In Mastro’s October 2008 Classic Collectors auction catalog appeared a piece of Topps flexichrome artwork titled “Circa 1961 Topps Original Artwork Johnny James, New York Yankees” with no other details or a photo of the back.
Johnny James had only two Topps cards: his 1960 Topps rookie and a 1961 Topps card that doesn’t match this artwork.
Did Topps abandon this design for 1961? Was it intended for a 1962 issue? Or was it a concept that never advanced past the art phase? The record is silent.
James was traded from the Yankees to the Angels on May 8, 1961, and his MLB career concluded that October. Whatever the story, this unused artwork remains a card that never was.
Happy collecting!
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He’s still alive (92). Maybe someone should ask him?
There is a photo of him in a Yankee yearbook – 1958 or 1959, maybe even ’60 – that is either this one or one like it. This has all the earmarks of an image prepared in case James made the Yankees out of spring training in 1959. The date attached to stuff like this is often conjectural or a misinterpretation. A colorized b&w team handout photo of James became useless to Topps the day it took a color photo of him, which appears to have been in March 1960
Awesome, thanks for the lead on the image!