Today we celebrate Gil Hodges, a superstar for the Dodgers in his playing days, and later the manager of one of the most famous World Series championship teams in MLB history. Remarkably, I have 4 cards depicting him, so here they are, along with one specially picked card.
1972 O-Pee-Chee #465 (MGR)
Hodges has a lot of great cardboard, especially of his Dodger days, and it was hard to pick just one. Ultimately, I chose this rather unfortunate card. It's not often you see a card annotated with the date of a person's death. Gil Hodges died on an Easter Sunday after playing a round of golf with his Mets coaches, just 2 days shy of his 48th birthday. I'm not going to lie, since I myself am 47 years old, this card creeps me out a little...
1989 Topps #664 (TBTC)
All of the rest of these cards are in my collection, starting with this Turn Back The Clock card from the 1989 Topps set. (I miss seeing TBTC cards in the set - they were an informative look at the history of the game, even if they occasionally showed cards that never existed..) This card celebrates the 20th Anniversary of the "Miracle Mets" amazing season and World Championship.
1991 Pacific Nolan Ryan Texas Express I #11
Hodges was instrumental in helping a young Nolan Ryan at the beginning of his career. As a manager, Hodges had the pleasure of managing 3 other Hall of Famers - Ryan, Tom Seaver, and fellow new inductee Minnie Minoso!
1994 Topps Archives 1954 - Gold #102 Gil Hodges
A gold parallel seems like a good excuse to talk about his defense. Hodges was the inaugural winner of the Gold Glove at first base when the awards started in 1957. In fact, he won in each of the first 3 years! One could only image how many he would have collected if the award had been around earlier when Hodges was in his prime!
2019 Topps Archives #144
With the Dodgers franchise, Hodges was an 8-time All-Star and 2-time World Series Champion. He was one of only 2 players (with teammate Duke Snider) to surpass 1,000 RBI during the 1950's.
Welcome to the Hall Of Fame, Gil Hodges!
I was thinking of doing something similar with Gil Hodges as I have, by far, more cards of him than any of the other induction class members, but I already did it: https://nightowlcards.blogspot.com/2021/12/whos-in-hall-and-whats-in-my-collection.html
ReplyDeleteMaybe I'll figure out something else.
So happy for the Hodges family. Sundays gonna be a great day for the HOF.
ReplyDeleteGood Job! 👍
That OPC card is unique. My Topps card doesn't have that little stamp. I wrote a similar tribute post that will be published on Saturday. When I clicked on this post, I expected to see at least one card featured on both posts, but there aren't any duplicates (unless you count my 1972 Topps card).
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize that Hodges managed Miñoso in Washington. Only for part of a season, but still pretty cool.
ReplyDeleteAt the last show I attended I completed my run of the 4 original Topps cards of Hodges as manager of the Mets (1969 through 1972). Pretty happy with that. Have his 1952 and 1956 Topps cards with the Dodgers, too.
I didn't know he died so young.
ReplyDeleteThere's a Jim Umbricht card with a deceased notice, but it's on the back.