Can anyone identify exactly where this crossword comes from? MYSTERY SOLVED.

[mrmopar]

Thank you for the reply, but I am positive that this is not from Baseball Digest. For starters, this one is larger than the common Baseball Digest crosswords and may actually be larger than the entire BD magazine itself. I'd have to measure it to be sure, but it is definitely larger. I think a few of the earliest Baseball Digest crosswords were the Cross/Currents format with Linnett portraits. Mantle for sure, as I have one scanned that I pulled from a Baseball Digest. Most of them are a different design though. In fact, there were several slight variations to the design.

I am almost certain the 75 Baseball Digest Garvey crossword is a different portrait. In fact it must be because it would have been drawn by Jack Bender. I can't remember for sure and my copies are still in the magazines and tucked away in storage , so finding/scanning them might prove difficult. Also, by 75 Linnett was no longer drawing the portraits and the 75 Garvey is a different design.

I did the same thing you did and cataloged the Baseball Digest crosswords. I bought a fair number or larger lots in order to get all of them and had to make sure they were not marked as well. I ended up with a fair amount of partial and fully completed crosswords in my quest. I just never shared the checklist to the public, but did try to sell singles (my dupes) on ebay many years back.

Here is the Mantle:

Typical early 70s Linnett portrait design:


Early version Bender portraits:


Later version Bender portraits:

The portrait in this Garvey crossword is the same portrait that is featured on the 8x10 Linnett portraits that he sold as singles and in packs. And of course, Linnet portraits were also featured on these Reds, Red Sox & dodger cards:

[sschauer]

Great information never knew there were others Baseball digest used to be online on google but looks like they took them down so couldn't pull up the garvey from that issue to compare. Curious if there is now another Rose to track down for my collection.

[mrmopar]

It's possible. I didn't review your list and mine is buried, but I think at least a few players who had an early Linnett portrait got a Bender portrait later (Bench & Jackson, maybe Munson perhaps?). However, Linnett did the BD Rose and odds are, if there is another, it might be one like my Garvey that was used in a different periodical. It would likely be the same portrait, but in a larger size. I tried looking for info on Linnett and it is somewhat sparse. He apparently provided portraits in the late 60s in a variety of newspapers, but he was never syndicated.