Yesterday, I posted a gaggle of former Durham Bulls players who signed for the Topps Heritage set this year. However, I did not forget about the Cardinals. They also have several players who signed for Heritage, but after looking at the checklist, there was an easy to choice to be made here.
I bought a Ted Simmons.
Of all the Cardinals in the Hall of Fame, he is easily the player who is grossly under represented on baseball cards. Up until last year, I think there were more Dennis Eckersley autographs as a Cardinal than Ted Simmons.
That's not good.
I am not sure if the lack of interest was from Simmons not wanting to sign or card companies not asking him to sign. If he did not want to sign, I completely understand. That's his choice. If card companies did not ask, I would be a little disappointed.
I like this card a little more than the one that Topps released in the 2018 Archives set pictured below.
Both are great cards, so really I am splitting hairs by telling you that I like one card over another.
While I am here talking about Ted Simmons, I also wanted to take a moment and share a pair of cards I found/received in the last month, but did not post. I do not do much with the Topps Now cards, but this was a card I got because of combined shipping.
I did not realize that Topps gave players a card when they were elected to the Hall of Fame. Sweet that old Ted Simmons still has the long hair.
Last one.
I think that this was a stadium giveaway from the Pirates of some sort, but Ted Simmons worked for the team in several different capacities during the early 1990s after retiring from baseball. For a time, he was the general manager, but resigned due to stress related health problems.
I guess it's because of the HOF thing, but it's still kind of odd to see him appearing on so many new cards.
ReplyDeleteI feel that way frequently with modern card products. A bunch of the players from the Veterans Committee this year haven't been on many card recently, so I am sure we will be inundated by Jim Kaat, Minnie Minoso, and Tony Oliva cards throughout the summer.
DeleteNice freebie. Didn't realize he was ever a part of the Pirates organization. Very cool. I'm glad Topps has started including him in their autographed sets. I really wanted to add the Archives Fan Favorites signature to my collection, but they are ridiculously priced. I bought a signed and slabbed rookie card of his for way less. It's a shame, because I really, really like that card. I like the Heritage too though. If either drops down into my price window, I'll snag one or both. In the meantime, I'll live vicariously through you :D
ReplyDeleteI knew he worked for the Pirates. I didn't know he quit for health reasons. Makes you wonder how the situation in the early 1990s turns out with Simba as the GM. The Pirates kept Van Slyke and let Bonds, Bonilla, and Drabek walk. Wonder if Simba is able to talk Bonds into staying.
DeleteSimba is really popular in some of the Cardinals card groups on Facebook. I think he's a player who has just signed so little, that the market is staying high. Give him a few more years to sign some more cards and I bet the prices come down a bit. They were even higher when this Archives first came out.
I think Ted Simmons was very underrated for a long time. I can imagine that card companies weren't eager to make cards of him. The fact that he was in Archives Fan Favorites suggests that they didn't consider him worthy of the main auto sets. It's unfortunate it took his getting the Hall call to fix that, but at least it came.
ReplyDeleteYes, not nearly enough modern cards. There are other players I feel are in the same boat.
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