The Baseball Cards Hall of Fame Thread...
 

Granted, I didn't fully explore the other thread and video regarding the baseball card Hall of Fame voting (and am in no way casting aspersions on anyone involved), but I imagine the vast majority of us had the exact same thought, how about a Hall of Fame for the baseball cards themselves, regardless of which player(s) is depicted??

So, here we go. Post pictures (my are screengrabs) of cards you believe to be Hall of Fame worthy based on the images themselves, and tell us your reasoning for each. The players involved could be actual HOF'ers, semi-stars, scrubs or anyone else pictured on a card. Value and other related factors are completely irrelevant (in other words, don't immediately go the tired Mickey Mantle route), and it is the card itself that screams glory (whatever your definition of that is) to you.


I'm sticking to the 1970's with my first entrants...

• 1972 Topps #280 Willie McCovey - the motion blur of his southpaw is absolutely magnificent to me, and this card is a work of art. The colors are beautifully balanced, the growing crowd in the backgound during warm-ups adds a bit of anticipation to the scene, and Stretch's amiable appearance brings it all on home.

• 1973 Topps #35 Willie Davis - for the love of God, is this the best shot Topps had in its image vault??? He is getting plunked by a pitch, for cripes sake!! This card's diversion from established norms just blows me away!! (Side note: take a look at Frank Robinson's 1973 card with his airbrushed Dodgers uniform. It was taken at the same game, from the same vantage point, so perhaps this was the 'best' (or most entertaining?) shot the photog was able to grab of Willie that day?)

• 1976 Topps #300 Johnny Bench - an exquisite, majestic shot of the imperial catcher shrouded in a cloud of dirt, standing on guard with intimidation, just daring the runner to make a break for the plate. And the all star graphic just adds that much more deliciousness to the scenario. Phenomenal!!!

Attachment 460958


What does it for you? Post 'em...

My vote would be the 51B Mays as the most beautiful card ever produced followed by the 53T Mantle, but that's low hanging fruit so I'll put these four up for nomination.
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I'd also nominate some of the fantastic early 70's cards you came up with for a separate award category.

Hof
 

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Emphasis added.

This is not a card it is an immaculate portrait. I fell in love with it at first sight. I don’t own one yet, but I will one day.

This card shows off the mighty Ryan's powerful delivery.

https://www.net54baseball.com/pictur...ictureid=25577

The pose on this card is actually odd, almost seems backwards, but is aesthetically appealing.

https://www.net54baseball.com/pictur...ictureid=27451

I always found the 1976 Bench card to be derivative of earlier work by C. Schulz.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/9f/a3...eef009e45d.jpg

Now if you want a bona fide action shot of a catcher, you can't go wrong with the 1971 Munson card.

https://1970sbaseball.files.wordpres...1971munson.jpg

1. 1956 Topps Clemente

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...13d615cc_w.jpg

Great action photo in the background with the colors of the Ebbets Field right field wall. Clemente making one of his routine great catches.

2. 1965 Topps Koufax

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...ec83de8f_w.jpg

Topps best design in my opinion. There are many examples of great photography in this set. My pick is Koufax, the best pitcher of the live ball era, staring down the hitter.

3. Turkey Red Ty Cobb

https://live.staticflickr.com/1855/4...4b00d6f6_w.jpg

One prewar card. The Turkey Red set is the most beautiful set of cards ever made. This is such a great image with the colors and background it really pops.

With so many from which to choose, here's one a little less mainstream . . .

Attachment 461137

The 53 Bowman Reese is my favorite image on a post-war card.

I'd nominate this one too for the action shots category, for the strength of the image, hat flying off mid-slide.

The 73 Davis is not a good representation of the player, personally I'd put in the worst of the 70's list. It is different.

I have to agree..... This is probably the best work of art I have seen on a pasteboard

Can we nominate entire sets? I'd give the nod to the 1935 Diamond Stars and 1949 Leaf sets. The DS's design captures the Art Deco style of the era, and the Leafs look like Andy Warhol designed them.

That Bench is an all time great in my mind. So many, but it clearly does stand out as one of the greats. The dust, the all-star badge and the fact that it is future HOFer Bench. Fosse is another catcher with a great card due to an action shot and the A's color scheme is great, but no AS badge and Fosse was no Bench. Too bad the Munson card was just a portrait from the same set.

From 1971 & 1973-1981, the sets were loaded with great action shots before that pretty much became the norm (i left out 72 & 82, both of which had the In Action subsets) and most cards were action in a set. Lots of great shots that made epic cards. Way better than the 60s and 50s images.

I am surprised you didn't mention 1983 Topps. Pretty much every card is an action shot. It was the best of the late 70s-early 80s era and the last great Topps set in my opinion.

As a collector from the 60s, the 1971 set was a revolution in card designs. I have never like the Munson card, but the first 4 series were loaded with something new, action shots instead of all posed shots. He are my favorite cards from the set.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...431c798e_w.jpg

83 was probably the beginning of using mostly action shots in sets, possibly 82, scattered with fewer dumb poses. I see that as the beginning of the "modern era" of card images.

I am surprised anyone would not like the Munson card. However, we each have something unique that draws us to what we like and don't like. That is probably one of my favorite cards of all time. For me, it has the star power, the great action shot, the trophy, the horizontal orientation in a mostly vertical set and the black borders. That card is as close to cardboard perfection (for me) as one can get.

If that was Garvey sliding into the plate and it was his card, that is the only way this card is topped in my mind.

It's hard to go wrong with '56 Topps for the postwar era. Many HOF'ers have some of their best looking cards in that set, my favorites would be Mantle, Williams, and Roberto Clemente - the latter of which someone has already mentioned - that is virtual "card porn."

For the ensuing decades, I'll just mention some personal favorites. The cards don't have to be stars or HOF'ers - but:

'61 Topps Chuck Cottier - Night time shot with what are just interesting colors to me - Chuck's uni has been heavily airbrushed by the Topps artists, and I can't even tell what the hell is supposed to be on his sleeve - a "6"?

'63 Topps Sandy Koufax - Almost a poignant looking pitching pose, Sandy is looking ostensibly at a batter and not the camera. Love the full script "Los Angeles" road uni, and then the blue of his uniform and cap pop well with the red and orange of the '63 design.

'67 Topps #580 Rocky Colavito - Beautiful uniform follow-through pose with an interesting background. What a '60s baseball card should look like, IMO.

'67 Topps #600 Brooks Robinson - Similar reasons. Great batting pose, smiling player, and the colors are just pleasing.

'72 Topps Carl Yastrzemski - Artist's palette for color: The greens and blues mix delightfully on this card with Carl's batting pose.

'82 Topps Traded Cal Ripken - Spring training shot with a great batting pose, and good color contrast again with the green of the field and the blue sky.

Three more from the 1970's...

• 1973 Topps #420 Tommie Agee - the art department at Topps took 1/3 of the Mets lineup (Tommie Agee, Ken Boswell and Rusty Staub), dressed in their home uniforms for a day game at Shea Stadium...and turned them into members of the Houston Astros!!! Can you even imagine how the conversation surrounding this card went:
- "Hey, Walter, this guy Agee is on the Astros now. Let's do what we always do and use a standard hatless headshot of him, so no team insignias are shown, and just call it a day. That way me and the wife can get on the road to my in-laws right at 5PM."
- "You know what, Bill? My guys still have hours to kill today, there are all sorts of paint cans gathering dust in the supply room, and we are hungry for a challenge. Let me see if there's another way to approach this. Oh, say hello to Barbara and the kids for me."

• 1974 Topps #575 Steve Garvey - what a wondrously marvelous, psychedelically inviting horizontal shot of the star first bagger. This card seemingly has its origins in the work of Monet. (Side note: Dave Kingman received the same treatment in the set, but it was a less effective effect (Holy redundancy, Batman!) on his vertically oriented card, and the fact that Garvey captured the MVP that season makes his card that much more memorable.)

• 1975 Topps #407 Herb Washington - was there anyone outside of a diehard Oakland A's fan who was happy with the slot occupied in the set by a pinch runner? The back mentions that he holds the world indoor records for both the 50-yard and 60-yard dash, and his only stats are 'Games,' 'Runs,' 'Stolen Bases' and 'Caught Stealing.' Nothing else!! What a bizarrely peculiar baseball card for the ages!!! I call this the 'precursor to Rickey Henderson' card.

Attachment 461522

For me, the '74 Garvey will always be notable for it's appearance in "Mask" (the one with Cher and Eric Stoltz; not the one with Jim Carrey...)

"You don't even have a Garvey card Ben, jeez..."

Despite the fact that the movie was set in 1980 or so, the card that Rocky's character had was the '74, and he had like 3 of them. He trades one for his cousin Ben's '55 Topps Rube Walker, which is one of the last cards he needs for his '55 Brooklyn collection.

I love the 67 Colavito...classic pose, classic set, and a SP High Number. Can you imagine what the 67 Mantle would be worth if it was the same pose, same #580? Topps should be ashamed of the 67 Mantle they released...

I don't think a card HOF can be complete without this all time great:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...8298885896.jpg

1970 Topps Johnny Bench

https://live.staticflickr.com/4698/3...b6f086c2_w.jpg

People rate the 1969 and 1976 cards highly, but to someone who collected in the 70s, this is the Bench card. The beginning of the Big Red Machine and Bench's first MVP are captured in this classic image.

1974 Catfish Hunter

https://live.staticflickr.com/1889/2...39cb1324_w.jpg

1974 has lots of great action shots like the Ryan and Seaver cards, but the Hunter is my favorite in the set.

1967 Bill Mazeroski

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...eaae0ff8_o.jpg

Lots of great shots in 1967, especially high numbers like Brooks and Rocky. We never got high number cards, so the Maz was my favorite from the first 6 series