Let
us go and give Brooklyn Dodgers great Gil Hodges a card in my long
running "Classic Baseball" custom set, celebrating the great game I've
held dear for 50+ years:
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!
