warren spahn is in my hall of famer collection

i had seen warren spahn's 1965 topps p-coach card at card shows a few times, but i had never owned a warren spahn card until 1999 when i found this card in a pack of 1999 upper deck century legends:

here's the back:

i loved that set, and still do. as a fan of baseball and its history, it is a fantastic set marred only by the licensing issues that kept joe dimaggio, sandy koufax, and pete rose out of it.  if i were to do another set specific blog, that would likely be the set that i would choose. i completed the master set, minus the autographs and relics.

spahn checked in at number 21 in the set which was numbered according to the sporting news' countdown of the 50 greatest players of the 20th century. he was the sixth pitcher listed, following walter johnson, christy mathewson, grover alexander, cy young, and satchel paige.  that tells a pretty good story of how spahn fit in amongst his peers. i realize that wins are today considered to be a 'junk' stat (and i agree to a large extent), but i was impressed as a teenager to find out that spahn's 363 career wins were 63 more than early wynn's (who had pitched at the same time as spahn), and that no pitcher had reached 300 wins since 1941 when lefty grove won his 300th (and final) game. when spahn retired in 1965, robin roberts (who would retire the following year) became the active wins leader with just over 280 victories.

spahn also pitched at the same time as bob feller, who was featured in the last hall of famer collection post. both pitchers lost 3 years to military service, although spahn was earlier in his career than feller was. spahn wound up with 2,583 strikeouts to feller's 2,581, so when he retired, only walter johnson and cy young were ahead of him on the all-time leader board.  like feller, spahn is in my hall of famer collection under my 'fan of the game' umbrella.

here's my hall of famer collection as its been documented so far:

babe ruth - 2003 topps tribute world series edition world series tribute relic 351/425:

bob feller - 2001 topps archives

jackie robinson - 2004 topps clubhouse collection clubhouse relics

warren spahn - 1999 upper deck century legends epic signatures

hank aaron - 2004 topps originals 1979 topps all-time record holders rbi 03/32:

pete rose* - 2018 panini flawless legendary signatures 15/25

you can find the full list of hall of famers (and some not - yet) that i aim to include in this collection at my want list site.

*not currently a member of the hall of fame