Players in my collecting sweet spot

 

Ron Hodges passed away just about two weeks ago. Unless you're a Mets fan, you may not remember him. I barely remember him from the time I watched Mets games on WOR with my grandfather. I remember him more from my baseball cards.

 

Hodges was a longtime backup catcher for the Mets and just the Mets. He was there for about a dozen years. You probably couldn't get away with that today -- well, you could but not without a bunch of people crabbing on social media about how you don't hit and what's wrong with management and get rid of this guy already.

 

Hodges was 74 and I'm pretty used to players from my childhood passing away now, but it hit me a little bit harder. While thinking about it over the last few days, I realized it might be because Hodges played during my collecting sweet spot -- and only during my collecting sweet spot.

 

That collecting sweet spot is also what I refer to as "my first collecting period." I've probably listed this before but these are the stages of my collecting journey:

 

1974/75-85: First collecting period

1989-94: Second collecting period

2005-now: Third collecting period

 

I hope there's not a fourth collecting period. But anyway, the first collecting period is the most special. Those are the players to whom I have the most attachment, they are the ones I want in my collection. Those are the sets I want in my collection.

 

Hodges is one of the few players whose rookie card (1974) is at the start of my first collecting period and whose final card (1985) is at the end of that period. He bookends that period perfectly.

That's pretty nice. I love those sets. Hodges did not have a card in the 1976 Topps set (nor in the SSPC set that year, he played in just nine games in '75). But otherwise he has a spotless record. Pretty damn good for a backup catcher.

I became curious about what other players completely covered my first collecting period from beginning to end. There actually aren't many.

Some players just fell short by a year, here are some of them: Elias Sosa, Bucky Dent, Bake McBride, Rick Burleson, Tom Underwood and Richie Zisk.

Some players went over by a year, a few of those are: Dick Ruthven, Ray Burris, Dan Driessen, Dan Spillner, Geoff Zahn, Al Cowens, Al Bumbry.

All of those players practically make the young collector in me sing. Some are among my very favorites. And there are several other players who fell a couple years outside of the parameters who are favorites, too, the biggest example, Ron Cey.

But aside from Hodges, there are only three other players who debuted on cards in 1974 or 1975 and had their final card of their career in 1985 (for those late to the party, I got my first cards in '74 but started collecting in '75).

Let's look at those guys:

 

Dale Murray has the honor of being on one of the cards that I pulled out of the first packs I ever bought in 1975. He's also the subject of an early blog post pointing out that the Expos photo shoot in 1976/77 was reused when he came back to the Expos for his 1980 card.

Murray disappeared from cards for 1981 and 1982 before returning in 1983.

 

Larry Milbourne bounced around several teams, it was a little challenging remembering where he was each year (I didn't include his '83 Traded card in which he's with the Phillies). Milbourne didn't appear on Topps cards in 1976 and 1977, but I used his SSPC card for '76.

So far, all three players lasted from the '74 or '75 set to 1985 but skipped a year of two in that span. Is there any player who had a full run of cards during my first collecting period?

Yup, there's one:

Steve Rogers shows up just as I was getting into cards and fades out just as I was getting out of cards (the first time).

It might be why I always liked his cards as a kid, and not just because he gave up that home run to Rick Monday.

So that was just a post to satisfy my curiosity and relive some of those old cards, pull out the binders and all that. RIP, Ron Hodges.