mickey mantle retired a couple of seasons before i was born, but his name has been part of my baseball lexicon for as long as i can remember - the dodgers vs. yankees world series in the early part of my youth made sure of that, as the stories of the battling franchises from the 1950s and 1960s were regularly part of the discussion on the broadcasts.
here is the card of mickey mantle that sits in my hall of famer collection:
it's a 2000 upper deck legends legendary game jerseys card of the mick. here's the back:
i pulled this card from a pack in 2000 and put it up for sale on ebay. i set a reserve of $300, and i think the bidding ended around $280. truthfully, i was relieved as pulling this type of card (at that time, at least) was a pretty big deal and, as a collector, i really did appreciate it and quickly decided to keep it in my collection. the card today doesn't sell for as much, and the cynic in me sees that perhaps the knit is too new to be from 1968, but i've no regrets.
as i mentioned up top, mantle was pretty much always a part of my baseball fandom. i found out about his 565-foot home run from a baseball card in the case at my local card shop, and learned about other aspects of his career from books, cards, tv segments, other collectors, and miller lite commercials. even the dodgers of my youth helped me learn about mantle. case in point, reggie smith was the first switch-hitter that i was aware of, and because of that, i learned more about mantle and his career accomplishments. when smith retired from major league baseball after the 1982 season, his 314 career home runs were good enough for second all-time among switch hitters. i thought that was impressive, but mantle's total was still 222 home runs greater! in fact, mantle retired with the third greatest career home run total in history, behind only babe ruth and willie mays.
there are some certified score and upper deck autographs of mantle out there, but i don't anticipate being able to acquire one any time soon, so relic it is. never say never, though.
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
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 autograph
hank aaron - 2004 topps originals 1979 topps all-time record holders rbi 03/32
harmon killebrew - 2000 upper deck legends legendary signatures
bruce sutter - 2003 topps all-time fan favorites
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
that is a 2004 fleer national pastime buyback of a 2002 fleer greats of the game autograph card. here's the back:
you can see the embossed stamp pretty clearly on the back that was added to the card in 2004. the hand numbering on the front was also added in 2004, but the auto is from 2002. i had a similar card in the collection for tony perez until i replaced it with a topps archives signature card featuring perez's 1978 topps issue.
