World Series customs

I just wanted to say thanks to anyone who commented on my last post and thanks to everyone who wanted to start a trade. I tend to overthink things, and I think that's what I sometimes do with cards too.

Today, I am posting all of the World Series Highlights cards that I have. Someone over on the FB Custom Card group wanted to know if anyone had made any.  I will start with the oldest ones I have.

I like to get action shots from the actual game for the cards, and some of these have bad images or just not any at all, so I had to settle for a pose. But, it is what it is, and there is my 1982 World Series highlight set from 1983 Topps.

Sometimes, you just get a boring game with not many highlights, as in Game 2 of the 1983 World Series, so for those, I just don't make a card. I was born in 1983, so I don't know what happened in that game. Heck, I can't remember what happened in Game 2 of this years' World Series. I did, however, make 3 cards for Game 5, as Murray, Dempsey, and McGregor all had noteworthy performances in the game. 

This is the only one I have for the 1985 World Series so far. For all of the ALCS/NLCS/World Series game from the 1979-1996 Topps sets, I have checklists for each card needing to be made on the corresponding set page, so you can see which ones need to be done and which ones I have done (as they are crossed out). 

The 1986 World Series set on the 1987 Topps set is complete, with the Mookie Wilson cards being one of the first customs I have ever posted. 

In the 1989 Topps set, I made 1988 World Series Highlights cards, but I can't for the life of me find a few of the individual cards. I know I made them, as I printed out a set for Night Owl. I did, however, save the sheets of 6 cards that I printed out, so along with the World Series set, you get the NLCS set as well, including the backs. 

 I believe Richard B. made a few of these, but here are the 3 cards I have for the 1989 World Series. Still have a few more to go to finish this set.

I know Bob J. made a way better set in the same design, but here is my 1990 World Series set. 

The 1991 World Series appears on 1992 Topps, the first set I ever attempted at completing every missing player on. I was naive enough to make backs for thes whole 700+ card additional set. Never again.

The 1992 Series was the first one I remember watching. I was a Braves fan, and as a 9-year old, I really wanted them to win. I remember watching the final game, and I fell asleep when it went to extra innings, and I think I woke up to see Winfield hit the double to basically win it. At least I would see the Braves win in 1995. 

I was rooting for the Phillies in 1993, and they let me down as well. It was a good series, though.

This was the Braves title I had been waiting for.  I had misbehaved or something during the morning of whenever Game 6 was on, so I got punished and wasn't aloud to watch it. My mom, knowing how much the game meant to me, woke me up before the 9th inning, and let me watch, and I saw Marquis Grissom catch a fly ball for out #3. 

 The 1996 Series doesn't matter, since the Yankees won it, so I haven't got around to making any for that set, and that brings us to the 1998 Topps set (1997 World Series), which Topps actually made. They made them for every season since (save for the 2001 World Series on the 2002 set, the 2009 World Series on the 2010 set, and the 2010 Series on the 2011 set), and I am also going to make a set of the 2006 World Series on the 2007 design, since Topps decided to go all non-yearbook style and add it to the '06 Update Series.

I hope you have enjoyed this post on all of the World Series customs I have.

Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy

Trading aprehension

First off, if I've named your blog on this post, please don't feel offended by it. I highly repect the blogs I have mentioned, and don't mean anything negative or offensive by what I post.

Have you ever just not traded cards with someone because you were just overwhelmed at what they had and really don't have anything that fit their collection or have just plain run out of cards of a certain team?

I have really started blogging for the past 3-4 years or so, and really haven't traded too much within the time. Sure, it has picked up some, especially in the past year, but I just don't trade that much. Part of it is because my wife would kill me if I kept getting packages every week and sent them out every week. With postage only going up, it is tough to trade anymore, and that is one of the main reasons I hear that people don't trade anymore.
I also haven't really ripped much retail in 2019. Part of it is because I just don't have the money to. I get the itch if I haven't got new cards lately, but it is just so much of a crap shoot with retail anymore (especially if you are looking for a not-so-popular team like the Rays). Let's say you buy a box of cards, and somehow you get a jersey card/low #d parallel/autograph of the team/player you collect. Chances are you purchased a Topps product, because everyone knows that Panini can't have team logos on the product, so not many collectors actively purchase Panini stuff. So you have the "hit" card that you take and file away in your collection in your binder/box/safety deposit box/whatever. Since you purchased Topps, and their coalation is horrible, you probably got multiple doubles, perhaps even triples of a few cards, and aren't really close to making a dent in the set (if you collect the set anymore). You could perpahps pass off the doubles to other collectors (I'll get to that later), but you are basically out let's say $30-50 bucks to break a box of low-mid level Topps product that will leave you with a hit or two of your favorite team/player (and beat the 1 in maybe 30 odds of pulling 2 cards from that combination) IF you are lucky. If not, more trade bait, hopefully, plus a ton of cards that probably won't fit your collection. Or you could've taken that money and purchased multiple cards from COMC, eBay, or even some overpriced cards on Amazon, and cherry picked the players and teams that you wanted. You could've even ordered some of Topps' overpriced online-exclusive weekly cards/sets and picked your favorite team or player. What I am saying is that buying retail just doesn't work for the average Joe anymore, and I think that is hurting trading as a whole.

From time to time, I will run across a blog that is not in my reading list, and think 'Wow! They have a nice collection. I bet they have some Rays cards, and if I could make a trade with them, I'll have some nice new cards!'. Beacuse, let's be honest. When we trade with someone, we hope to get some cool cards in return. That doesn't mean that guys won't send someone some cards expecting nothing in return, because that happens it seems more often than not, but in order to start a trade, you have to give something in order to get something.
This kind of leads to a few problems for me. Number one, I don't buy that much retail anymore. This past season in my life has been very crazy, so if things were normal, I could've probably went to 3-5 card shows (at least) in the past year, and visited the card shop a mile from my house at least another 5-10 times. That hasn't happened this year. Which means that I really don't have anything in my collection from 2019 other than base cards and a few inserts. Not my fault because things have been crazy, but it always feels good to surprise someone with a jersey card or autograph from a favorite player or team, and that's just not happening with me right now if you want to trade with me.
This also brings problem #2. I really don't have anything that would fit into a collection of a SuperCollector like Tan Man Baseball Fan, Collecting Cutch, the Junior Junkie, among others. Yeah, I have Jose Canseco, Andrew McCutchen, and Ken Griffey, Jr. cards, but just not anything super-rare that a supercollector would need. And truth be told, if they are a supercollector, I doubt they are wasting money on retail, so chances are, they don't have anything I need either (although, if you want to trade with me, I would love to try, so shoot me an email with a list of anything you think I could have). I mean, I could try to bid on a 1/1 card of one of these guys and try to trade, but why drive up the price if they are bidding on it already?  That doesn't mean I won't pull a 1/1 Dan Vogelbach card, but if I'm not buying much retail, it's not very likely. I hope in the future I will be able to go to more shows and shops and find more cards to trade, but for now, I don't have much.
Speaking of not having much, it kind of stinks that there are only 30 teams in baseball. There are more than 30 guys who collect and trade, so sometimes, you just run out of decent cards for a team. I recently ran out of 'hit' Dodgers,Cubs, Pirates, Padres, Athletics, (and soon to be Rockies as I am in the process of a trade with Adam from Infield Fly Rule Cards), so if there is a blog I see that collects those teams, I am hesitant to start a trade with them in fear of having nothing they need. It's also a tad hard for me to trade with Rays and Tigers fans, as I try to hoard all of those cards for myself, and although I do have doubles of those teams, all of them are base cards. I would love to trade with A Cracked Bat, but I really doubt I'm going to have many Tigers to add to Julie's collection, and I would probably try to dig through my collection and give her some Tigers so I wouldn't be a jerk, but I'm sure the stack of cards she needs would be less than the stack of what she would have for me, so it's almost a moot point.
I don't mean to whine about trading. I just have run into some obstacles when it comes to trading, and wonder if anyone has found ways around them or if I should just ignore my instincts and send base cards.
I really want to make some trades, but I just want to be reassured that I won't undercut the return pack package.

Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy

2014 Topps Jim Leyland sunset card

It's been a while since I've shared any new customs, so I thought I would share my latest one.

Jim Leyland was a terrific manager, earning 1,769 Wins in 22 seasons, winning 3 pennants, and 1 World Series title. I feel like he should've beat the Cardinals in '06 and the Giants in '12, but what do I know? Topps stopped featuring managers in their base sets after 2009, so he wasn't able to get his sunset card in the '14 set. I corrected the mistake, and gave him the hero card number of 700. 
I think he has a chance at the Hall of Fame based on his championship with the Marlins, solid work with the Tigers, his 2017 WBC title, and for turning the Pirates into contenders in the early '90's. He really got screwed over by Bonds' throw in the 1992 NLCS, and by the long layoff between the '06 ALCS and World Series, and I hope voters consider that. With some of these managers like Lou Piniella and Bobby Cox coming up on the ballot who only won 1 World Series Title, but had many division winners, I think Leyland might have a chance to get in. We know Cox will get elected, and Piniella definitely has a shot, and then you will have someone to compare Leyland to and make voters see that he is up their with them.

I finished the 2012 Topps missing player checklist tonight, and started working on some 'blank' templates for the 2013 and 2014 sets. Here is one for 2013.

I just basically have to change the color of the sea turtle, and cut and paste the team logo to make it work for every team. I hope that when I finish all of the missing player checklists that I can also provide some templates for most of the sets. I know I have all of them done for every team in the 1986-2001 sets, and I have blank templates for the 1976, 1985, 2002, 2003, 2007, 2008, 2013, and 2014 sets. Another few can hopefully be covered with some templates I made that just need some color adjustments, a few like 1952, 1968, 1983, and 1984 are already done, 1957 is just a white border with writing, so that's covered, 1962 is just a wood border and writing, so it's covered, and another are covered by the Topps custom card maker on their website (2016, 2017, and 2018). That leaves not as many sets as you think left to make templates for. I may try to work on this for a little while once the checklists are complete. Check back if you are a custom card maker and you could use some basic 2.5 by 3.5 inch .png template files.
I think I will also try to list all of the sunset cards I have come across that will be custom cards. A few years I haven't listed them on the checklist, but I think I can go on bbref and look at the page of each year and the players who played their final season, and just match them up with my checklists. If they don't appear on it, they have a Topps sunset card. If they do appear on my checklist, then that means they need a custom sunset card for that year. I think it will be really cool to make my 'Sunset Card' page and it will allow you to look and see who got a sunset card in which Topps set, and also see the hoards of players that missed out and need a custom one. Plus, it will give me a ton of cards to work on.

It's going to be a fun end of the year and a fun 2020 here at Topps Cards that Never Were. Thanks for coming along for the ride and for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy

The Nationals are World Champions!!

So it seems like every time I think I come up with an idea for a cool BBA, it blows up in my face and nobody reads the post or follows my train of thought, so I think I will just keep my thoughts to myself and try not to feed my ego, lol. I think my posts come out better anyways when I'm not writing something that I am hoping will get a lot of comments.
With that being said, here is a post about your 2019 MLB World Champions, the Washington Nationals. I can't belive they won, but I guess anyone can win as long as they get in the playoffs. I was rooting for them because most of the team didn't have rings, and it was nice to see older stars like Ryan Zimmerman, Stephen Strasburg, and Max Scherzer get rings.
To celebrate their big win, here are some customs I have of Nationals players/coaches (they may not be pictured as Nats on the custom, but oh well).

First up is Nats manager Dave Martinez. I have always been a fan of Dave. He got the first hit in Tampa Bay (Devil) Ray history, and he was always a likeable guy when he was with them.
In 2009, I saw the Rays and Indians play a Spring Training game in Winter Haven, FL. It was just before the Rays had their magical '09 season where they took the AL by surprise and made it to the World Series.
I had come to the game early to get autographs, and as I was walking in to the park, Dave come up to my right. I guess he had drove to the park by himself and was walking in to the stadium. I quickly dug out my 3 cards of him that I brought, and he signed them. I remarked to him how surprised I was to see him just walk up to the park like that and not go in through a player entrance. He was really nice, and I knew he had a big baseball mind when he was coaching with the Rays, and something told me that he would win a World Series. This custom is from the 1999 Topps set, and celebrates that first Rays hit.

This custom of Strasburg is kind of a mash up. Most of it was done by reader Richard, and I added the 2009 Draft Pick part to it. I think I may try to do another one with a different font, and maybe put the Draft Pick part on the top somehow. I have always thought Stephen Strasburg would just break out and have a 20 Win season and show all of his potential. He had injuries slow him down, but he had a decent season this year, was great in the playoffs, and now can put his name on the list of players who have won a ring.

I think I have shown this custom before. If MLB hadn't changed the rules for putting rookies and minor league players on cards in '05-'06, we would'be probably seen a card like this. The Alex Gordon from that set would've got all of the attention, but this card would've been the one to hold its value over time.
Max Scherzer has accomplished just about anything a pitcher can. He has a 20 strikeout game. He has 2 no-hitters. He now has a ring. 3,000 strikeouts is on the horizon in a season or two. He is maybe missing a perfect game from his resume, but it is not crazy to think that he would throw one. The thing that floors me is that he has only been pitching in the Majors since 2008, and he has 2,692 strikeouts. That is only 12 seasons!!  He has put together a Hall of Fame career, and still has 5-6 years left if he decides to ride his body out.  I don't want to brag, but this card is mine!!!

And so are these!!

Not that I would ever sell them, but it feels nice to actually have some decent cards of someone who is putting together a great career.

I just made this one up today. This set is going to be one of those sets that I wait until like 2050 to attempt. It is so tough to make a good template for it, and the curved nameplate kills me. Not the best custom, but this could've been Anthony Rendon's rookie card had Topps been allowed to make Draft Pick cards. Rendon has put together some good seasons, and established himself as a great player for the Nats.

This one, I believe, was made by Richard. Davey Lopes has been in baseball forever. He was a good infielder for the Dodgers in the '70's, and played through the '80's with a few teams, and then coached ever since. He was a coach for the '98 Padres that made it to the World Series, and he went on to manage the Brewers in the early '00's. Now, he is with the Nationals, and won a ring. I did some digging, and found these coach customs I had made of Davey. I love the '94 photo of him getting tossed from a game.

Well, that's about all I have of National player/coach customs. If Zimmerman wouldn't have had a card in the '05 set, I would've definitely added one, but he did, and I don't have anything of Zim.
I might try to work on some 2020 Topps World Series customs, so stay tuned for them.

I finished the 2011 Topps missing player checklist, and am starting the 2012 checklist. There might be a small chance that I can finish all of them before the end of the year. Just 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, and 2019 to go. It could happen. It won't be a big deal if it doesn't, but it would be cool to catch up to Topps and be able to crank out customs and templates. Thanks for following me on this journey, and congrats to the Washington Nationals. It is tough to even make it to the playoffs, and you only get so many chances, and have to take advantage of them.
Last thing before I go. I played basketball in middle school at the YMCA. The first 3 seasons, we had ok teams, but always got knocked out of the playoffs in the 1st of 3 rounds. Every team got in the playoffs, so it wasn't anything special to get in, but it was if you won. Well, that 4th seaosn, playing for the Grizzlies, I had a great coach who had a defense where he would have a fast guy guarding whoever had the ball, 2 guards at the top of the key, and 2 big/tall guys (I was a tall guy, so this was where I would play) by the hoop who would intercept passes. We rode this defense through the 1st round, beating the worst team in the leauge, the Rockets. We won the 2nd round against a decent Pacers team. In the finals, we played the Wolverines, who was coached by my best friend Jon's brother. My best friend was their star center, and my friend Antoine was their star forward. They had a lead in the 1st half, but because of rules, they had to play their subs in the 2nd half because they hadn't played all game. We took the game over, and won the title.
The next year, our team was good on paper, but we stunk up the regular season. In the 1st round of the playoffs, we staged a 2nd half comeback to win. In the 2nd round, we played the 2nd best team in the leauge, and found ourselves down by like 8 starting the 2nd half. Our shooting guard Roger hit a 3, we got a rebound, Rog hit another 3, and I found myself believing that we could come back and win, which we did. In the finals, we played the best team in the league, were down going in to the 2nd half, and came back and won. I scored 4 points, but it was kind of bittersweet. I started every game that year, and coach Z. counted on me to get rebounds and score points close to the bucket. I was in 10th grade, and wouln't be eligible to play the next year. I kind of knew my basketball career would be over. During the last few minutes of the final game, we were ahead, and coach Z. took me out. With a few seconds left, I wanted to be on the floor for my last game, but I didn't say anything to him, and I sat on the bench and watched the clock run down to 0.0, and we shook hands with the opposing team and recieved our trophies.
I say all of this to say that championships are special and don't happen that often, so if you find yourself a part of one in any part of your life (whether it be winning an award at work, winning a personal victory over something, finally having a baby after trying so hard, getting the girl of your dreams, getting a job you wanted, winning a softball championship, whatever), take a breath and enjoy it!! You don't know if it will ever happen again, and they are special moments. Always remember them and let them remind you that good things can happen and remember how far you have come. And if you are on the bench in the final seconds of the last game of your career, ask your coach to put you in. You won't regret it. Here is a photo of my 2nd championship trophy.

Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy