Slightly OT - 2020 Modern Baseball Era HOF Ballot

[kailes2872]

As someone who started collecting in 1980, Steve Garvey and Dave Parker were legends! Garvey had those Popeye forearms and had an all-star logo on his card for what seemed like a decade. Parker was the best player in baseball from 77-79 and top 5 from 84-86. I think of Parker like Ted Williams (hyperbole/joking). While Williams had the lost years from the wars and people like to extrapolate out his stats, I think about Parker's wasted years from 80-83 while he was (allegedly) in the middle of the Pittsburgh drug issues that led to the trials, etc. If we were somehow able to draw a natural linear progression from 79 to 84 and he had 295/30/100 average for those 4 years, he is a walk-in HOFer. Alas, he didn't and he isn't, but he is a classic case of what could have been.

Being under 10 and watching him throw out folks from right field while his large frame towered over everyone else made him larger than life in my eyes. I am still bitter that McGee beat him out for the MVP in '85 as 2 MVPs probably get him in despite WAR being exactly the same.

Simmons and Sweet Lou never really did it for me - but I have to admit a very clear bias to the all star logo on the top of the baseball card. When I started collecting, Garvey and Parker had it, those two didn't, so my memory tends to be a bit tainted.