Most underappreciated/undercollected players

[Fred]

Indian Bob Johnson

[tmw2ward]

Mickey Charles Mantel

[rats60]

Originally Posted by tmw2ward

Mickey Charles Mantel

I have a 1955 Armour coin of him.

[aloondilana]

For a 6 year period Hornsby was better than anyone in the game.
He put up Cobb numbers but with power.

Jimmie Foxx to me, is by far the most undervalued in the hobby.
Just take a good look at his career stats.
He deserves so much better than this hobby gives demand for his cards.

[mechanicalman]

Lefty Grove, Bill Terry, Al Simmons

[The Nasty Nati]

Jimmie Foxx.

You could argue he was the greatest player of the 1930s. And yes, possibly better than Lou Gehrig during that era.

[riggs336]

Kid Nichols.

[Bigdaddy]

Post-War - Joe Morgan

[BearBailey]

Jim Palmer

[rats60]

Originally Posted by The Nasty Nati

Jimmie Foxx.

You could argue he was the greatest player of the 1930s. And yes, possibly better than Lou Gehrig during that era.

Not really WAR from 1930-1938

Gehrig 73.3
Foxx 65.9
Ott 63.0
Gehringer 56.2
Arky Vaughan 48.0

Now if you want to add in Foxx's 39 season, it looks closer because Gehrig was fighting ASK, but it is Gehrig and it isn't close.

I will throw out Arky Vaughan. He comes in at #5 and he wasn't in the majors in 1930 & 1931 (age 18-19). Bill James has him as the #2 SS all time with a 136 OPS + which is unreal for the position. However, he is collected as a low level Hofer.

Eddie Collins and GC Alexander for the pre- Goudey era. For Post WAR Ted Williams, Stan Musial, Willie Mays, Tom Seaver and Johnny Bench are underappreciated to me.

[KCRfan1]

rats, that's a great observation about Seaver. Aside from his rookie card, Seaver is affordable and almost never mentioned among greats of the game.

[oldjudge]

From my perspective it is John Ward. If you ask me to name the most important people in 19th century baseball I would say Al Spalding, John Ward, Harry Wright and Henry Chadwick, in that order. Ward was a great pitcher who threw the second perfect game in NL history. After he threw out his arm he became an all star shortstop, batting third for the power laden N Y Giant lineup that also had Ewing, Connor and O’Rourke. He married Helen Dauvray who donated the trophy, The Dauvray Cup, that was awarded to the champion of baseball from 1887-1893. He organized and was President of the player’s union, and orchestrated the formation of the Player’s League. While a player with the Giants he received his law degree at Columbia. After his baseball career was over he provided legal advice to players and, in his spare time, managed to become a champion golfer.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by KCRfan1

rats, that's a great observation about Seaver. Aside from his rookie card, Seaver is affordable and almost never mentioned among greats of the game.

I agree. One could call him the greatest pitcher of all time and while one would certainly get arguments, it would not be an indefensible claim. To me it's absurd that Ryan has so much more glamour among collectors. Ryan did not hold a candle to Seaver as a pitcher.

[fairport4]

If anyone in the vintage collecting community can identify a Jim Shaw autograph (signed cut, government card, album page) of the Senators ("Grunting" Jim Shaw" 1913-1921) out there it would be appreciated.. they seem to be almost non-existent although Shaw lived to 1962.. let me know if you have one in your collection..thank you

Billy Hamilton (sliding Billy Hamilton) is obviously a rare Hall of Fame autograph and was part of dead ball era (he died in 1940) but given his involvement in business and real estate in Mass. there must be some autographs out there or a signed letter or official document..

[olecow]

Eddie Mathews and Warren Spahn

[bbcard1]

Prewar: Billy Sunday
Postwar: Bill White / Curt Flood

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by olecow

Eddie Mathews and Warren Spahn

I agree with Eddie Mathews. Being a Mathews collector I like it though. Now if his rookie wasn't a hi # 52 Topps.

[packs]

Joe Wood. His Cracker Jack and T207 are expensive but most of his other cards are treated like they're commons.

[Golfcollector]

Top 26 all time WAR list that seem underappreciated ( I had to include #26 because my initial thought was WTF? 26th in career WAR?
#9 Rogers Hornsby
#10 Eddie Colins
#16 Mel Ott
#18 Frank Robinson
#20 Joe Morgan
#23 Carl Yastrzemski
#26 Adrian Beltre


My favorite Crawford comes in at 47 on the top 50...but no one pay attention so I can get some of his stuff on the cheap

[ls7plus]

Originally Posted by olecow

Eddie Mathews and Warren Spahn

+1 as to post-war: the second best (only to Schmidt) third baseman of all time and a 363 game winner with 13 20-win seasons (after all, that's what a pitcher is supposed to do for his team is win, isn't it?).

Pre-war, I'd have to go with Foxx and Hornsby, although RATS 60 is right that Foxx is behind Gehrig by all rational sabermetric measures. But Hornsby--three .400 seasons with good to great power, .358 lifetime BA and two triple crowns (yes I know that NL league batting averages were .280 or better during Hornsby's rein as the NL's best hitter, but still)!!!

Best holiday wishes to all,

Larry