1974 Yount begins Brewers custom card binge

With baseball season fast approaching, my custom card creation inspiration is turning towards the national pastime.

I've found some great photos of some of my favorite Milwaukee Brewers players of the 1970s, and will be spending some time working up cards for them.

Since I already had a template made from my 1974-style George Brett card, I decided to start with a 1974 Robin Yount "rookie" card, predating his actual Topps rookie by a year.

There's not really too much to say about the card's creation. If Topps had a better crystal ball and could have predicted the 18-year-old Yount would take over as the regular Brewers shortstop in 1974, they might have created a card like this.

Who would have suspected, though, that the guy would make the jump from short-season Class A ball with the last-place club (Newark Co-pilots) in the Pennsylvania-New York League to the majors?

One conundrum I faced in working up the card back concerns Yount's middle name. Topps cards that year included the player's full name: first, middle, last.

But there is some question as to whether Yount had a middle name. His "official" baseball biographies -- the Hall of Fame, Baseball Almanac and SABR data base -- list only a middle initial "R".  There are many citations on the internet, however, that state his middle name was Rachel. Topps, on its 1975 rookie card, went with the Robin R. Yount name. I decided that was the way I'd go, as well.

So, if you're a fan of the 1970s Brewers or 1970s baseball cards, keep watching this space for at least three Topps-style Brewers cards that never were.