Here's an interesting thought. Of all these all-time Mount Rushmore level greats, they all are publicized and have been portrayed in modern times by movies. Gary Cooper has played Gehrig, William Bendix and John Goodman have been Ruth (along with Ruth playing himself), Tommy Lee Jones has portrayed Cobb, and even Joe Jackson has gotten modern day exposure from being portrayed in Field of Dreams and Eight Men Out. But what about Honus Wagner? I'm not aware of any movies or other shows that portrayed him and told his story, yet he is up there as one of the all- time greats. Can it truly be the legend/myth surrounding his T206 card that drives so much of the popularity and value in the other card issues he appears in?
And getting back to Ruth, as I think about it, he seems to have been portrayed in/the subject of more movies than any player in history. Heck, a signed baseball by him was the central theme of an entire movie - Sandlot. So that right there kind of tells of his level of popularity versus everyone else as well.
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