Your Most and Least favorite PreWar HOFers

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Posted By: Brian Lindholme

and their cards...

Here is my favorite PreWar HOFer, Napoleon Lajoie. I read a SABR book on Nap years ago and his story along with the fascinating evolution of baseball at the turn of the century quickly made him a favorite.
The blue background M116 portrait is such a fine looking card!!

Richard "Rube" Marquard would probably be my least favorite HOFer, just because I can find a dozen or more pitchers in history wiith better stats than him. This T205 is actually a nice pose though.

What do you guys think? Who are your Most and Least favorites?
Brian L
familytoad

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

My favorite prewar Hall of Famer is Eddie Collins - I just think he is very underrated today.


I don't really have a least favorite as I haven't thought much about it but I suppose there are lots of reasons to dislike Ty Cobb.

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Posted By: Tony Andrea

My least favorite would probably have to be Frank "HomeRun" Baker. With a nickname like that, you'd think he would have more than the 96 career home runs he had.

My favorite would be Tris Speaker. His career stats are simply staggering.

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Posted By: Scott

Honus Wagner since I'm a Pirate fan is favorite.

Miller Huggins is my least favorite though there are several that really don't belong in HOF.

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Posted By: jay wolt

My favorite is "Gettysburg Eddie" Plank
He doesn't seem to get the respect he deserves.
Was the all time winningest lefty till Spahn
topped him almost 50 years later.

I live within a few miles from Gettysburg and thats
where Connie Mack signed him out of Gettysburg college.
He was born in Gettysburg, attended the college, lived
there until his death in 1926 and is buried in Evergreen
Cemetary across from the soldiers cemetary where Lincoln
gave the Gettysburg Address.

There's a PA historical marker by the college, and in town
is a building where he had his car dealership and I've visited
his gravesite many times incl taking N54ers Keith O., Scott M.
& Dave S.
Rest In Peace Eddie!!

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Posted By: Brian Lindholme

Let's hear from more of you!

(Include some scans! We all love looking at cards!)

Dan, I agree about Eddie Collins. A great player !
He also has roots in my hometown of Rutland, VT as documented on his Cracker Jack card(s)

My scanner doesn't do good on slabbed cards. You can barely read the back scan. Here is one of the front...

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

Jay, I didn't know that Plank played for Gettysburg college. I have some 1890s yearbook pages of the Gettysburg college baseball team that I am going to have to dig out now to take a closer look. Do you have any ideas as to what years he played for them?

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Posted By: Brad

My most favorite PreWar HOFer would have to be Ruth!

http://s79.photobucket.com/albums/j136/MapleCrispetteV117

Least favorite would be Joe Tinker. (I can't believe his in HOF?)
http://www.baseball-reference.com/t/tinkejo01.shtml>

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Posted By: fkw

Favorites Foxx, Cochrane, Frisch, Alexander, Wheat

Least Fav. Bancroft, Tinker, Willis, Rice, and all the Mgr. (Jennings, Huggins, Griffith, etc.)

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Posted By: jay wolt

DAN - I believe Mack saw him at the college in 1899 or 1900
and made sure he would be on the A's.
Plank signed w/ them in May 1901 and pitched that year.
So check out the late 1890's and you should be OK
Please advise w/ scans of you're findings...jay

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

I'll post them when I dig them up...it'll have to be tomorrow sometime (If I find them)

I found one of the football photos that came with that lot on this site...I guess they are from the 1880s...I'll still look for them though, but I see the names are on the page and I almost certainly would have investigated if I saw the name "Plank" on one of the baseball photos.

here's a link to the football photo:
http://www.network54.com/Forum/153652/message/1148177797/

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Posted By: MVSNYC

as far as worst? i have respect for ALL men who played baseball, especially pre-war, they don't make men like that anymore! tuff as nails.

best? so hard to narrow it down...

gehrig
cobb
matty

but my all time favorite:

George Herman Ruth

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Posted By: Joann

Favorite - Ruth by a longshot. He simply IS baseball. One of my favorite cards:



Least favorite? Evers. I've heard he was nasty, and he just plain looks mean and crabby. I don't have a scan to post b/c I don't own any of his cards.

Joann

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Posted By: Frank Wakefield

Yes, Joann, Evers was all of that, and more. But you have to love the guy, he was pure baseball.

On 9-4-08 his Cubs were in a scoreless game at Pittsburg, bottom of the 9th, bases loaded. On a single to center, the first base runner Warren Gill left the field as the Pirates won, without going to step on second base. Evers stood on second, got the ball, and asked umpire Hank O'Day to call Gill out. O'Day didn't. At the hotel that night, after discussion and reflection with Evers, O'Day told Evers that such a play would be a legal out. And that he'd be ready for it if it reoccurred.

It did. Sept 23, 1908, Giants and Cubs, in that great pennant race, with Bridwell's single and Merkle heading for the centerfield clubhouse without touching second. This time O'Day was ready for the call.

Evers sparked pennants in Chicago in 1906, 7 and 8; then for Boston's miracle Braves in 1914. He managed a bit in 1913, and after he returned from WW I. He was inducted into the HOF 6 months before he died.

He was scrappy, but not unlikeable... dig out an Evers card and give him a hug!

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Posted By: anthony

least favorite has to be comiskey...aside from all that he may have done that was good for baseball (if anything)...the 1919 sox got treated like crap by him and he got what he deserved in the end...unfortunately, it came at the cost of some good players...

all time favorite is ty cobb, loved the way he played...

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Posted By: DJ

My favorite Hall Of Famer is Ty Cobb simply because he didn't care about how he was perceived and didn't care if people hated him or his teammates. So much folklore on an absolutely amazing stick and so much drama that he would not survive in this current world of baseball which would curb the way he behaved.

The perfect recipe to make a Ty Cobb would be: Add one Terrell Owens, one Mike Tyson, one Ron Artest and one John Rocker and you would have the "Shirley Temple version" of Ty Cobb.

My least favorite...well, many don't deserve to be the Hall and many of you have made that the reason for them not being your favorite and most of you went back a while...so I will go with Kirby Puckett, whom I wouldn't put in the Hall, but that's me. If he would have played 2-3 more years, maybe.

I have dealt with Puckett on a number of occasions and he simply wasn't a nice man. He was nice to "those within the game" (I.E Randy Johnson is nice to fellow players, but treats the outside world like crap), but Puckett was always surly when I was around him and rarely treated the outside world with much compassion. People who didn't know this side of Puckett thought he was a great guy and the Sports Illustrated piece wasn't a shock to those around him...nor was his arrest.

DJ

edited to say: Comiskey sucks too.

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Posted By: Frank Evanov

For favorite, I have to go with Matty. He gave a new face to baseball and he was the first real baseball idol:



My least favorite, because of his personal life and beliefs, would be Cap Anson:



Frank

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Posted By: howard

My least favorite is Lloyd Waner. A singles hitter who very rarely walked in a hitters era just does not belong in the Hall. There is an anecdote that when the veterans committee (read: clown school) was considering him they looked at his brothers stats by mistake.

Honus is my favorite.

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Posted By: peter chao

Guys,

My favorite is Lou Gehrig by far. His farewell speech in Yankee Stadium showed he had a lot of class. My favorite card of him is the '34 Goudey portrait.

My least favorite is Ty Cobb just because he was the opposite of Gehrig...a jerk...just that simple. However, he always looked good on a baseball card, and I have to admit he could play. Can't name a card of his that doesn't look good. If you pushed me on it I would say that strip card with both him and Ruth on it is pretty ugly.

Peter

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Posted By: JimB

There was a very interesting article about Cobb is SCD about a year ago. Apparently he was not the complete ass he was portrayed as (and then repeately portrayed as again and again) by his biographer after he died. I forget all the details, but among other things Cobb gave tons of money to various charities including those that primarily benefited African Americans.
JimB

P.S. Cap Anson on the other hand....

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Posted By: jay wolt

"among other things Cobb gave tons of money to various charities"

JIMB -Last month on the way back from Ft Benning, I stopped in Cobb's
hometown of Royston GA to visit the Ty Cobb museum, it was located inside the Cobb Memorial Hospital.

In the museum brochure it states...

"But few knew the story of how Cobb used his wealth to establish the Cobb Memorial Hospital in Royston, which is now one of the crown jewels of an integrated rural healthcare system which serves thousands of patients annually throughout northeast Georgia. He also earmarked one-quarter of his significant income to set up the Cobb Schorlarship Fund, which now helps send more than 100 Georgians to college each year....

Thats pretty impressive that both are going strong 45 years after his death...jay

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Posted By: JimB

Yeah, he made a ton of money as an early investor in Coca Cola. Seems like he did a lot of good with it.
JimB

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

Jay here are those Gettysburg photos - the first one states that it's the 1896 team, but I think it's actually the 1899 team because the back says '99 on it and the other photo I believe is probably Gettysburg Prep school and on the back of that photo is something about the Tennis team which is dated 1899 as well. No Plank. Do you recognize any of the names?

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Posted By: Jerry

Favorite, The Big 6

Least Favorite, The Crab

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Posted By: Henry Eshelman

Favorites: Johnson Foxx Mathewson Ruth
Least: Tinker Jennings

Thanks, Henry Eshelman

Website:www.freewebs.com/vintagebaseball