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Originally Posted by Runscott
Greg, I was very fixated on baseball and baseball statistics during my primary 'card collecting' years (1965-69). There were some guys whose cards were 1st tier who did not make the HOF, and others who were 2nd tier who are now in the HOF. I understand how the HOF is a huge deal to the players, but to me it's basically meaningless, as it doesn't truly represent greatness in my opinion, and it certainly doesn't represent the players who were dominant during my childhood (and it should not), simply because many of them fizzled out, or like Maris, Dean Chance and Denny McClain, were great in our minds because of one huge year (I must have pulled a '65 Chance in one of my first packs).
Regarding cards and stats - those stats really helped keep us up-to-date with ALL the baseball teams. When you saw a name in the box-scores that you didn't have a card for, you tried to find the stats you were lacking - baseball magazines were plentiful, and the 'Beaumont Enterprise' had a Sunday baseball stats page that had hitting and pitching stats for every player in the major leagues who had a certain number of at bats (or innings pitched), down to a particular level of mediocrity, depending on how much room there was on the page. Nowadays I see guys on the leaderboards who I don't recognize, and it's kind of a shame.
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It sounds like our childhoods were remarkably similar, just off by a few years --my card collecting peak was 1968-1975. I remember anxiously awaiting the arrival of the new baseball magazines each spring -- every year in the late 60s there would be a cover featuring the $100,000 Club with the handful of stars who were paid six figures.
And I too don't know many of today's names -- my son is always making fun of me for that.
Mark -- good point on those Mets. I'd add Keith Hernandez, who fell off a cliff at the end of his career and whose trangsgressions have kept him from serious consideration. Still he is probably the greatest defensive first baseman of all time, a heck of a hitter (although not a power hitter, which is what most people seem to want in a first baseman), and an MVP.
Greg