My Top 50 Players On Cardboard-#47 George Brett

My Top 50 Players On Cardboard
#47
George Brett



1975 Topps George Brett RC

Hobby Impact-
I think that Brett is player who flies under the hobby radar frequently.  While the Royals were a good team while Brett was an active player, they have been a terrible team since he retired in 1993.  It's hard to find Royals fans these days, let alone Royals collectors.  It's kind of sad when a team goes into a tailspin that involves using the world decades as an adjective, but that's where the team has been.

A lack of interest in the team, in my opinion, has often hurt the cards of Brett.  Don't get me wrong, they can still make a collector a good dime, but I often feel like I have to be really patient when I have a Brett card to sell or trade.  His rookie card hails from the iconic, and vibrant, 1975 Topps set and is still a very popular card with vintage collectors.  Graded copies can push $100 and nice raw copies can still bring in $30 or $40.  Autographs?  He has a lot of them with a nice signature and they sell.  Autograph issues from the late 1990s and early 2000s can bring in more than $50 quite easily.

I think that if the Royals were ever competitive for a number of years, reconnected with their fan base a little bit (see Pittsburgh), then I think you will see an uptick in Brett cards.

On The Field Impact-
Brett won a three batting titles, almost .400 one year, and won an MVP award.  He also supposedly won a World Series thanks to Don Denkinger.  Here's a picture of Jaquain Andujar asking Denkinger about his dinner plans after Game 7 of the 1985 World Series.

Seriously, the Royals were a good team in the early 1980s and Brett was the star of the team.  The Royals seemed to frequently run into the Yankees in the ALCS and lose, but Brett was great in defeat.  His career ALCS batting average was .340.  Not too shabby.  His biggest moment was obviously the Pine Tar Incident against the Yankees in 1983.

Favorite Card-

Easy question.  The last regular issue Topps George Brett card in 1994.  I love this card because it's got a picture of George Brett, the scoreboard in Kaufmann Stadium, and part of the fountains in the outfield.  If you had to make a list of iconic items and features of the Kansas City Royals those three things would all make the list.  

1994 Topps George Brett