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But what really made me happy was seeing the George Foster RC posted above. Whatever the final stat lines and Cooperstown voting were, there were no bigger giants on the diamond when I was a kid than George Foster, Steve Garvey, and Dave Parker. That none of the three made the Hall does little to diminish the memories.
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We must be about the same age. Parker, Foster, and Garvey were the gods of the game from about '77 to '81 - right when I started following baseball and collecting. I still remember Parker's throw to home in the all-star game. I did not think it a possibility that Garvey would not be inducted to the HOF with his consecutive game streak, MVP season and year after year all-star notation on his card. As a Reds fan growing up, the '78 of foster with his 52 homers on the back of the card was one of my early prized possessions. It is crazy to think that none of them went and I think they (especially Parker & Garvey) were part of a forgotten generation where their stats were strong against their peers at the time but did not stack up against other eras. I also think that the 3-4 years that Parker gave away to his drug use in the early '80s probably cost him 100 homers and 700 hits that would have put him in easily.