Today on the blog we spotlight another card from my recent custom
set, "The Whole Nine: Series 2", this one my 1964 redo for Hall of Famer
Gil Hodges:
Topps originally issued a card
showing Hodges as the manager for the Washington Senators for the
upcoming 1964 season, thus ending a Hall-worthy career as an elite
slugger mainly for the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers.
I created
an alternate New York Mets card to cap-off his playing career, which
was understated and stellar, finishing up at the time as one of the
game's greatest sluggers of all-time.
I still cannot figure out why it took so long for him to get into the Hall, as he was
a MAJOR part of those "Bum" Dodger teams, slamming 370 career homers,
driving in 100+ runs seven years in a row between 1949-1955, and topping
30+ homers six times.
Later on he went on to a managerial career that includes one of the
all-time great surprises in Major League ball, leading the "Miracle
Mets" over the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles in 1969, an incredible
turnaround that saw the Mets as World Champs just a few short years
after perennial last place finishes, including their all-time futile
1962 season which saw them lose 120 games.
One of baseball's
Hall of Fame snubs that thankfully finally got "fixed" with his election
in 2022, 50 years after his sudden and shocking death from a heart
attack at the young age of 47.
One of the era's best players finally getting his place in Cooperstown, and rightly so!