the '92 set, I put team leaders on the backs, as well as a team checklist, since Topps stopped doing the team leaders on the backs after 1991. The 1992 Topps checklists name off the team checklists, but since I am adding cards to the set, I felt the need to put the complete team checklists on the back of the coach cards, and to do the checklists in the set with a normal numerical list.

Pole's Cubs had a down season in 1991, and the Pittsburgh Pirates won the NL East. It would be Dick's last season with the Cubs, and he would go on to coach the San Francisco Giants starting in 1993. Thanks for checking out the 4th card in the Dick Pole Project.
-Jeremy

1991 Topps Dick Pole

Card #3 in the Dick Pole Project is his 1991 Topps card. Pole and the Cubbies failed to defend their NL East crown in 1990, but he did get a solid double-digit win season from Greg Maddux. Pole would have 1 more season as the Cubs' pitching coach before moving on to San Francisco in 1993.