Let me join the chorus – very creative, great job Andy. I loved those little trophies on the front of the cards, I remember those from the late 60s/early 70s cards that I used to buy as a kid.
Here’s an unrelated question – when did baseball players start to wear eyeblack? Early 60s? I certainly don’t recall any pre-WWII guys doing that.
Believe it or not, there’s a web page called History of EyeBlack:
http://www.eyeblack.com/blog/news/history-of-eyeblack
Some other info on eyeblack history:
http://www.unh.edu/inquiryjournal/05/articles/powers.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_black
A couple of sources say the first athlete noticed for doing it regularly was Redskins fullback Andy Farkas in 1942. But they also say that Babe Ruth tried it in the ’30s.
The only reason I even knew Brohamer was running (and not the guy making the play) was because I eventually saw his name on his back. As a young child around 7 or so (when I first started to look at 1973 topps) I assumed the defender was the 2nd baseman Brohamer. But no, eventually I noticed. It is amazing how your eyes play tricks when you think you saw something at one point, you still see it that way many times after – even though the defender is obviously on the orioles and Brohamer’s name is on his jersey.