Moving right along in my long-running "On-Card All-Star" thread where I slap a big beautiful "All-Star" banner on a player's base Topps card, we have the National League's starting third baseman in 1973, Ron Santo:
Now, as I did with Carlton Fisk, I
needed to recreate Santo's base 1974 Topps card since his original was a
landscape layout, so I came up with this one, which presents well I
believe.
Santo was named to his ninth, and final All-Star team
in 1973, as he entrenched himself as THE National League third sacker
during the era, just like Brooks Robinson did over in the American
League.
Santo was winding down a wonderful 15 year career by
then, one that would see him finish with five Gold Gloves, 342 homers,
2254 hits, 1331 runs batted in and the aforementioned All-Star nods.
Sadly
however, Cooperstown dropped the ball and finally selected him for Hall
of Fame enshrinement two years after his passing in 2012.
Really is a shame he wasn't given that honor beforehand, which he deserved.