a special final tribute

if i know one thing about jim thome, it's that he has probably described his election to the hall of fame as 'special'.  he used that word hundreds of times during his stint with the twins to describe everything from personal milestones to developing a relationship with harmon killebrew (it came across as completely genuine, by the way).  i don't know that he considered his time with the dodgers to be special, but he sure delivered as a twin.

thome finished his career with the orioles in 2012, and i was disappointed back in 2013 when there was no final tribute card issued by topps.  panini included thome in their 2013 america's pastime set as an indian, which is ok because (even though the set came out in 2014) thome signed a one-day contract with cleveland that year in order to retire as an indian.  that is all good enough for me to add this card to my final tribute collection

the back includes the full career stat line, but not the year-by-year totals

there is a good group of players going in to the hall of fame this weekend, and most have some sort of final tribute in my collection.  i've previously shown off my jack morris final tributes, vladimir guerrero final tributes, and my alan trammell final tribute (although i have picked up another for the collection since it has the 'tribute' shield)

 and it almost has the full year-by-year stats on the back

there are a couple of inductees that i haven't shown final tributes for previously, so here they are.  topps produced a couple of cards of trevor hoffman in 2011, including this one

that shows his complete hall of fame career stats on the back

i had to dig deep to find a chipper jones final tribute.  this 2013 topps update card is a short print with a photo from 2000, although it fits the bill since it was issued the year following his final season

 and has those complete major league stats on the back

congrats to the new hall of famers, and best of luck next year to edgar martinez who should be voted in finally, and also to steve garvey and tommy john as the modern era committee convenes again in 2019.