I've wanted to give one of my favorite players, Vada Pinson, a do-over for his 1969 card for quite some time, so today is the day, with this little beauty:
After
playing for the Cincinnati reds for the first eleven seasons of his
great (Hall worthy?) career, Pinson was shipped off to the St. Louis
Cardinals for Wayne Granger and Bobby Tolan, and Topps scrambled to get
him shown as a Cardinal on their card with a hatless image of him
clearly in a Reds uni.
Not the worst card out there, but still a bit irksome.
Anyway, I went with another classic image of him as a Reds player, just to cap off his great run with the organization.
When you look at Pinson’s career, you should be impressed with what he accomplished between 1958 and 1975.
The man could slug the ball, hitting 256 home runs, while also swipe the base, as his 305 steals show. He collected 200+ hits in a season four times while topping .300 four times with a high of .343 in 1961 for the pennant winning Reds.
He led the N.L. in hits, doubles and triples two times each, while also topping the Senior Circuit in runs in his first full season, 1959, with 131.
By the time he completed his career, he topped 2700 hits, 1300 runs, 1100 runs batted in, 250 homers and 300 stolen bases.
To this day it amazes me that guys like Pinson, Al Oliver, Steve Garvey, Dave Parker get snubbed by both the BBWA at first, then the Veteran’s Committee, yet Cooperstown has players like Stonewall Jackson, Chick Hafey, Jesse Haines and “High Pockets” Kelly in there.
The man could slug the ball, hitting 256 home runs, while also swipe the base, as his 305 steals show. He collected 200+ hits in a season four times while topping .300 four times with a high of .343 in 1961 for the pennant winning Reds.
He led the N.L. in hits, doubles and triples two times each, while also topping the Senior Circuit in runs in his first full season, 1959, with 131.
By the time he completed his career, he topped 2700 hits, 1300 runs, 1100 runs batted in, 250 homers and 300 stolen bases.
To this day it amazes me that guys like Pinson, Al Oliver, Steve Garvey, Dave Parker get snubbed by both the BBWA at first, then the Veteran’s Committee, yet Cooperstown has players like Stonewall Jackson, Chick Hafey, Jesse Haines and “High Pockets” Kelly in there.