al kaline is in my hall of famer collection

i missed out on al kaline's career, but decided to include him in my hall of famer collection anyway.  here's his 2001 fleer greats of the game autograph card:

and here's the back:

the reason kaline is in the collection is that i went out of my way to learn about his career, thanks to the fact that he wore number 6.  as a steve garvey fan, that number was near and dear to my heart, and in 1979 (my first year of little league in which i wore the number 5 - an older kid wanted 6) i wanted to know who wore number 6 on each team. i spent a lot of time looking at cards and consulting my "1979 complete handbook of baseball" and eventually figured out that no tiger player was wearing the number thanks to kaline's status.

the following year, thanks to kaline's hall of fame induction (he went in with duke snider, so i was even more aware of him by that time), i realized that he had been featured in the 1975 topps set in an identical fashion as brooks robinson was in the 1978 topps set. while opening packs in 1978, i was perplexed by the fact that robinson was given a highlights card in the set, but not a regular card, and when i learned kaline had been given the same fate, i felt a little bit better due to the existence of some consistency on topps' part.  a few years later, i realized that i didn't care for that approach at all and to this day i wish that topps would correct the error of their ways and issue these final tribute cards that should have been as part of an all-time fan favorites or archives release.  i even called topps once to tell them as much.

but i digress. kaline ended his career with 3,007 hits and 399 home runs.  as i perused his final stats as a youngster, i wondered at the time why he didn't come back in 1975 to try for number 400. not that he needed it to get to cooperstown.

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

al kaline - 2001 fleer greats of the game autographs

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

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

harmon killebrew - 2000 upper deck legends legendary signatures

mike schmidt - 2002 topps archives autoproof 1980 topps buyback

bruce sutter - 2003 topps all-time fan favorites

jim rice - 2005 upper deck past time pennants

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

barry bonds* - 2001 bowman heritage autographs

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