We all know WAR as a modern stat, but you can find the all-time career list here:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/l...R_career.shtml
The top 20 who have cards from your years 1954-1974 are:
5 Willie Mays+ (23) 156.1
7 Henry Aaron+ (23) 143.2
11 Stan Musial+ (22) 128.6
14 Ted Williams+ (19) 121.8
21 Mickey Mantle+ (18) 110.2
22 Tom Seaver+ (20) 109.9
23 Frank Robinson+ (21) 107.3
24 Mike Schmidt+ (18) 106.9
31 Joe Morgan+ (22) 100.6
32 Warren Spahn+ (21) 100.1
33 Carl Yastrzemski+ (23) 96.5
34 Eddie Mathews+ (17) 96
35 Phil Niekro+ (24) 95.9
37 Roberto Clemente+ (18) 94.9
42 Al Kaline+ (22) 92.7
45 Steve Carlton+ (24) 90.2
46 Gaylord Perry+ (22) 90
47 Bob Gibson+ (17) 89.1
50 Robin Roberts+ (19) 86.2
56 Fergie Jenkins+ (19) 84.1
Interesting to see some names that are not all that hot in collecting, e.g.,
Phil Niekro
Gaylord Perry
Robin Roberts
Fergie Jenkins
Others who don't seem to make the cut:
Koufax
Bench
Berra
J. Robinson
Banks
Rose