bob lemon is in my hall of famer collection

i recently decided to add bob lemon to my hall of famer collection, and i added this card as his entry:

that's a 1994 front row premium all-time greats signature series card. here's the back:

and here's the coa that accompanies the 5-card set

in this case, my set is number 537 of the 2,000 that included a signed card. i am keeping the full set together, and here are the other four:

pretty much any of those other cards would have been better suited to hold the certified autograph, in my opinion.

the decision to add lemon came a few weeks ago when i was putting together my post about those who have had the number 21 retired for them. lemon had his number retired by the cleveland franchise and i was reminded that he was elected to the hall of fame as a player in 1976. when i first put the collection together, one automatic qualification was inclusion in the 1978 topps set. i dismissed managers who appeared in that set for the primary reason that i wanted to focus on hall of fame players and not managers.

i didn't pay a lot of attention to his 1978 topps card, but it does show him as a player thanks to the "then and now" design. i did pay attention to him by the time the postseason came around, as lemon started the year managing the white sox but ended it as the yankee skipper, and he led the yankees to the world series title over my beloved dodgers. three years later he had the yankees back in the fall classic against the dodgers, but this time the dodgers took home the hardware.

the fact that lemon is a hall of fame player while also appearing in the 1978 topps set had me looking for a certified auto to add. there are plenty of cut auto cards out there, but i wanted a hard signed one and this is one of the only, if not the only, options out there. maybe someday i will look for certified autograph cards of the other managers from that set that went on to be enshrined in cooperstown - earl weaver, tommy lasorda, sparky anderson, dick williams, whitey herzog, bobby cox, and joe torre. i already have autos of lasorda and anderson, but they are part of my dodger collection and 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams partial autograph set build, respectively, and i have rules!

as a reminder, you can see lemon and the other members of my hall of famer collection here!