Holmgren didn't make either the Cardinals or Topps cuts

This is the fifth in a string of "football cards that never were" that I've created in December. It's likely to be my last football custom for a while; I'll be switching gears to do some baseball cards.

I showed you a 1969 Topps-style Winston Hill card (Dec. 2), and cards of Bucky Pope (Dec. 14) and Booth Lusteg (Dec. 17). Both of the latter had never before appeared on contemporary football cards, while Hill was part of a number of national and regional issues.

On Dec. 21, I presented my card of former Eagles and Jets head coach Rich Kotite. Kotite had a short, undistinguished career as a player with the N.Y. Giants and Pittsburgh Steelers, but didn't appear on a Topps or Philadelphia card during his playing days.

Mike Holmgren didn't have a card -- or a career -- as an NFL player. However, as the very successful head coach of the Green Bay Packers (75-37 1992-98), he can be found on a number of cards in the 1990s; from ProSet, Pro Line and various local team issues.

Holmgren had an even longer career as head coach for the Seattle Seahawks, 86-74 between 1998-2008. However, he doesn't seem to have appeared on any major card sets in that span.

There does exist a really nice Topps photo taken during his time in the St. Louis Cardinals camp in 1970. It's the picture I used on my custom card.

Holmgren had been drafted by the Cards in the 8th round (#201 overall) of the 1970 NFL draft. He'd been a backup quarterback with the USC Trojans 1966-69, when the team won the Athletic Association of Western University conference titles in 1966-67 and Pac-8 crowns in 1968-69. The 1967 Trojans were National Champions with a 10-0-1 record.

The team went to the Rose Bowl in each of Holmgren's seasons there.

Holmgren's pro prospects were dampened by a 1969 knee injury that limited his playing time. He never made it out of the Cardinals' pre-season camp. He went back to his high school alma mater in 1971, where he began his coaching career.

You can order this card. Unless otherwise noted, all of my custom cards are available to collectors for $9.95 each, postpaid. Complete checklists of all my custom baseball, football and non-sports custom cards were published on this blog on Dec. 10 (football), July 6 (non-sports) and Sept. 19 (baseball). To order, email me at scbcguy@yahoo.com for directions on paying via check/money order, or to my PayPal account.

Custom cards feature Bouton with Pilots (1969), Astros (1970), Braves (1978)

If it wasn't for his iconoclastic Ball Four and a handful of other baseball books he authored, few of today's fans or collectors would remember Jim Bouton.

He came up with the Yankees in 1962 as a flamethrowing starter/reliever who often lost his cap firing to the plate.

In his second season with New York in 1963 his 21 wins were second on the team to Whitey Ford and he led the Yankees with a 2.53 ERA. He'd won 11 games by the All-Star break and pitched a perfect inning in the sixth for the AL.

In the Dodgers' World Series sweep of the Yankees, Bouton started Game 3 in L.A. In the bottom of the first he walked Jim Gilliam, who took second on a wild pitch and scored on Tommy Davis's single. It was the only run Bouton allowed in the game, giving up just four hits and losing despite a 1.29 ERA.

Bouton won 18 in 1964, then arm troubles coupled with a bad attitude as perceived by the baseball establishment relegated him to the bullpen and annual trips to the minor leagues and the trading block. From 1965 through 1970 he was 15-33 for the Yankees, Pilots and Astros.

He left Organized Baseball after the 1970 season, playing amateur ball and working as a broadcaster and actor, including a short-lived 1976 TV series based on his Ball Four book.

Bouton began a comeback at age 36 in 1975 with independent Portland in the short-season Class A Northwest League. He was 4-1 with a 2.20 ERA, but returned to broadcasting in 1976.

In 1977 he was given a shot with the White Sox' Class AA team at Knoxville, but was released after an 0-6 start. He went back to Portland and went 5-1.

Somewhere between Hollywood and bushes, Bouton caught the eye of Ted Turner, who gave him a chance with the Braves' Southern League club at Savannah. He won 11 games on a 2.82 ERA to help the S-Braves to the league championship.

With Atlanta in last place in the NL West, destined to finish 26 games out, Bouton was called up to the big club on Sept, 10, returning to the major leagues as a starting pitcher eight years after his "retirement." 

Bouton had five starts for the Braves, winning one and losing three. When the '78 season ended, Bouton left professional baseball for good.

In 1980 Bouton partnered with former Portland teammate Rob Nelson to create and market Big League Chew shredded bubblegum. A year later, Bouton founded Big League Cards, making personalized baseball cards. Both companies remain in business today.

Despite the fact that he played in three major league seasons after leaving the Yankees, Bouton was not included in any of Topps issues after 1968, though the gum company did photograph him in spring training in 1969 and 1970.

In tribute to Jim Bouton's prowess and a ballplayer and an author, I've filled in those gaps with a trio of Topps-style custom cards in the 1969 (Pilots), 1970 (Astros) and 1979 (Braves) formats.

You can find a great summary of Bouton's career in and out of baseball written by Mark Armour as part of the SABR BioProject. Bouton bio

At last . . . "Topps" cards for Tony Horton

Tony Horton was never really on my radar during his playing days in the 1960s. By the time he made the majors in 1964, my sports and card collecting interests had largely shifted to the American Football League.

Once I got involved professionally in the card hobby in 1980, I became aware of Horton's unusual card history. Though he played for seven seasons in the American League, Horton never appeared on a Topps card.

I recall Larry Fritsch was the person who brought this to my attention. We occasionally speculated on the lack of Horton Topps cards and whether the decision was made by the player or the bubblegum company.

We'll probably never know, because, as I recently learned, Horton steadfastly refuses to talk about his baseball life. 

An excellent biography of Horton, written by Mark Kanter and Mark Armour  can be found in the SABR Baseball Biography Project at http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/e1dbb148 . It was originally published in The 1967 Impossible Dream Red Sox: Pandemonium On The Field, edited by Bill Nowlin and Dan Desrochers, and published by Rounder Books in 2007.

Another perspective on Tony Horton, from Scott Raab, a contemporary Indians' fan is found in the 2010 book, Top of the Order: 25 Writers Pick Their Favorite Baseball Player of All Time. An excerpt can be found here: http://deadspin.com/5548412/taunting-tony-horton-the-day-after-he-slit-his-wrists-a-cleveland-fan-repents.

Horton's absence from Topps cards doesn't mean he left no baseball card legacy. After Marvin Miller revamped the Major League Baseball Players Association in 1968 with a new collective bargaining agreement and group licensing, Horton began appearing on various baseball card issues.

Among the cards on which he can be found are the 1969 Nabisco cereal box-back cards, 1969 MLB photostamps, 1969 MLBPA pins, 1969 Kahn's Wieners, 1969 Globe Imports (not licensed), 1969 Milton Bradley, 1971 Kellogg's 3D, 1971 Dell stamps and others. Horton was also included in a number of team-issue photopacks with the Red Sox and Indians.

Horton was also in at least one post-career card set, the 1978 TCMA "The Sixties" issue.

In recent years, a number of custom card makers have created various Topps-style Horton cards. Some of them use the same color photos as my newly created 1965, 1967 and 1970 style customs. That's to be expected since there are relatively few available color photos of Horton from his playing days. My customs differ from most in that I also create full backs for each card.

The photos I used on my Tony Horton custom cards are, surprisingly, all from the Topps' archives. Just because Horton wasn't appearing on their baseball cards didn't mean Topps wasn't taking his photo.

Regular reader of this blog know that for the past several months my card-making efforts have been concentrated on making "additions" to several of my favorite non-sports card sets of the 1950s and 1960s. 

I decided to switch gears back to baseball cards when a pair of Tony Horton/Red Sox photos appeared among the Topps Vault auctions on eBay. I'd already had in my files a 1969 Topps photo of Horton in an Indians uniform, courtesy of a hobby colleague.

There are just about enough other suitable Tony Horton photos to fill the gaps in the Topps line-up . . . 1966, 1968, 1969, 1971 . . . but I'll leave that to other custom card guys.