HOF'er Perceptions

[David W]

I was born near Cleveland Ohio and in 1969 at age 6 we moved to Central llinois.

My grandmother and dad were Indians fans, so I always heard about Bob Feller, even 20 years after he no longer pitched.

Central Illinois was about 50/50 Cub vs. Cardinal fans. If you were a Cardinal fan in the early 70's, Joe Torre and Lou Brock were it, to a lesser extent Bob Gibson and of course the "Mad Hungarian" Al Hrabosky. Later into the 80's it was Willie McGee and Ozzie Smith and Bruce Sutter.

Cub fans I played ball with always wanted to be Ernie Banks or Billy Williams, with Kessinger and Santo also popular.

National players were Willie Mays, Clemente and Aaron as I recall. Also, for some reason one of my friends was a huge Maury Wills fan.

Also, later into the 70's Bench, Rose, et al of the Big Red Machine were popular in Central Illinois.

[Bigdaddy]

I grew up in the mid-70's and the guys who were playing then and commanded the most respect in my circle of lunch-pail card traders were (in no particular order):

Pete Rose
Johnny Bench
Steve Garvey
Tom Seaver
Reggie (no last name needed)
Rod Carew and
Willie Stargell

Players we just missed seeing:

Mickey Mantle
Willie Mays
Hank Aaron
Sandy Koufax

Players who we only knew in black and white:

Ted Williams
Babe Ruth
Ty Cobb
Honus Wagner