A few days ago, I shared a post called Celebrating the Reverse – Card Backs With Jim McLauchlin. In it, I shared a fantastic article from the September 1991 issue of Baseball Cards Magazine that jokingly presents the first quasi-annual Sy Berger Awards for Card Back Excellence (or Lack Thereof). Today, I’m doing something similar and sharing another fantastic piece from a magazine, this time from the official program for the 16th National Sports Collectors Convention in July 1995.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.postwarcards.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/16thNSCCProgram.jpeg?resize=532%2C700&ssl=1)
The convention organizers included five detailed articles from leading card and memorabilia magazines, and this one was from Beckett Baseball Card Monthly covering Cards That Never Were. Dave Sliepka and Theo Chen offered a visual look at what could have been in baseball cards but wasn’t. They limited themselves to active or recently active players and concentrated only on cards that realistically could have been produced. Given how popular custom cards are now, I think a lot of you will get a kick out of what they came up with. I’ll share the entire article at the end with the details of each card.
1974 Topps Dave Winfield, Washing “NAT’L LEA.”
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.postwarcards.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Winfield.jpeg?resize=366%2C500&ssl=1)
1983 Topps Traded Don Mattingly
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.postwarcards.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Mattingly.jpeg?resize=359%2C500&ssl=1)
1986 Fleer Fred McGriff/Ty Gainey
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.postwarcards.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/McG.jpeg?resize=500%2C358&ssl=1)
1986 Fleer Update Bo Jackson
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.postwarcards.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Bo.jpeg?resize=360%2C500&ssl=1)
1986 Topps Traded Ruben Sierra
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.postwarcards.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Ruben.jpeg?resize=361%2C500&ssl=1)
1987 Fleer Greg Maddux/Rafael Palmeiro
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.postwarcards.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Maddux.jpeg?resize=500%2C363&ssl=1)
1988 Topps Gregg Jefferies
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.postwarcards.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Jefferies.jpeg?resize=361%2C500&ssl=1)
1989 Score Ken Griffey Jr.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.postwarcards.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Griffey.jpeg?resize=358%2C500&ssl=1)
1989 Upper Deck Joey Belle
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.postwarcards.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Belle.jpeg?resize=357%2C500&ssl=1)
1989 Upper Deck Deion Sanders
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.postwarcards.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Sanders.jpeg?resize=356%2C500&ssl=1)
1990 Donruss The Rookies Frank Thomas
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.postwarcards.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Thomas.jpeg?resize=360%2C500&ssl=1)
1990 Bowman Dave Justice
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.postwarcards.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Justice.jpeg?resize=362%2C500&ssl=1)
1990 Leaf Travis Fryman and Juan Gonzalez
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.postwarcards.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Leaf.jpeg?resize=700%2C598&ssl=1)
1991 Stadium Club Mike Mussina
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.postwarcards.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Mussina.jpeg?resize=361%2C500&ssl=1)
1993 Fleer Mike Piazza
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.postwarcards.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/piazza.jpeg?resize=361%2C500&ssl=1)
1993 Donruss George Brett
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.postwarcards.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Brett.jpeg?resize=361%2C500&ssl=1)
1993 Topps Traded Alex Rodriguez
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.postwarcards.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Arod.jpeg?resize=360%2C500&ssl=1)
Cards That Never Were Complete Article
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.postwarcards.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/CardsThatNeverWere0102.png?resize=1024%2C722&ssl=1)
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.postwarcards.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/CardThatNeverWere03.jpeg?resize=717%2C1000&ssl=1)
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.postwarcards.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/CardThatNeverWere04.jpeg?resize=716%2C1000&ssl=1)
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.postwarcards.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/CardThatNeverWere05.jpeg?resize=720%2C1000&ssl=1)