Unseen Pics of Hall of Famers from The Topps Vault

Just when I think that Topps must have cleaned out their Vault by now of all the great photos they have in their archives, they continue to surprise me with fantastic shots of some of the all time greats that never made it on to cardboard.

Checking the current auctions, I came across these great photos:
















And even though he's not a Hall of Famer, I had to include this great shot of Roger Maris taken in Yankee Stadium when he played for the Indians:


I don't know how long Topps can keep finding treasures like these, but I hope they still have lots more pictures like this to offer.

Here is One Way to Tell Who is Who in a Team Photo

I came across this great Orioles team photo from 1968:


Everybody seems to be doing a good job of facing back towards home plate except Frank Robinson and Curt Blefary, who we can see looking off to their right towards the 3rd base dugout.

According to the information on the back, the picture was taken in May, 1968.


I like to see that the team and the photographer were having some fun with the shoot. Since this photo is coming from The Sporting News archives, I wonder if it was ever actually published.

UPDATE:

Thanks to Commishbob ('59 Topps) and Dan (11th and Washington) for more details behind the photographer and the "Lets Get Behind The Birds" promotion from 1968 that utilized this photo (with a bit of airbrushing) as we discover in this article that appeared in the December 14, 1968 issue of The Sporting News (Thanks Dan!) (click to see a larger version).


Thanks to both of you for the great information behind this interesting photo!

1971 All Star Game Broadcast

As the 2011 All Star Game approaches, I thought it would be fun to take a look back 40 years ago to the broadcast of one of the more memorable All Star Games - the 1971 Midsummer Classic.


The game was broadcast by NBC


The broadcasters were Curt Gowdy and Tony Kubek, along with Lindsey Nelson down on the field


Quite a contrast in terms of sports coats from three years ago!


The game was played in Tiger Stadium, which was decked out for the occasion:


Talk about some amazing lineups. The NL was managed by Hall of Fame manager Sparky Anderson


who had the following Hall of Famers in his starting lineup






On the American League side, Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver


had the following Hall of Famers in his starting lineup:






That's 10 Hall of Famers just in the starting lineup! They were joined by 10 other Hall of Famers on the bench, for a total of 20 (22 if you include the managers).

Earl Weaver and Sparky Anderson wore microphones as they exchanged lineup cards and went over the ground rules with the umpire. You can see the umpires microphone below:


Vida Blue started for the American League


and one of the first batters he faced was Hank Aaron, who received The Gillette Award for being the top vote getter for the All Star Game


Also in the top of the 1st, the eventual 1971 AL MVP faced the eventual 1971 NL MVP Joe Torre


Dock Ellis was the starter for the National League


and really seemed to enjoy wearing his unusual Pirates batting helmet as he was wearing it during the pregame interview as well as his at bat


which in itself is somewhat odd as you would figure with all the talent on the bench and in the bullpen that you would pinch hit for the pitchers spot.

The great thing about this game is that all the scoring was done from Home Runs from 6 different Hall of Famers.

Johnny Bench was the first to homer in the top of the 2nd (with Willie Stargell on 1st)


As you can see in this picture of Bench rounding 3rd, the bases were painted red, white, and blue:


Next came Hank Aaron in the top of the 3rd


This was actually Hank Aaron's first extra base hit in All Star competition.

The AL struck back in the bottom of the 3rd, with Reggie Jackson's famous home run off the light tower on the roof (with Luis Aparicio on 1st)


which was followed later in the inning by Frank Robinson (with Rod Carew on 1st)


In the bottom of the 6th, Harmon Killebrew homered (with Al Kaline on 1st)


with the final HR coming from Roberto Clemente in the top of the 8th


Not only were all the HRs hit by HOFs, even the guys who were on base at the time were all HOFs as well!

Speaking of Hall of Famers, there were also a number of HOFs who appeared in ads during the broadcast.

Whitey Ford was eating Product 19


Tom Seaver and his wife Nancy were filling up the car at Philips 66


Johnny Bench was talking about Gillette razors


and Don Drysdale was talking about a Chrysler promotion to win 2 tickets to the 1971 World Series


Surprisingly, there was only one beer ad during the whole game. It was an ad for Schlitz


One other interesting thing that caught my eye was that Norm Cash did not wear a batting helmet.


When it was all said and done, Brooks Robinson caught the final out


and the American League had finally won a game after 8 consecutive losses.


Unfortunately for the AL, this would be their only victory of the 1970's, as they would lose 11 games in a row and would not win again until 1983.

Watching this game was a treat as this is what an All Star Game should be. 20 future Hall of Famers led by 2 Hall of Fame managers putting on a great show.