WTHBALLS GUM PACK CUSTOM SET: FRED LYNN

On the blog today, my Fred Lynn mini custom card from my "Gum Pack" set released a few months back:

Fun little set to get out there in the world in Gum Pack packaging, using a velvety smooth card stock for the mini-cards themselves.

As for Mr. Lynn, after a wonderful college career at USC, Lynn became an instant star in 1975 when he led the Boston Red Sox to the World Series after copping both the Rookie of the Year AND Most Valuable Player Awards. The first player ever to do so, and still only one of two (Ichiro Suzuki joined him in 2001).
He’d go on to win four Gold Gloves, get named to nine all-star teams, and hit the only Grand Slam in All-Star game history, a memorable shot off of Atlee Hammaker in the 1983 classic that gave the American League it’s first win over the National League since 1971.
Hampered by injuries throughout his 17-year career, he still finished with a very solid MLB resume: 306 homers, 1111 RBI’s, 1063 runs scored and a .283 batting average, with 10 seasons of 20+ homers over 1969 games.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 1970's: FRED LYNN'S 10-RBI GAME

On the blog today, we celebrate Fred Lynn's 10-RBI game in 1975, the year he set the baseball world on fire, making an unprecedented splash by going on to win the Rookie of the Year AND MVP Award:

On June 18th of that season, Lynn absolutely destroyed the Detroit Tigers, going 5-for-6 at the plate with three home runs and a triple, scoring four runs while driving in 10, just one off the A.L. record set by New York Yankee second baseman Tony Lazzeri 39 years earlier.

Though already making a splash in his first full Big League season, Lynn really made his presence known with this game as a young budding superstar.

Coming out of USC, Lynn was a second round pick by the Boston Red Sox in 1973, and got his first small taste of the Majors in 1974, playing 15 games and ripping it up to the tune of a .419 batting average in 43 at-bats.

That was a small sampling of what fans were to see the following year, as Lynn just took over and lead the charge for the BoSox, hitting .331 with 21 homers and 105 runs batted in.

He'd also lead the league in runs scored with 103, doubles with 47, and slugging with a .566 average.

On top of all of that, he'd even take home a Gold Glove for his defensive efforts as well!

He was "All-World" at that point!

The Red Sox would fall short of a truly magical year for Lynn, losing to the mighty "Big Red Machine" Cincinnati team in the World Series, but for Lynn it would the first full season of a very nice 17 year career which saw him hit over 300 homers, drive in over 1000 runs and stroke just under 2000 hits.

1979 would probably be his best season, when he lead the American League in batting with a .333 average, to go along with great power numbers of 39 homers, 116 runs scored and 122 runs batted in, all career highs.

He would also be the only Major Leaguer of the decade to lead the league in batting, on-base and slugging in the same season, with a slash-line of .333/.423/.637.

If it wasn't for an odd plethora of "awesome" years by Don Baylor, Ken Singleton and George Brett, Lynn could have won another M.V.P.

Nevertheless, that 1975 accomplishment of becoming the first player to ever win a Rookie of the Year AND Most Valuable Player Award in the year is something to be proud of.

LOOKING AT THE IMAGE USED FOR THE ICONIC 1976 TOPPS FRED LYNN CARD

A while back, I was sent the original image, untouched, used by Topps for the classic 1976 card of Fred Lynn, fresh off of his historic Rookie of the Year/ Most Valuable Player season of 1975.
While the original intent was to “redo” the card, using the clearer photo, as I kept looking at the images, touched and untouched, I realized that I preferred the touched image!
As with my all-time favorite card, the 1976 Johnny Bench, I actually think the saturated, contrasted work Topps did made everything come together much stronger.
Take a look at what I’m talking about:

While the original image is excellent, there’s something about that saturated red, co-existing with the red on the card design. It really seems to make it all “one”.
Now, I realize I’m just talking about a baseball card, but to me the art involved, the little masterpiece that was this 1976 sports card, makes me appreciate the execution, whether by accident or not, so much more.
Topps really did have a great run from 1975 through 1979 in my opinion. Cards like those mentioned above, the 1977 Dave Kingman, Rusty Staub cards, the 1978 Reggie Jackson, and the 1979 Rod Carew and George Brett, were just such perfect cards (along with others I didn’t mention!).
Just amazing to look at them now, and to think (at least for me), how much less of an impact they would have had on me had they not been messed around with by the folks at Topps.

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR- 1976 SUB-SET

Next up in my on-going “1970’s Awards” thread are the 1975 Rookies of the Year, celebrated on the following 1976 card:

In the National League we have pitcher John “The Count” Montefusco of the San Francisco Giants, who cruised to the rookie-award by posting a record of 15-9 with a 2.88 earned run average and a very impressive 215 strikeouts.
He also chipped in four shutouts over his 34 starts, completing 10 of them while throwing 243.2 innings, even finishing fourth in the league Cy Young race.
In the American League, of course it was all about “Mr. World” that year, rookie superstar Fred Lynn, who also took home the MVP Award, thus becoming the first player ever to pull that off.
In his monstrous rookie season, Lynn helped the Red Sox to a World Series berth by hitting .331 with 21 homers and 105 runs batted in along with a league-leading 103 runs scored and 47 doubles.
The man was a beast!
On top of all that he even took home a Gold Glove, something he’d do three more times in his 17-year career that spanned 1974 to 1990.
Of the two, Lynn definitely had the star-power throughout his career, but Montefusco also put in some time as a Major Leaguer, finishing up his Big League tenure in 1986 after a few seasons with the Yankees.

MOST VALUABLE PLAYER- 1976 SUB-SET

Today we celebrate the 1975 Most Valuable Players, Joe Morgan and Fred Lynn, in my ongoing “Awards Sub-Set” through the 1970s:

In the National league, Morgan brought the MVP back to Cincinnati, following in the footsteps of teammates Pete Rose and Johnny Bench.
Morgan had a killer season for the “Big Red Machine”, as they were on their way to the first of two straight championships.
Really putting it all together that season after a great career already that had him get ripped off a Rookie of the Year in 1965, and getting named to five all-star teams, Morgan went on to bat a career high .327 with 107 runs scored, 17 homers, 94 runs batted in and a Major League leading 132 walks.
Oh yeah, he also “chipped in” 52 steals as well!
In the American League, it was something never seen before in the Majors, as the Boston Red Sox Fred Lynn BURST onto the big league stage in the biggest way possible, taking home both the Rookie of the Year Award as well as the MVP award, becoming the first player ever to do so.
That performance helped the Red Sox get to the World Series for the first time since 1967, facing off against the Joe Morgan led Reds.
Lynn’s season was awesome, as he batted .331 with a league-leading 103 runs scored and 47 doubles, along with 105 runs batted in and 21 homers.
Paired up with another rookie that season, Jim Rice, and it was easy to see why the Red Sox were such a powerhouse that season.
Two great players of the era taking home the hardware.

FUTURE STARS- FRED LYNN

The next “Future Stars” card in my thread is Fred Lynn, who burst onto the Major League stage and never looked back:

After a star college career at USC, Lynn became an instant star in 1975 when he led the Boston Red Sox to the World Series after copping both the Rookie of the Year AND Most Valuable Player Awards. The first player ever to do so, and still only one of two (Ichiro Suzuki joined him in 2001).
He’d go on to win four Gold Gloves, get named to nine all-star teams, and hit the only Grand Slam in All-Star game history, a memorable shot off of Atlee Hammaker in the 1983 classic that gave the American League it’s first win over the National League since 1971.
Hampered by injuries throughout his 17-year career, he still finished with a very solid MLB resume: 306 homers, 1111 RBI’s, 1063 runs scored and a .283 batting average, with 10 seasons of 20+ homers over 1969 games.

THE RED SOX YOUTH BRIGADE!- A SPECIAL CARD FOR THE 1976 SET

I was always in awe of the fact that the Boston Red Sox had THREE future star outfielders in Dwight Evans, Jim Rice and Fred Lynn come up around the same time and put in All-Star careers, and wanted to create a special card for the 1976 set celebrating them:

What can you say about these three?
Fred Lynn came to the Major League scene like a bomb and went on to win BOTH the Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player Awards in 1975, Jim Rice goes on to put in a Hall of Fame career along with an MVP Award in 1978, and Dwight Evans can easily be argued as a Hall-worthy player putting in his best seasons in the 1980’s, though he was always a solid player.
Any team should be so lucky to have this!

DEDICATED "ROOKIE CARDS" #9: 1975 FRED LYNN

Today's "dedicated rookie card" is a 1975 Topps creation for Boston Red Sox breakout star Fred Lynnn, who exploded onto the baseball scene that year on his way to becoming the first player to ever win Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player in the same season.

Take a look:

Lynn absolutely smoked the ball that year, hitting a robust .331 with 47 doubles, 21 homers and 105 runs batted in to go along with 103 runs scored and 175 hits.

He even had seven triples and 10 stolen bases thrown in, as well as a Gold Glove to add to his 1975 award haul!

His actual 1975 card was an airbrushed multi-player rookie specimen that I have been vocal about hating, so I always wanted to create a card for him in that awesome techni-color set.

Came across this nice picture of him to use so I thought now was as good a time as any…

"HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE 1970'S" #3: 1975 FRED LYNN WINS BOTH R.O.Y. & M.V.P.

As a kid growing up obsessed with baseball in the 1970's and 1980's, I always thought Fred Lynn's 1975 season was one of the coolest season's ever.

How could you NOT be impressed with a young player coming up and leading his team (with a lot of help, of course) to the World Series, and then winning the Rookie of the Year AND Most Valuable Player awards in his first taste of the Big Leagues?

Even today, with Fernando Valenzuela winning the R.O.Y. And Cy Young in 1981 and Ichiro duplicating Lynn's 1975 accomplishment, Lynn's 1975 season still stands as an "event" as far as baseball history goes, and should have gotten SOME play by Topps in their 1976 set.

So today I present to you my design for a card that would have been fun to have back then, a 1976 "Highlight" card of Fred Lynn's magical 1975 season:

I thought Topps did a decent job with Lynn's regular 1976 card.

But boy did it seem to miss out on some of the "buzz" revolving around this new superstar.

The rookie trophy gave it a small bump, but it's almost like the card should have had stars shooting off of it for what Lynn accomplished that year!

Coming out of USC, Lynn was a second round pick by the Boston Red Sox in 1973, and got his first small taste of the Majors in 1974, playing 15 games and ripping it up to the tune of a .419 batting average in 43 at-bats.

That was a small sampling of what fans were to see the following year, as Lynn just took over and lead the charge for the BoSox, hitting .331 with 21 homers and 105 runs batted in.

He'd also lead the league in runs scored with 103, doubles with 47, and slugging with a .566 average.

On top of all of that, he'd even take home a Gold Glove for his defensive efforts as well!

He was "All-World" at that point!

The Red Sox would fall short of a truly magical year for Lynn, losing to the mighty "Big Red Machine" Cincinnati team in the World Series, but for Lynn it would the first full season of a very nice 17 year career which saw him hit over 300 homers, drive in over 1000 runs and stroke just under 2000 hits.

1979 would probably be his best season, when he lead the American League in batting with a .333 average, to go along with great power numbers of 39 homers, 116 runs scored and 122 runs batted in, all career highs.

He would also be the only Major Leaguer of the decade to lead the league in batting, on-base and slugging in the same season, with a slash-line of .333/.423/.637.

If it wasn't for an odd plethora of "awesome" years by Don Baylor, Ken Singleton and George Brett, Lynn could have won another M.V.P.

Nevertheless, that 1975 accomplishment of becoming the first player to ever win a Rookie of the Year AND Most Valuable Player Award in the year is something to be proud of.

I'm having a blast designing my own "highlight" cards of the 1970's, along with writing up the stories.

Needless to say I'll be posting a ton of these over the next few months.

Hope you all enjoy them as much as I do!