The Baseball Cards Hall of Fame Thread...

[rats60]

1. 1956 Topps Clemente



Great action photo in the background with the colors of the Ebbets Field right field wall. Clemente making one of his routine great catches.

2. 1965 Topps Koufax



Topps best design in my opinion. There are many examples of great photography in this set. My pick is Koufax, the best pitcher of the live ball era, staring down the hitter.

3. Turkey Red Ty Cobb



One prewar card. The Turkey Red set is the most beautiful set of cards ever made. This is such a great image with the colors and background it really pops.

[scotgreb]

With so many from which to choose, here's one a little less mainstream . . .

Hubbell 1933 Sport Kings42 PSA 55.jpg

[G1911]

The 53 Bowman Reese is my favorite image on a post-war card.

I'd nominate this one too for the action shots category, for the strength of the image, hat flying off mid-slide.

The 73 Davis is not a good representation of the player, personally I'd put in the worst of the 70's list. It is different.

[egri]

Can we nominate entire sets? I'd give the nod to the 1935 Diamond Stars and 1949 Leaf sets. The DS's design captures the Art Deco style of the era, and the Leafs look like Andy Warhol designed them.

[mrmopar]

That Bench is an all time great in my mind. So many, but it clearly does stand out as one of the greats. The dust, the all-star badge and the fact that it is future HOFer Bench. Fosse is another catcher with a great card due to an action shot and the A's color scheme is great, but no AS badge and Fosse was no Bench. Too bad the Munson card was just a portrait from the same set.

From 1971 & 1973-1981, the sets were loaded with great action shots before that pretty much became the norm (i left out 72 & 82, both of which had the In Action subsets) and most cards were action in a set. Lots of great shots that made epic cards. Way better than the 60s and 50s images.

[rats60]

Originally Posted by mrmopar

That Bench is an all time great in my mind. So many, but it clearly does stand out as one of the greats. The dust, the all-star badge and the fact that it is future HOFer Bench. Fosse is another catcher with a great card due to an action shot and the A's color scheme is great, but no AS badge and Fosse was no Bench. Too bad the Munson card was just a portrait from the same set.

From 1971 & 1973-1981, the sets were loaded with great action shots before that pretty much became the norm (i left out 72 & 82, both of which had the In Action subsets) and most cards were action in a set. Lots of great shots that made epic cards. Way better than the 60s and 50s images.

I am surprised you didn't mention 1983 Topps. Pretty much every card is an action shot. It was the best of the late 70s-early 80s era and the last great Topps set in my opinion.

As a collector from the 60s, the 1971 set was a revolution in card designs. I have never like the Munson card, but the first 4 series were loaded with something new, action shots instead of all posed shots. He are my favorite cards from the set.

[mrmopar]

83 was probably the beginning of using mostly action shots in sets, possibly 82, scattered with fewer dumb poses. I see that as the beginning of the "modern era" of card images.

I am surprised anyone would not like the Munson card. However, we each have something unique that draws us to what we like and don't like. That is probably one of my favorite cards of all time. For me, it has the star power, the great action shot, the trophy, the horizontal orientation in a mostly vertical set and the black borders. That card is as close to cardboard perfection (for me) as one can get.

If that was Garvey sliding into the plate and it was his card, that is the only way this card is topped in my mind.

[jchcollins]

It's hard to go wrong with '56 Topps for the postwar era. Many HOF'ers have some of their best looking cards in that set, my favorites would be Mantle, Williams, and Roberto Clemente - the latter of which someone has already mentioned - that is virtual "card porn."

For the ensuing decades, I'll just mention some personal favorites. The cards don't have to be stars or HOF'ers - but:

'61 Topps Chuck Cottier - Night time shot with what are just interesting colors to me - Chuck's uni has been heavily airbrushed by the Topps artists, and I can't even tell what the hell is supposed to be on his sleeve - a "6"?

'63 Topps Sandy Koufax - Almost a poignant looking pitching pose, Sandy is looking ostensibly at a batter and not the camera. Love the full script "Los Angeles" road uni, and then the blue of his uniform and cap pop well with the red and orange of the '63 design.

'67 Topps #580 Rocky Colavito - Beautiful uniform follow-through pose with an interesting background. What a '60s baseball card should look like, IMO.

'67 Topps #600 Brooks Robinson - Similar reasons. Great batting pose, smiling player, and the colors are just pleasing.

'72 Topps Carl Yastrzemski - Artist's palette for color: The greens and blues mix delightfully on this card with Carl's batting pose.

'82 Topps Traded Cal Ripken - Spring training shot with a great batting pose, and good color contrast again with the green of the field and the blue sky.