All-time baseball card team, from just your collection

[egri]

We've done these before and they've been fun, so I want to do one with a twist; you can only list cards you own. They can be homer picks, favorite cards, all time greats, cards with a neat story behind how you acquired it, whatever you like. They don't have to be star players; for the purposes of this, Babe Pinelli is just as acceptable as Babe Ruth.

C- 1953 Topps Roy Campanella. Given the crazy run prices have been on this past year and a half, I had given up ever landing Campy, until another member here turned up this one and sold it to me last spring.

[IMG]Roy Campanella by Scott Marcus, on Flickr[/IMG]

1B- 1952 Bowman Billy Goodman. From a collection that was broken up last year. During World War II, Goodman and Mickey Vernon encouraged Larry Doby to play major league baseball. I like how the borders are trimmed; I think it makes the colors pop. You can see it better in hand.

[IMG]Billy Goodman by Scott Marcus, on Flickr[/IMG]

2B- 1941 Play Ball Bobby Doerr. Doerr was the recipient of my first TTM request, when I was in fifth grade and just getting started in the hobby. I sent this out in the fall of 2014, when I was in college and getting back into the hobby.

[IMG]Bobby Doerr by Scott Marcus, on Flickr[/IMG]

SS- 1951 Bowman Vern Stephens. After I picked up a number of early-'50s Bowman Red Sox, I started digging into the history of those teams. I had always looked at the standings for 1951, saw they finished 11 games out, and thought they were never in it, but it turns out they were in it until the end. On September 17th, they were 2.5 out with 13 to play; they lost 12, including 6 of 7 to New York.

[IMG]Vern Stephens by Scott Marcus, on Flickr[/IMG]

3B- 1949 Leaf Bob Elliot. If Andy Warhol had designed a set, I imagine this is what it would look like.

[IMG]Bob Elliot by Scott Marcus, on Flickr[/IMG]

RF- 1953 Topps Jackie Jensen. The 1958 AL MVP, whose career was curtailed by a fear of flying. One of my favorite players not in the hall of fame.

[IMG]Jackie Jensen by Scott Marcus, on Flickr[/IMG]

CF- 1953 Topps Willie Mays. From comparing the signature with some contracts, it looks like this was signed in the early 1960s.

[IMG]Willie Mays by Scott Marcus, on Flickr[/IMG]

LF- 1959 Fleer Ted Williams #18. I keep telling myself I'll pick up a signed one of these, but I've never gotten around to it. One of the first vintage cards I bought.

[IMG]Ted Williams by Scott Marcus, on Flickr[/IMG]

P- 1953 Topps Warren Spahn. Another pickup from a member here, he may be the only man to play for Casey Stengel before and after he was a genius.

[IMG]Warren Spahn by Scott Marcus, on Flickr[/IMG]

MGR- 1964 Topps Johnny Pesky. When I got started in the hobby, my mom bought me a copy of this card to get signed. I never did, even though I had the chance on multiple occaisions, then Pesky died and that window closed. A couple weeks after I got back from deployment, I came across a lot of three signed 1964 Topps Red Sox, this one among them. I set a ridiculously high max bid to make sure I won it. This was Pesky's second year managing the team, and he has a look on his face like 'Not this crap again.' They had lost 85 games the year before, and had lost 90 when he was fired with two games left.

[IMG]Johnny Pesky by Scott Marcus, on Flickr[/IMG]