Your all Postwar to 1980 team - Favorite Cards

[cgjackson222]

Originally Posted by G1911

Pitcher has many excellent candidates. Ford, Marichal, Gibson, even Roberts Roberts. Seaver loses some playing time with the era cutoff but is a good choices anyways. I think Spahn produced the most total value during this period

Bench or Berra is close, I give it to Berra because Berra was remarkably consistent and excellent. Bench had some great years mixed with some pretty poor ones.

McCovey is awfully close to post-war only Musial.

Jackie has the hype, Morgan the stat line. Robinson was a great player but I don't see his actual career value as #1 here.

I don't think there's much of any real competition for SS.

Schmidt was greater than Mathews overall, but I don't see a way to give it to Schmidt if we have a 1980 cutoff. From 1946-1980 only, Mathews has a much better stat line.

Greg, you make some very valid points. Musial actually did play more games at 1st Base than any other single position (even if he played outfield in total more than 1st Base).

You are also correct that Mike Schmidt's best year's were in the 80s.

Regarding catcher, I agree that Berra had a great career, but Bench didn't start going down hill until 1980, so I gotta go with Bench. I like Campanella ahead of Berra too because he had great years in the Negro Leagues, his career was tragically cut short, and I just think he had a higher peak.

I also agree that Joe Morgan had better stats than Jackie. I just think Jackie was more disruptive to opposing teams because of his baserunning and overall aggresiveness. (I'm also biased against Morgan because when I was kid he was a broadcaster, and i though he was unbearable).

Since its hard to choose just one team, I chose three:

First Team
Catcher Johnny Bench
First Base Stan Musial
2nd Base Jackie Robinson
Shortstop Ernie Banks
3rd Base Eddie Mathews
Leftfield Ted Williams
Centerfield Willie Mays
Rightfield Hank Aaron
Pitcher Tom Seaver

2nd Team
Catcher Roy Campanella
1st Base Willie McCovey
2nd Base Joe Morgan
Shortstop Pee Wee Reese
3rd Base Brooks Robinson
Leftfield Carl Yastrzemski
Centerfield Mickey Mantle
Rightfield Frank Robinson
Pitcher Warren Spahn

3rd Team
Catcher Yogi Berra
1st Base Harmon Killibrew
2nd Base Rod Carew
Shortstop ?????
3rd Base Ron Santo
Leftfield Pete Rose
Centerfield Duke Snider
Rightfield Roberto Clemente
Pitcher Bob Gibson



Below are my favorite cards of the 1st and 2nd team folks. I can't afford my favorite Mantle ('51 Bowman) so I just left it blank.