30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Tuesday, December 10, 2019

Can You Feel The Love Tonight?

There was a time when I was okay with a line being drawn between Hall of Fame and Hall of Very Good guys.  I'm totally in support of a small hall, but that's a thing of the past.  As more and more guys from the Hall of Very Good have received the call from Cooperstown, I just couldn't understand why Ted Simmons hadn't received more love.

Well justice has been served and Simba is headed to Cooperstown.  Here are three pieces of Ted Simmons memorabilia that reside in my collection:

1971 Topps #117

I picked up this graded copy of his rookie card on eBay back in July for $34.99 (+ $3 shipping).  Technically it was free since I used one of those eBay gift cards I received from my credit card company.

Prices of these have risen steadily over the past couple of years as collectors have been anticipating the day he'd get inducted.  In the last month or so, they've sold in the $60 to $90 range.  I'm glad I didn't wait any longer.

Next up is a signed baseball I picked up at a card show two years ago for $15:


The ball is one of those Leaf certified baseballs that was signed on the sweet spot and features an 8x All-Star inscription.


Last, but not least is another rookie card of Simmons.  Only this one has been slightly modified:


When Topps added Ted Simmons to their Archives Fan Favorites autographs checklist back in 2018, I went on a mission to add one of them to my collectionIt never happened.  However I picked up this signed rookie card along the way.  It set me back $35 (+ $3.75 shipping) which was about the going rate for one of those Fan Favorite autographs at the time.

Congratulations Simba!

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

7 comments:

Commishbob said...

Ted Simmons is deserving of the honor. He's second all-time in hits and RBI among all catchers. He is 10th in JAWS ratings among all catchers and all the nine guys ahead of him are Hall members. If you check his Baseball Reference Similarity scores of the ten guys listed with him seven are Hall guys and Lou Whitaker should be.

Congrats on the great Simmons items, btw.

Henry Blanchette said...

I was rooting for Dwight Evans (Red Sox fan bias) and Lou Whitaker to make the hall, but I'm content with Simmons.

Marvin Miller, by the way, was a no-brainer.

The Snorting Bull said...

Love that Simba got into the Hall!!! That Leaf ball is sweet!

Matt said...

I had no idea who this guy was til I started seeing posts on him. Guess baseball doesn't run as deep with me as it used to.

Matt said...

Great stuff! The thing I love best about Simmons was that I knew so little about him until a few years ago. When I was in my collecting heyday, he was on the back end of his career with the Braves. I never saw him as anything but a veteran catcher until modern stats showed exactly how good he was.

Peter K Steinberg said...

Nice cards and autos! I'm a small hall guy too and even though I know Very Good Guys are getting in, I'm having a difficult time accepting it.

Fuji said...

commishbob - didn't realize he was 2nd all-time in hits and rbi's among catchers. that's definitely elite

henry blanchette - had no idea who marvin miller was until i read an article about him recently.

the snorting bull - yeah, the ball was a really good deal. i'm pretty sure it's part of the same deal that involved picking up a 5¢ fernando tatis jr. 1st bowman purple refractor

sport card collectors - it's okay. i didn't know who marvin miller was

matt - i learned a lot about simmons from that baseball digest article i read. most of my memories are from his years with the brewers.

peter k. steinberg - the floodgates have opened ;)