The Mystery of the 1953 Topps Set

1953 Topps Missing Cards

The other day on his show, Keith Olbermann revealed the missing players from the 1953 Topps Baseball set that were not issued. The names were discovered by longtime collector and custom baseball card maker Bob Lemke. The players were Ken Wood, Joe Tipton, Harry Brecheen, Pete Castiglione, Billy Coc and Hoot Evers

 Here are my customs of the missing cards plus the backs I made for them

Harry Brecheen and Pete Castiglione

Billy Cox and Joe Tipton

Ken Wood and Hoot Evers

Since the Evers original artwork hasn't been found, I used the artwork for the 1952 Bowman card and changed him from a Detroit Tiger into a Boston Red Sox.

Here are other 1953s that there was artwork done but never issued

Richie Ashburn, Max Lanier and Jim Suchecki

July 19, 2014 Customs From Private and Public Signings

The following customs are from private signings or mail ins to show signings

Tom Sanders
was obtained through Doug Keating at Cardboard Promotions in MA. Doug is reliable and highly recommended.

Ben Oglivie, Gorman Thomas and Charlie Moore
were obtained through Mark Grunske of Waukesha Sports in WI.

All the following were obtained through Signatures4U in Florida...Thanks Lou


Choo Choo Coleman

Tracy Stallard

Joe Christopher

Chuck Goggin

Sammy Taylor

Bill Dailey

July 13, 2014 Trying 1971 Great Moments Style Cards

It's been a while since I posted anything.....I had an arthroscopy for a torn meniscus in the knee and have been home from work for a month now so I had some time to play around with ideas.

1971 Style Great Moments..

I used to have this set many years ago and was always a favorite. After all the celebration regarding Lou Gehrig's speech anniversary last week, I did a few other "Great Moments" in the 1971 Topps Style. The only problem I have is trying to get the slanted lettering correct.

For the Aaron 715 card, I decided to use a color image instead of the black and white.

June 11, 2014 Jerry Kramer, Billy Sims and Others

It has been a while since I posted anything new because I haven't had the time to scan and post but now here they are in one post.......a TTM basketball, two from signings and a "Friends of Ray Peters"

Jerry Kramer
played guard on all the great Lombardi Green Bay Packers teams of the 1960s. One of my favorite books growing up was authored by Mr Kramer and Dick Schaap, "Instant Replay" The signature was obtained for me by Mike from West Allis, WI. He is a big Jerry Kramer fan and I have been making some Kramer cards for him. He said Mr Kramer was coming to Wisconsin last week so I made a 1956 Style card using one of my favorite football images of Vince Lombardi and Jerry Kramer from the Super Bowl.

THANKS MIKE!!

Billy Sims
won the Heisman Trophy in 1978 at Oklahoma and then played for the Detroit Lions. He was a great runner until had a bad knee injury in 1984.

Dick Van Arsdale
played for the NY Knicks and then the expansion Phoenix Suns from 1965-1977

The Original Frank Thomas
Lou from Signatures4U got me the Frank Thomas customs signed. Frank was an Original 1962 Met and led them with 34 home runs after being a star in Pittsburgh with the Pirates in the 1950s.

and in another installment of the "Friends of Ray Peters"

Gene Ammann 
was a teammate of former Brewers pitcher Ray Peters with the Jacksonville Suns in 1970 and the Evansville Triplets in 1971.

While pitching at Florida State, Mr Ammann had an outrageous 1970 season with a 15-0 record, an ERA of 0.66, and eight shutouts. He was also named the 1970 College World Series Most Outstanding Player. He was signed by the Milwaukee Brewers after being drafted in the third round of the 1970 draft but never made the Major Leagues.He played in Japan for the Hankyu Braves in 1974.

June 3, 2014 My Bill Greason Custom Makes it to TNT

I made a custom card of the Reverend Bill Greason for collector Mark House, that was featured on TNT with Shaq, Barkley and Kenny Smith. Mark is trying to get Mr Greason inducted into the Oklahoma Hall Of Fame.

May 30, 2014 Jerry Bell

In another installment of "The Friends of Ray Peters" ( teammates and friends of the former Brewers' pitcher) we have.....

Jerry Bell
Mr Bell was originally drafted by the Seattle Pilots in the second round of the 1969 Amateur Draft. He made his debut in 1971 and had a 2-1 record. In 1972 he was a relief pitcher appearing in 25 games and finishing with a 5-1 record. In 1973 Jerry was a starting pitcher in 25 games and finished at 9-9.

Jerry mentioned to Ray that he had 3 cards but he shared his rookie card with 2 other players and his 1973 and 74 cards used the same picture so I made up 8 new cards using images I had plus ones supplied by Keith Olbermann.