Only one player was included in all three years of FF....
...the newest member of the Hall of Fame, Ron Santo. The card's design is from 1965, though the picture is from 1969 at the earliest. Does the picture on the '65 card look familiar?
You saw it yesterday!
A couple Cubs were in two of the three sets:
Ernie Banks, 1954, Banks' rookie card. But again, Topps messed up with the pictures. The action shot is from 1957 (the one season the Cubs wore road unis that said "Chicago Cubs" while the portrait is no earlier than 1962 (the first year the Cubs wore the sleeve patch that we catch just a glimpse of). I kept looking at the action shot and thought the picture was familiar.
It was!
Andre Dawson, with the 1990 design, was the other repeated Cub.
The three new Cubs were all members of the 1989 NL East Champs.
Shawon Dunston, like Dawson, with the 1990 design.
Mark Grace, 1988, his rookie year. Looks like Topps got this one right, since the picture is of an awfully young looking Grace.
Jerome Walton, 1989, when Walton was the NL Rookie of the Year. He was an odd choice for a set called "All-Time Fan Favorites." I doubt that there are many Cub fans that would list Walton among their all time favorites.
So that's it. Between the three years there were 19 cards of 14 players. Topps did leave out one player who, ironically, is at the top of my personal All-Time Favorites list, Billy Williams. It's a glaring omission, since every other major Cubs player from the Topps era that ended up in the Hall of Fame was included in the set. I hope they include him in the 2012 version of these, though I doubt that will happen.
WW,
ReplyDeleteI just noticed on baseball-reference.com that Ron Santo first appeared on the HOF ballot in 1980, but was dropped because he received less than 5% of the vote (unbelievable!).
Then he was put back on the ballot in 1985. What was the BBWAA's logic for restoring him to the ballot?
Here's what Wikipedia says: "When Santo first became eligible for election to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1980, he was named on less than 4 percent of all ballots cast, resulting in his removal from the ballot in subsequent years; he was one of several players re-added to the ballot in 1985 following widespread complaints about overlooked candidates, with the remainder of their 15 years of eligibility restored even if this extended beyond the usual limit of 20 years after their last season."
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