gil hodges is in my hall of famer collection

i was surprised - happy to be sure - but very surprised nonetheless to find that gil hodges had been voted in to the hall of fame earlier this month. i've added this card to my hall of famer collection as a result:

that's a 2006 upper deck epic epic materials teal parallel, numbered 98/99.  here's the back:

i don't have any gil hodges stories as he passed away before i knew what baseball was, but you can't tell the story of the brooklyn dodgers without a large helping of hodges. he was the favorite player of my favorite player, so that certainly carried some weight with me as a young fan.

hodges began his career as a catcher, but moved to first base as roy campanella took over behind the plate. 310 of his career home runs came in the 1950's when he was at his peak - a number that was second only to fellow boy of summer, duke snider. hodges still ranks highly on the dodger franchise leader board - he is (once again) only second to snider in home runs and rbi - and by all accounts is still revered by the team and fan base. of course, hodges spent the last two seasons of his playing career with the mets and then went on to manage the senators before returning to the mets as their skipper. he led the 1969 team to their "amazin'" world series upset, and was still at the helm when he died in the spring of 1972 from a heart attack.

i was definitely biased, but i didn't understand why he wasn't voted in to the hall by the writers or by earlier versions of the veterans' committee. whatever the reasons, i am glad that he has been finally recognized, and am looking forward to his induction!

by the way, i've updated my hall of famer collection on my want site - i decided not to show it in its entirety as part of these posts anymore.