Help! - Best players for 1958-1980 baseball card display

[jason.1969]

Originally Posted by David W

So, who is your top 50 from 33-57?

And who is your 43 that are in from 58 to 80?

Here's what I have so far, grouped into 10s (plus or minus) to correspond with the rows in my Pennzoni display case. Note that bold entries are cards I still need, and italicized entries are players on the bubble. G = Goudey, D = DeLong, DS = Diamond Starts, PB = Play Ball, B = Bowman, T = Topps, N = Nu Cards, and J = Japanese.

Any player who is a consensus Top 100 Player in MLB history (about 75 of these guys) is an automatic "in." From there I end up with about 30 open slots, many of which go to guys I just want in for my own reasons (as Brian suggested). And what's left, more or less, are about 17 guys to fill 10 slots.

FIRST 50

33G Ruth
33G Frisch
33G Hartnett
33G O'Doul - Perhaps not a Top 100 career, but I'm biased toward really old cards I already have.
33G H. Wilson - Ditto.
34G Gehrig
34G Foxx
34G Grove
34G Greenberg
34G Dean

33D Simmons
33D Klein - I know Klein benefitted greatly from ballpark and era. Still, I feel like Klein and Simmons go together, enough so that I might even shell out for the DeLongs.
36DS Hornsby
36DS Ott
36DS Hubbell
36DS Waner
36DS Terry
36DS Traynor
36DS Appling
36G Cochrane - With this and the next selection, part of my goal is to feature not only 100 great players but also a variety of different sets.
38G Medwick

39PB DiMaggio
40PB Dickey
40PB Cronin
41PB Gehringer
41PB Vaughan - A bit like Maris, one season really does a lot for this guy in my book
49B Boudreau
51B Campanella - Still puzzled ESPN didn't put him in their Top 125!
51B Irvin
52B Ashburn - This card is just a beauty...may put Richie over the top! Plus makes a nice pair with fellow Whiz Kid below.
52B Roberts

52T Snider
53T Paige
53T Feller
53T Mathews
53T Mize
53T Kiner
53B Musial
53B Minoso - I grew up in LA but live in Chicago now. People here talk about this guy like a poor man's Clemente. I should learn more...I mainly knew him from his '77 Topps Record Breaker card.
54T J. Robinson
54B Mantle

57T Mays
57T T. Williams
57T F. Robinson
57T Clemente
57T Spahn
57T Banks
57T Berra
57T Kaline
57T Ford
57T Doby - Integrating the American League earns this guy a ton of points with me.

Best guys I left out: Goose Goslin, Lefty Gomez, Early Wynn, Phil Rizzuto, Gil Hodges, Pee Wee Reese?

SECOND 50

61N Aaron - Of all the Aarons!! Really? The problem is my Topps and Bowman Aarons are all tied up in my framed Aaron display.
63T Koufax
64T Gibson
64T B. Robinson
64T Yastrzemski
64T McCovey
64T Marichal
64T Killebrew
64T Stargell
64T Aparicio
64T B. Williams

64T Drysdale
64T Maris - I still think of him as holding the HR record
64J Oh - Such a cool card. No idea really what his MLB stats would have been.
65T Wilhelm
65T Santo - Just as his name translates, people here in Chicago see this guy as a saint.
65T Allen
65T Tiant
66T Morgan
67T Jenkins
67T Perry
68T Sutton

69T Bench
69T Seaver
69T Carlton
69T Rose
69T Ryan
69T Carew
69T Jackson
69T Palmer
69T Brock
69T Niekro

70T Fingers
71T Blyleven
71T Garvey - When I was growing up in LA, this guy was the card everyone wanted to get in a pack.
72T Foster
72T Munson
73T Fisk
74T Schmidt
74T Winfield
74T Gossage
74T Richard
75T Brett

76T Eckersley
76T Carter
76T Lynn
76T Parker
77T Yount
77T Sutter
78T Murray
78T Dawson
78T Rice
79T Smith
79T Molitor
80T Henderson
80T Murphy

Best guys I left out: Tony Perez, Bobby Grich, Dave Kingman, Alan Trammell?

[mrmopar]

Might be speaking soon, but good to see The Garv getting some love from the vintage crowd. Usually he gets the snub when HOF or all time greats topics come about.

It's hard to remove any of the better players from lists like these because you feel like they all deserve to be there at some level. Good luck with the project.