Hall of Fame week: The best visuals

 

It's Hall of Fame Week at Night Owl Cards.

Normally, I think Hall of Fame talk is tired and I zone out when I see HOF cards or collections. I mean they're not bad or anything, but it's the same as viewing a Mike Trout or Ken Griffey Jr. collection. Another one? Let's move on.

But, probably because there hasn't been a Hall of Fame induction ceremony for quite awhile, I'm actually more interested in the festivities than I have been in a few years. And, with very little effort, I've come up with a week's worth of posts regarding the Hall of Fame, which has been no more than a few hours' drive away from me all my life.

 

So apologies if you're over Hall of Fame chatter, too. I've got HOF posts lined up for today through Thursday. We'll see about Friday -- I've got cards of non-Hall of Famers I've got to show at some point!

 

Today's post is dedicated to the four people being inducted Wednesday: Derek Jeter, Marvin Miller, Ted Simmons and Larry Walker. I thought I'd go through their cards and find the most visually interesting ones of them I could find.

 

By "visually interesting" I mean the photo is visually interesting. I am not selecting cards just because they are shiny, have the edges cut off, have been paralleled or some sort of insert jazz. I like my card to have an interesting photo. So I found some of those.

 

A couple other rules:

 

1. There has to be at least one card of each of the four inductees in the countdown list.

 

2. I can't show a card I've intentionally featured before. This will hamper what I can pick for Larry Walker because I dedicated a whole post to him when he was elected. But, fortunately, Walker played for the entire '90s, so he has a bunch of interesting cards.

 

OK, most of these cards are not in my collection but you wouldn't be very interested if I chose only those in my collection. Here are the 12 that I picked:

 

12. Marvin Miller, 2015 Topps Heritage, News Flashbacks

An appropriate card for Labor Day. Legendary Players Union chief Marvin Miller doesn't have many cards, in fact I own almost all of them. I chose this card with the hopes that I could identify the people who are yucking it up with Miller. Owners? Executives? Lawyers? The guy in the back looks like he plays football. I know they aren't media types, they're dressed too well. Unfortunately, I struck out on any IDs.

11. Ted Simmons, 1975 Hostess

Of the four people being inducted, I am the most interested in Simmons (and his cards). I grew up with Simmons' cards and have discussed his 1975 Topps card multiple times. But I had never seen this Hostess card until researching this post. I love it. Look at that confidence. He's going to steal everything you hold dear.

10. Larry Walker, 2000 Skybox Dominion

There are a shocking number of Larry Walker Awkward Slide cards. You could make it a mini-collection easily. This one is one of the most awkward -- I think this is the same way A.J. Pollock injured himself the other day. Also, check out that wide expanse of empty space in the upper left quadrant.

9. Derek Jeter, 2015 Topps Stadium Club

Derek Jeter has about a bazillion boring cards. I guess this is expected since he has more than a bazillion cards. But looking through them, so few were interesting that I started to feel sorry for Jeter collectors (and I never do that). The best Jeter cards either show him with Yankee Stadium as the backdrop (like this) or one of his fielding plays (stay tuned). Everything else is a boring batting shot or celebration shot.

I think the reason for this is Jeter was the ultimate professional. You didn't see him clowning around much, and it is very evident on his cards.

8. Larry Walker, 1997 Collector's Choice

Here we have the Anti-Jeter of cards. The "Player-Pretends-He-Is-A-Photographer" is a well-known '90s card theme, and if you were going to pick any player with the best chance to perpetuate that theme, it would be Walker.

 

 

7. Ted Simmons, 1983 Fleer

This is a recent arrival in my collection and I haven't had a chance to note how interesting it is yet. I guess I have something to do after this post! Simmons, judging by his clenched fist, has either just thrown the ball, is celebrating, or is really ticked off. Since he is playing the Padres (see behind him), I'm assuming Simmons is celebrating.

6. Ted Simmons, 1981 O-Pee-Chee

The only card that I came across during this research that caused me to purchase it. I like this card so much because OPC changed the border color to red to reflect the color scheme used for the Brewers in 1981 but in the process made it match with the Cardinals uniforms!

This is the Topps card:

Fascinating.

Also, I don't want to dwell on the color scheme too much, this is supposed to be about the photo. But what a photo! So much going on. Ken Reitz in the background. A whole mess of people relaxing around the batting cage. Equipment on the ground -- stuff you never see with modern cards.

5. Larry Walker, 1994 Upper Deck Fun Pack

This is the best 3-D card that doesn't use lenticular technology. In fact it might be the best 3-D card ever no matter what technology. I could stare at this for a long time.

4. Derek Jeter, 2004 Playoff Honors

The best Derek Jeter cards -- since he won't show his candid side -- are ones with photos of him leaping because his leaps were enormous. This one covers quite a bit of ground and there's a scoreboard in the background, which is always a plus.

 

3. Derek Jeter, 1998 Fleer Tradition

Fleer used this photo more than once. It's great. Jeter looks like a cartoon character who has just fallen off a cliff and is about to create a Derek Jeter-sized hole in ground, Wile E. Coyote style.

2. Derek Jeter, 2009 Topps

Jeter staged quite a rally here. I've always liked this card. Out of all of his cards showing him leaping, it is the best presentation, a clear picture of him vaulting another human being.

I admit I didn't go through all of the Jeter card images on the web. But after looking through about 5,000, I think that's a fair enough representation. I kept waiting for the ultimate shot of "The Flip" or him diving into the stands that one time, but all of the pictures I saw of those two plays were one click off or from the wrong angle.

1. Larry Walker, 1998 Upper Deck

When I showed off the Larry Walker cards in my collection in that other post, I displayed the 1993 Milkbone card of Walker posing with his doggie. I still like that card, but this one is better. You can tell by the crooked helmet, Walker's having some trouble keeping woofie under control.

So that's what I found most interesting about this week's inductees. Perhaps you found them interesting, too.

Cards of Hall of Famers don't have to be signed or slabbed for them to be interesting. In fact, I prefer that they aren't.