topps 'in memoriam' cards and the lyman bostock final tribute - the card that should have been!

with the angels making their recent playoff run, there was a lot of talk about what the loss of nick adenhart did to motivate the team. it made me wonder if topps would include a rick adenhart 'in memoriam' card in the 2009 update set (they did not) or in the 2010 flagship release (they likely will not).

there is a precedent, however, such as the 1964 topps ken hubbs cardand, while topps did not issue a 2003 darryl kile 'in memoriam' card, they did issue a 2006 topps update and highlights cory lidle cardboth hubbs and lidle died in plane crashes.

another player who died in a plane crash but was not recognized by topps was thurman munson. i found this 1980 thurman munson card that should have been at the virtual card collection, created by keith conforti.it made me think about lyman bostock, and the fact that he was not included in the 1979 topps set. his 1978 topps card captured him with a kind of angry look, but that wasn't true of the man he was.

bostock had joined the angels as a free agent after finishing second in the american league in batting in 1977 (to rod carew, his teammate on the twins). he started the 1978 season slowly, and tried to give his april earnings back to the team! do you think a-rod is going to return his world series share because he stunk in the first two games? anyway, you can (and should) read much more about lyman bostock here.

bostock was not quite 28 when he was murdered near the end of the 1978 season. i don't know how his death affected the team, but the angels did go on to win their first al west championship in 1979.

so, i have created a card that should have been - the 1979 topps lyman bostock (with a photo from the fantastic site 'steve's baseball photography pages')here's to you, mr. bostock!