luis tiant is in my hall of famer collection

luis tiant may forever be relegated to the "hall of very good", but i've decided to put him in my hall of famer collection anyway. his membership is represented by this card:

that's a 2018 topps archives signature series 1979 topps buyback autograph numbered 31/80. here's the back:

i never saw tiant pitch in person, but i saw plenty of his outings on the nbc game of the week and "this week in baseball". when he pitched for the angels at the end of his career, he showed up on a few local telecasts as well. my friends and i were all familiar with his wind up and would mimic it during wiffle ball games in the front yard. good times.

so yeah, nostalgia has played a part in me picking up this card and putting it in this specific collection, but tiant has a case for enshrinement in cooperstown. over the course of his career, tiant collected 229 wins, 2,416 strikeouts, and two era titles. his hall of fame metrics have him in gaylord perry/bob feller territory in terms of adjusted seven year war, and he has a higher war overall, and better counting stats, than juan marichal. i think there is definitely a case to be made for tiant, especially as other pitchers from his career span such as jim kaat are inducted.

tiant peaked in his first year of eligibility with the writers, garnering over 30% of the vote. after running through his eligibility with the bbwa, he's fallen short on six different veteran committee votes. maybe the next time will be the charm.

remember, you can find my hall of famer collection in its entirety here at my want list site.

sarge pricing was not bad at all

i have on ongoing trading partner in sluggo, and every six months or so we exchange boxes of dodger cards for brave cards. as such i am always on the hunt for braves inserts, parallels, and hits at shows to add to the outgoing trade stack.

i came across this 2018 topps archives gary matthews fan favorites autograph card

just after i sent my most recent package to kevin. matthews, aka sarge, has an interesting signature to say the least. anyway, the price was good and when i looked more closely at the card i will admit i thought about keeping it. in a job well done by topps, matthews is shown with the 1979 topps design in a photo from the 1979 season when the braves wore a black armband for team executive bill lucas. i already had a matthews card representing the armband in my collection, however, so the auto will be on its way to sluggo next time i package up some cards. 

my return package from kevin is on its way, but i realized i have been slow to share the goodies from his most recent mailings. i'll try to do that over the next few weeks to do it justice, but in the meantime here are a couple of cards i've received:

2016 bowman inception corey seager auto-relic

and 2018 topps archives signature series joc pederson auto

solid stuff all around. thanks kevin!

1/1 in more than 1 way

hard to believe that it is the start of a new year, but the calendar has indeed turned to 2022. i'm taking advantage of the date to show a couple of 1/1 cards that i've added to my collection over the last couple of years. these scans have languished in my scan folder for several months and today is the day that they are freed.

this is a printing plate from 2019 panini immaculate collection

of none other than my favorite player, steve garvey. it's the yellow plate, and it's been modified to include embedded patches and a nice autograph from the garv. the autograph looks great on the matte finish of the card.  here's the back:

i guess it's not technically a 1/1 but rather a one of one. fancy script.

similarly, this next one is the cyan printing plate from 2020 panini national treasures

and features an embedded bat piece and a nice autograph. here's the back:

nice to see different writeups on the backs of these cards.

just to clarify - it's not all steve garvey and printing plates around these parts, as i also added this ron cey 1/1 from 2018 topps archives signature series to my collection:

it pairs nicely with my garvey 1/1 that i showed a few years ago. i doubt there will be bill russell or dave lopes 1/1 1975 topps buyback autos to ever chase, unfortunately. that doesn't mean that i haven't picked up some of their cards recently, however!

i added two bill russell autographs from 2003 upper deck sp chirography - his silver with the 1981 ws champs inscription (number 01/50)

and the gold version

numbered 07/10.

as for lopes, i picked up this 2005 topps rookie cup blue parallel

numbered 11/50

thinking it was a need. it turns out i had not updated my want list correctly, so now it's a dupe. oh well - i've got a use for it.

back to the 1/1 theme of this post, i was lucky enough to find this 2021 leaf lumber bat rack cyan printing plate a couple of weeks ago for a nice low buy it now price.

weird that the only cyan on the card is in the jerseys - nothing in the lower part of the card - but it gives the card a strangely attractive simplistic quality. at any rate, it's great to have the whole infield together!

happy new year everyone!

lou brock is in my hall of famer collection

given my burgeoning fandom of davey lopes, maury wills, and ty cobb, i was well aware of lou brock in the late 1970's. he's in my hall of famer collection, represented by this card:

that is a 2018 topps archives signature series 1989 topps card, numbered 53/61. here's the back:

sure, i would have preferred that this card be an actual 1979 topps card rather than the 1989 turn back the clock card, but it's ok. this is how i think of brock - strong sideburn game and a peeling stl logo on his helmet.

[note - i scheduled this post to be published tonight several weeks ago, and with brock's passing on sunday i thought i would add this bit to note that brock was one of the first non-dodger, non-yankee players that i recognized thanks to his prominence in the 1978 topps set. rest in peace.]

back in 1978, when i really began collecting cards and following baseball, topps did not put stolen bases as one of the stats on the backs of cards. luckily, brock had a record breaker card in that set (card #1!), honoring him for achieving the pinnacle of the sport regarding stolen bases. the card noted that he had passed ty cobb on the all-time stolen bases list to become "baseball's all-time theft king".  you will note that the back of the above card brings billy hamilton in to the conversation, and if one recognizes hamilton as having been the actual career leader in steals, then the 1978 topps record breaker card is meaningless.  

in 1979, topps included the "all-time record holders" subset, which, as a young fan of the game, i thought was the best! i opened packs and had a chance of finding a card with hank aaron or ty cobb on it! for the stolen bases card, brock was there as both the season record holder and the career record holder. the back of that card did include hamilton, but with an asterisk noting that his career total of 937 steals was achieved under different scoring rules. it's worth noting that both cobb's and hamilton's career totals have changed in the last couple of decades, but brock still passed them both.

the back of that 1979 card was how i learned that brock had set the season mark of 118 stolen bases earlier in the decade, eclipsing maury wills' record in the process. i was disappointed to have missed an opportunity to see a dodger on one of those cards, and i have to admit that my appreciation of brock was diminished a bit. i was therefore happy to see brock's name further down on the annual leader board as a i began collecting dodger cards from seasons past, including the 1976 and 1977 league leader cards with davey lopes at the top of the list!

still, i looked forward to a 1980 lou brock card after he surpassed 3,000 hits during the 1979 season. i was very disappointed to find that brock was given the same treatment as brooks robinson and al kaline before him - no 'final tribute' card, but rather a record breaker/highlight card, and one that he shared with carl yastrzemski (who also reached 3,000 hits in 1979) at that. going on 40 years later, i'm still waiting for topps to produce a card for brock using the 1980 design.

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

honus wagner - 2001 topps tribute relic

nap lajoie - 2002 topps tribute milestone materials relic

tris speaker - 2011 topps tribute dual relic green parallel 53/75

eddie collins - 2002 topps tribute milestone materials relic

george sisler - 2004 topps tribute hall of fame tribute relic

dizzy dean - 2001 topps tribute relic

hank greenberg - 2004 topps tribute hall of fame tribute relic

bob feller - 2001 topps archives certified autograph

jackie robinson - 2004 topps clubhouse collection clubhouse relic

ted williams - 1992 upper deck baseball heroes autograph 1067/2000

stan musial - 2002 topps team topps legends autograph

yogi berra - 1998 donruss signatures significant signatures 1640/2000

sandy koufax - 1998 donruss signatures significant signatures 1707/2000

roberto clemente - 2005 donruss greats hall of fame souvenirs relic

warren spahn - 1999 upper deck century legends epic signatures

mickey mantle - 2000 upper deck legends legendary game jerseys relic

willie mays - 1997 topps willie mays reprints certified autograph

al kaline - 2001 fleer greats of the game autograph

duke snider - 2003 upper deck sp authentic chirography hall of famers 144/250

bob gibson - 2001 fleer greats of the game autograph

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

frank robinson - 1995 upper deck autograph

don drysdale - 1993 nabisco all-star autographs

harmon killebrew - 2000 upper deck legends legendary signatures

pee wee reese - 2001 topps tribute relic

lou brock - 2018 topps archives signature series 1989 buyback 53/61

jim hunter - 1998 donruss signature series significant signatures 0736/2000

willie stargell - 2000 upper deck legends legendary signatures 

jim palmer - 2001 fleer greats of the game autograph

fergie jenkins - 2013 topps five star baseball autograph 154/333

gaylord perry - 2003 topps finest finest moments autograph

rollie fingers - 2018 topps archives signature series 1978 topps buyback 1/3

hal newhouser - 1993 front row premium all-time greats autograph

reggie jackson - 2018 topps tier one tier one talent autograph 19/60

steve carlton - 2018 topps five star career year autograph 43/45

mike schmidt - 2002 topps archives autoproof 1980 topps buyback 048/147

phil niekro - 2017 panini donruss recollection collection 1983 donruss buyback autograph 13/33

don sutton - 2001 fleer greats of the game autograph

carlton fisk - 1999 upper deck century legends epic signatures

tony perez - 2004 fleer national pastime 2002 fleer greats authentic autograph buyback 30/59

dave winfield - 2003 upper deck sp authentic chirography hall of famers 121/350

ozzie smith - 2019 topps finest finest origins autograph

gary carter - 1999 fleer sports illustrated greats of the game autograph collection

eddie murray - 2004 upper deck sp legendary cuts legendary sigs 45/50 

dennis eckersley - 2017 topps archives signature series 1984 topps buyback 47/99

paul molitor - 2016 topps museum collection archival autographs 021/125

wade boggs - 2005 upper deck baseball heroes autograph red parallel 30/49

ryne sandberg - 2016 topps five star autographs gold parallel 17/50

bruce sutter - 2003 topps all-time fan favorites certified autograph

tony gwynn - 1997 donruss signature series millennium marks autograph 0702/1000

cal ripken jr - 2018 topps high tek portraitek autograph 32/75

jim rice - 2005 upper deck past time pennants past time signatures

andre dawson - 2000 fleer greats of the game autograph

bert blyleven - 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams autograph

ron santo - 2004 topps retired signature autograph

greg maddux - 2018 topps luminaries masters of the mound autograph 13/15

pedro martinez - 2018 topps high tek portraitek autograph 09/60

ken griffey jr - 2003 upper deck game face autograph

tim raines - 2018 topps tribute tribute autograph green parallel 26/95

alan trammell - 2001 fleer greats of the game autograph

roy halladay - 2017 topps archives signature series 2004 topps buyback 15/23

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

barry bonds* - 2001 bowman heritage autographs

roger clemens* - 1995 upper deck autograph

 

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.