bob lemon is in my hall of famer collection

i recently decided to add bob lemon to my hall of famer collection, and i added this card as his entry:

that's a 1994 front row premium all-time greats signature series card. here's the back:

and here's the coa that accompanies the 5-card set

in this case, my set is number 537 of the 2,000 that included a signed card. i am keeping the full set together, and here are the other four:

pretty much any of those other cards would have been better suited to hold the certified autograph, in my opinion.

the decision to add lemon came a few weeks ago when i was putting together my post about those who have had the number 21 retired for them. lemon had his number retired by the cleveland franchise and i was reminded that he was elected to the hall of fame as a player in 1976. when i first put the collection together, one automatic qualification was inclusion in the 1978 topps set. i dismissed managers who appeared in that set for the primary reason that i wanted to focus on hall of fame players and not managers.

i didn't pay a lot of attention to his 1978 topps card, but it does show him as a player thanks to the "then and now" design. i did pay attention to him by the time the postseason came around, as lemon started the year managing the white sox but ended it as the yankee skipper, and he led the yankees to the world series title over my beloved dodgers. three years later he had the yankees back in the fall classic against the dodgers, but this time the dodgers took home the hardware.

the fact that lemon is a hall of fame player while also appearing in the 1978 topps set had me looking for a certified auto to add. there are plenty of cut auto cards out there, but i wanted a hard signed one and this is one of the only, if not the only, options out there. maybe someday i will look for certified autograph cards of the other managers from that set that went on to be enshrined in cooperstown - earl weaver, tommy lasorda, sparky anderson, dick williams, whitey herzog, bobby cox, and joe torre. i already have autos of lasorda and anderson, but they are part of my dodger collection and 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams partial autograph set build, respectively, and i have rules!

as a reminder, you can see lemon and the other members of my hall of famer collection here!

updating my hall of famer collection already

last week i finally completed the weekly posts related to my hall of famer relic/autograph collection. however, in the two and a half years that those posts had been running, i swapped out a few of the cards for some players. these updates were made mostly because of my preference for topps tribute relics over other types, as well as certified autographs over relics. plus there were a couple of just straight upgrades that became available after i began my collection.

first up, this card now represents jackie robinson in the collection:

that is a 2004 topps tribute hall of fame tribute relic. here's the back:

similarly, i now have this card representing roberto clemente in the collection:

that is a 2001 topps tribute relic. here's the back:

these two cards are examples of my two favorite tribute relics. the first uses the players' year of inauguration in to the hall of fame (which is very appropriate for this collection), and the second is based on the players' retired number (which is something i find very cool about baseball and other sports).

i had a 2001 topps tribute relic in the collection for pee wee reese, but have since replaced it with this card:

that is a 1994 front row all-time greats autograph card. here's the back:

and here's the coa that accompanies the card (and set)

as much as i like(d) the tribute relic, i am happy to have a certified auto of pee wee in the collection.

the last two cards i've swapped out are really just autograph upgrades (in my opinion).  first, i now have this 2020 topps archives signature edition 1978 topps tony perez card in my collection

rather than an autograph featuring him as a red.  it's numbered 60/65. here's the back:

perez's 1978 topps card was my first introduction to him, and it's the first card i think of when i think of perez. i mentioned in my original post that have perez represented in the collection as an expo was my preference, and now it is a reality.

finally, this 2021 topps tier one larry walker autograph card

numbered 039/150 was a no-brainer upgrade over the previous card. this is primarily due to the fact that walker signed this card horizontally rather than sideways.  here's the back:

at some point i may go back and update the weekly posts to reflect these new cards, but for now just the have list post will reflect these updates.

i am sure there will be more updates as we hear of new players elected to the hall of fame, so stay tuned!