Monday, September 10, 2012

Mondays with Hoyt, Episode 16

1955 Bowman #1 Hoyt Wilhelm

I love making lists.

Whether it's my top ten bands, my top 25 favorite movies, my top 100 songs, I've made a list for a lot of different things over the course of my life.

Although I'm still not quite sure why.

Because of this, I am absolutely ecstatic that I'll finally get to witness the list of Night Owl's "100 Favorite Dodger Cards". (Even if the famous '72 high-number Hoyt is going to be on the outside looking in.)

I'm sure it'll be a fun ride through the annals of Dodger history.

Strangely enough, even with my love for list-making, I've never comprised a baseball card list of any sort. 

I've often considered ranking my 100 favorite "binder" cards. A couple things have prevented me from doing so, however.

For one thing, it would take almost forever to go through all my binders and nominate potential "inductees". Maybe I could make it next summer's big "project". (Or even a "winter break project".)

The other potential barrier is my tremendous bias toward vintage. 

I don't know about you, but I'd have a hard time picking any recent cards over this '55 Bowman beauty. The colors, the design, and just its general history would probably make this a "Top Ten" favorite on my list.

This card, which kicked off the 1955 Bowman checklist, was the first truly awesome piece I was able to add to my then-tiny Hoyt collection. 

I don't remember if I was specifically collecting Wilhelm when I acquired it. If I wasn't, then I'm betting this card played a major role in me devoting such a large chunk of my collection to honor Mr. Wilhelm.

If I were to comprise a "Top 100" list one day, I'd probably have to make separate ones for recent and "vintage" issues, just to keep it fair.

Don't get me wrong. There have been some absolutely spectacular cards produced within the last twenty years or so. Quite a few, actually.

But as great as those might be, most of them can't compete with a piece of cardboard as awesome as my 1955 Bowman Hoyt Wilhelm.

They're just not in the same ballpark.

1 comment:

arpsmith said...

I LOVE that Hoyt card. It is one of my favorites in my Giants collection as well. Hope you take the plunge and do the list some day, I think splitting it between vintage and more recent is a great idea.