is he worthy?

one of the players who received a fair amount of coverage during the last couple months of 2020 regarding hall of fame voting was andruw jones. it sure seems like his prospects for induction are looking up with his vote total hitting 41.4% in his fifth year of eligibility.  if he is inducted, he joins the likes of jim bunning, frank robinson, gary carter, and jim thome as hall of famers who had a somewhat random mid-career stint with the dodgers.

there is cardboard proof of this:

that card is a 2008 topps chrome xfractor that i found among my dodger dupes. jones joined the dodgers for the 2008 season - his first as a non-brave. it did not go well. jones was out of shape and was injured during a good portion of the season. he had the worst year of his career (his ops was .505!) and the dodgers released him prior to the 2009 season.

he continued to play, and had some success in the ensuing years with the rangers, white sox, and yankees, respectively, but he was obviously not the player he had been for 11+ years with atlanta.  with the braves, he won 10 straight gold gloves in center field, and is likely the best defensive centerfielder in the history of the game. his dwar is off the charts, anyway. he also hit 368 homers during his tenure with the braves, and 434 overall. he ranks pretty well amongst other hall of fame center fielders, but then again, so does kenny lofton (another random dodger!).

after tracking down a hoyt wilhelm autograph for my hall of famer collection, i thought about jones and the fact that he may one day be enshrined in cooperstown. as a result, i decided to pick up an autographed card for my dodger collection - this 2021 topps archives signature series 2008 topps allen & ginter card:

i should probably do the same for bunning (he is the only modern dodger player in the hall of fame for whom i don't have a certified autograph card, although i do have a couple of ttm successes from him). here's the back:

if jones does get the call, i would most likely track down a card featuring him with the braves for my hall of famer collection, should i choose to add him. at this point, i am not sure that i would just because i can't get the memory of his performance as a dodger out of my mind.