The Golden Age of Baseball Cards™
...its influence on society and the game
Baseball Card Hall of Fame™The new Baseball Card Hall of Fame has been a work in progress for a long time and will continue to be such. Baseball Cards will be inducted at regular intervals, and articles and pictures will support each card inducted into the Baseball Card Hall of Fame.
The method for choosing which card is inducted into the Baseball Card Hall of Fame is comprised of various formulae applied to the results of multiple search queries. So, you, the Web user now provide the largest part of the input into which cards make it into the Baseball Card Hall of Fame. Months of research, analysis and reasonableness testing have gone into the algorithms used to determine the ranking of specific cards. The Beckett Baseball Card Price Guide is no longer a part of the calculation. We will limit the number of cards for a specific player that can be inducted into the Hall of Fame to one, single card per player. Other cards of note for that player will be referenced in related articles about each Hall of Fame card and player. In the past we have emphasized the importance of art in baseball cards and created a Baseball Card Hall of Fame based on related assumptions. This previous model has its merits and has been transferred to the Baseball Card Gallery of Art. The cards that differ from those in the new Baseball Card Hall of Fame have been grandfathered into the Baseball Card Hall of Fame and will remain a part of it. Artistic cards may be added to the Baseball Card Gallery of Art in the future. So, welcome to the Baseball Card Hall of Fame and enjoy your visit to the past. Inductees into the Baseball Card Hall of Fame™The cards are listed in the order of their ranking for induction the Baseball Card Hall of Fame.  1963 Carl Yastrzemski #115  1968 Rod Carew #080  1966 Jim Palmer #126  1974 Mike Schmidt #283  1966 Bob Gibson #320  1969 Joe Morgan #035  1958 Don Drysdale #025  1974 Johnny Bench #010  1966 Lou Brock #125  1974 Dave Winfield #456  1963 Willie McCovey #490  1952 Billy Martin #175  1969 Steve Carlton #255  1952 Johnny Mize #129 Honorary Inductees into the Baseball Card Hall of FameHonorary Inductees into the Baseball Card Hall of Fame represent the cards of individuals who have played a significant role in or made a significant contribution to baseball card collecting. Sy Berger - Father of the Modern Day Baseball Card
He worked for Topps for 50 years and is considered the Father of the Modern Day Baseball Card. For a comprehensive interview with Sy Berger, check out this issue of Sports Collectors Digest.
Honus Wagner T206 - The Mona Lisa of Baseball Cards
No one is sure why the Honus Wagner card has the value it does. The sale of the card over the years has established its market value. Recently, in 2007, it sold for $2.8 million. It may be because there are relatively few of the cards in existence, and only 10 of decent quality. It is suggested that Wagner opposed the exposure of children to cigarette smoking, and had his cards taken out of production, even though he did chew tobacco and supported other tobacco products. Folklore has added to the mystery of the card, which has retained its place over the decades as the most valuable baseball card in existence.
Who's In and Who's Out
What then becomes particularly interesting is which cards make it into the Baseball Card Hall of Fame for those players who did not achieve the honor of being elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, and vice versa, which players have been elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame, but whose baseball card did not achieve the distinction of being voted into the Baseball Card Hall of Fame. Roger MarisThe first such card is that of Roger Maris, which is ranked 15th of all cards from the Golden Age of Baseball Cards and rightly has a place in the Baseball Card Hall of Fame for Maris's accomplishments during that period. In the same manner it is fully understandable why Maris was not elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame, since his career statistics probably did not warrant it. Gil HodgesThe second card is that of Gil Hodges, which is ranked 28th of all cards from the Golden Age of Baseball Cards. Hodges deserves a place in this Hall of Fame because of his record over 18 years in the Majors. He comes up a little short without more than 2,000 hits and his lifetime .273 batting average make it difficult for him to be included in the real Baseball Hall of Fame, though many will argue that he belongs there also. Billy MartinThe third card is that of Billy Martin, which is ranked 37th of all cards from the Golden Age of Baseball Cards. Billy Martin was one of the most fiery players of the Golden Age. His stats do not merit Hall of Fame status and his managerial career, while stormy as well, does not merit Hall of Fame status. He does, however, represent another iconic player of the time. I will not tell you in advance which player's cards have made it into the Baseball Card Hall of Fame even though the player has not been elected to the Hall of Fame. But, I think it's fair to discuss a few of those players whose cards surprisingly, or not, did not make it into the Baseball Card Hall of Fame. Jackie RobinsonOne such player is Jackie Robinson. It was surprising not to see enough interest in his cards to get one of them into the new Hall of Fame. He did make our Gallery of Art based partially on the value of his cards and the aesthetic value of the cards. Why the lack of interest at the time of the compilation is not known. We will see if that changes as new evaluations are done. Pete RoseAnother player whose cards did not make it was more of the infamous variety. Pete Rose as a player deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. For his actions off the diamond he has not received the support necessary to be elected. In like manner, there is very little interest in his baseball cards, even though his rookie card of 1963 has significant value. The value of this card is based somewhat on its rarity since it is a composite of four players. It is still surprising that the scores for his cards in general were nowhere near close enough to qualify for the Baseball Card Hall of Fame. We will continue to discuss those elections that are surprising, but except for a very few, the results make a good deal of sense. |
Stay up to par with the baseball regulations by purchasing BBCOR bats from HomeRunMonkey.
|
The new Baseball Card Hall of Fame will take much of the
subjectivity out of the analysis and create a Hall of Fame based
on input from YOU, the baseball card enthusiast, who scour the
Web for interesting pictures, articles and available
alternatives for buying and selling baseball cards.
Sy
Berger was the first honorary inductee into the Baseball Card
Hall of Fame on October 24, 2008. His card meets none of the criteria for
induction into the Baseball Card Hall of Fame. He was not
a player, manager or baseball executive. But, without the
efforts of Sy Berger there would not be a Baseball Card Hall of
Fame website and there would not be baseball card collecting as
we have known it since the 1950s. 
While
the first inductee into the Golden Age of Baseball Cards Hall of
Fame may have been a surprise, the second is certainly not.
On May 18, 2009, we inducted the iconic baseball card of Honus Wagner (T206)
from 1909, considered the Mona Lisa of baseball cards. This
card has few of the requisite conditions for normal entry into
the Golden Age of Baseball Card Hall of Fame, but it is
important to baseball card collecting because it legitimized the
hobby. It established the premise that if a baseball card had
certain qualities it could become valuable.
As the process played itself out, the cards selected for the
Baseball Card Hall of Fame matched closely those players who
actually were elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame in
Cooperstown. When you stop to think about it that makes a
good deal of sense. Excellent players are generally more
popular with fans and baseball cards of those players, likewise,
are the most popular.