more gcrl cards that should have been - starting with 1969

if you recall from the earliest of the 'evolution of the infield' posts, both steve garvey and bill russell made their big league debuts for the dodgers in 1969.  however, neither player was featured by topps in the 1969 set. well, it didn't seem fair to me that ted sizemore (who also debuted in 1969 for the dodgers) was on a card and these two weren't.  so what if sizemore was the rookie of the year?  anyway, here is the 1969 topps steve garvey/bill russell card that should have been:

complete with a back.

i used an image of garvey from a photo taken when he was a member of the ogden dodgers, along with bill buckner, bobby valentine and their manager, tom lasorda.  that's why there's no logo on the hat - i blotted out the big 'o' - and i think the logo-less cap fits in with the 1969 set just fine.

the russell image is a bit out of date.  it's from his sports illustrated cover in 1971 (or is it 1972?) where he shared the space with claude osteen. 

i decided to also take it a step further, and create individual cards that should have been.  here's the garvey.

notice he's wearing number 5 in the photo.  that's jim lefebvre's number on the big club.  here's a back, which i am borrowing from bob lemke of 'bob lemke's blog'. 

bob makes some fantastic customs, including a 1969 garvey of his own.  here's the front:

very nice.  but let's not forget about ropes.  here's his solo 1969 card that should have been:

and the back

i was worried that i would have a hard time finding a cartoon that i could manipulate, but i think this one works out pretty well as it's fairly generic and i was able to easily change the text on the newspaper.

there you have it - the 1969 steve garvey and bill russell cards that should have been!  coming soon, steve garvey's missing 1970 card...