I received this Rollie Fingers TTM. Rollie added per my request the 1981 AL MVP. In the strike shorten 1981 season Fingers won both the A.L. Cy Young and the MVP. He beat out Rickey Henderson in a very close race. Finger received (15) 1st place votes as Rickey received (12). Finger went 6-3 that season with an ERA of 1.04 and 28 Saves. He pitched 78 innings giving up only 3 homers. Rickey in 108 games scored 89 times, stole 56 bases, batted .319 with 6 homers.
I picked up the card raw on eBay
"EVERYBODY LOVE EVERYBODY IT SAYS IT RIGHT THERE ON THE WALL" - JACKIE MOON
Here is my latest pickup. I know I'll have to crack this card out and resub with PSA. Cal Ripken is a two-time winner as he won the award in 1983 & 1991.
In 1983 Ripken beat out O's teammate Eddie Murray. Ripken led the AL in Games played, Runs, Hits and AB's that year. He also homered 27 times while driving in 102 runs. His WAR was the highest in baseball that year at 8.2
In 1991 Cal Ripken beat out Ceil Fielder to win his second AL MVP. He batted .323 with 34 Home Runs, drove in 114 and scored 99. His WAR was once again the highest in baseball that year with 11.5
I have a total of 5 more that I will be getting, 3 at the National and 2 TTM and then the project will be parked for a while. It's been fun, but it's time for a break.
"EVERYBODY LOVE EVERYBODY IT SAYS IT RIGHT THERE ON THE WALL" - JACKIE MOON
@BPorter26 said:
I picked this up a few weeks ago and it's the first time I had to share. 1972 Topps Don Baylor signed rookie. Baylor won A.L. MVP award in 1979. He played in all 162 games batted .296, led the A.L. in runs scored with 120 and RBIs with 139. He also added 36 homers. He received 20 of the 28 first place votes. Ken Singleton finished second, George Brett 3rd and Fred Lynn 4th. Lynn had the highest war of any player in 1979 with 8.9
Don Baylor passed away in 2017 at the age of 68. He has a fugly auto.
Bobby, is there any reason you went with the 1972 card instead of his 1971 rookie card? Sorry if I missed you mentioning it somewhere else in the thread.
Bobby, is there any reason you went with the 1972 card instead of his 1971 rookie card? Sorry if I missed you mentioning it somewhere else in the thread.
Nick, I made a mistake. When I was searching for Don Baylor signed RC, the 1972 came up and didn't even realize 1971 is his true RC. It will probably be impossible for me to find but I will try. Thanks for letting me know.
"EVERYBODY LOVE EVERYBODY IT SAYS IT RIGHT THERE ON THE WALL" - JACKIE MOON
I just got this back from the National today. I sent in my cracked-out PSA 4.5 1968 Johnny Bench rookie to be signed and it turned out quite nice. The signing was not allowing inscription of any type on any trading cards or tickets. Johnny Bench won the N.L. MVP in both 1970 and 1972.
In 1970 Bench won easily as he had 22 1st place votes to the Cubs Billy Williams 2. Bench finished the season with a .293 average homered 45 times, knocked in 148 and scored 97 times for the National League Champion Reds who lost to the Baltimore Orioles that year.
In 1972 Bench once again beat out Billy Williams to win the award. He batted .270 with 40 bombs, drove in league leading 125 runs and scored 87 times for the National League Champion Reds who lost this time to the Oakland A's who would go on to win 3 straight World Series.
This was a crack out PSA 4.5
"EVERYBODY LOVE EVERYBODY IT SAYS IT RIGHT THERE ON THE WALL" - JACKIE MOON
@BPorter26 said:
I just go this back from a private signing on Saturday with Terry Pendleton. TP won the NL MVP in 1991 for the Atlanta Braves. This one hurts a little for me since I'm a Pirates fan. A lot of people felt that Barry Bonds should have been the MVP that year, but because of his relationship with the media he lost votes. TP had 12 1st place votes and Bonds had 10. Pendleton won the NL batting title with a .319 average, he homered 22 times knocked in 86 runs & scored 94 times. Bonds finished with a .292 average, 25 homers, 116 RBI's, scored 95 times and had 43 stolen bases. Bonds WAR was 8.0, Pendleton's 6.1. In my opinion Bonds should have been the 91 NL MVP.
Here's another auto I got back from the National. I had this card already signed and graded (PSA 4 w/10 Auto) but had an opportunity to trade that card and some others for a 1969 Topps basketball set that included 17 graded cards that included a PSA 5 Lew Alcindor. I made the deal.
Here's my new Rod Carew which was an SGC 4 crack out.
Rod Carew won the AL MVP in 1977 by batting a league high .388 and led the A.L. in Run scored with 128, Hits 239. He also hit 14 home runs, drove in 100 while stealing 23 bases. Carew beat out Al Cowens of the Kansas City Royals. Carew finished the 1977 season with a WAR of 9.7 which was the highest in all of baseball that year.
"EVERYBODY LOVE EVERYBODY IT SAYS IT RIGHT THERE ON THE WALL" - JACKIE MOON
I saw on SCN that Willie Hernandez has a very good success rate with TTM. I thought I would give it a shot. He charges $10 per signature, so I added an additional $10 for him to add his MVP inscription. Well, he sends me, my card back signed without an inscription, but adds a price list of what he charges for inscription for Cy Young and MVP's which are $20 each. Anyone that is looking for inscription I might add a little more.
1984 Willie Hernadez won both the A.L. CY Young and MVP award as he beat out Ken Hrbek and Dan Quisenberry for the MVP. Hernandez finished with a 9-3 record, 32 saves and an ERA 1.80 for the World Champion Detroit Tigers. He received 16 1st place votes, to Hrbek's and Quisenberry's 5.
"EVERYBODY LOVE EVERYBODY IT SAYS IT RIGHT THERE ON THE WALL" - JACKIE MOON
Will you ever decide to go older than 1970 or newer than 2001?
By the way....here is my personal opinion on the MVP / Player of the Year debate. Again, this is a personal opinion. To me, the most "valuable" player is by default the "best" player, no matter what the rest of his team does. I think the term "Most Valuable Player" was coined years ago as an official title decades ago to sound prestigious in order to describe the best player. Years later, it is my contention that, media people that wanted to sound superbly intelligent started arguing that a great player that played on a team that didn't win couldn't possibly be "most valuable". To me, and, in my opinion, the original intent is that the Most Valuable Player is the exact same thing as the Player of the Year, which is the best player.
I have had that on my chest for many years and I have finally made known my opinion! I feel better!
@frankhardy said:
I love what you are doing with this project.
Will you ever decide to go older than 1970 or newer than 2001?
By the way....here is my personal opinion on the MVP / Player of the Year debate. Again, this is a personal opinion. To me, the most "valuable" player is by default the "best" player, no matter what the rest of his team does. I think the term "Most Valuable Player" was coined years ago as an official title decades ago to sound prestigious in order to describe the best player. Years later, it is my contention that, media people that wanted to sound superbly intelligent started arguing that a great player that played on a team that didn't win couldn't possibly be "most valuable". To me, and, in my opinion, the original intent is that the Most Valuable Player is the exact same thing as the Player of the Year, which is the best player.
I have had that on my chest for many years and I have finally made known my opinion! I feel better!
Shane, I appreciate the nice words. I totally agree with you, prime example is what Andre Dawson did in 1987 for the last place Cubs. He was the "best player" in the NL for the 87 season.
When I started this project, I was just going to collect MVPs from 1970-2000, but when I picked up the 2001 BC Ichiro and had the Bonds already, I expanded it to 2001. I picked up a card recently that I think is a big card at least for my standards of a guy who won the award 3 x's in the 2000's. I might have to expand this project to 2010. As far as older, it's tough to find the vintage RC's signed of players like Clemente and Killebrew to name a few or others like Mantle, Mays, Maris, McCovey and Bob Gibson and have to pay a king's ransom for them. I'll probably keep my start date at 1970.
"EVERYBODY LOVE EVERYBODY IT SAYS IT RIGHT THERE ON THE WALL" - JACKIE MOON
@frankhardy said:
I love what you are doing with this project.
Will you ever decide to go older than 1970 or newer than 2001?
By the way....here is my personal opinion on the MVP / Player of the Year debate. Again, this is a personal opinion. To me, the most "valuable" player is by default the "best" player, no matter what the rest of his team does. I think the term "Most Valuable Player" was coined years ago as an official title decades ago to sound prestigious in order to describe the best player. Years later, it is my contention that, media people that wanted to sound superbly intelligent started arguing that a great player that played on a team that didn't win couldn't possibly be "most valuable". To me, and, in my opinion, the original intent is that the Most Valuable Player is the exact same thing as the Player of the Year, which is the best player.
I have had that on my chest for many years and I have finally made known my opinion! I feel better!
Shane, I appreciate the nice words. I totally agree with you, prime example is what Andre Dawson did in 1987 for the last place Cubs. He was the "best player" in the NL for the 87 season.
When I started this project, I was just going to collect MVPs from 1970-2000, but when I picked up the 2001 BC Ichiro and had the Bonds already, I expanded it to 2001. I picked up a card recently that I think is a big card at least for my standards of a guy who won the award 3 x's in the 2000's. I might have to expand this project to 2010. As far as older, it's tough to find the vintage RC's signed of players like Clemente and Killebrew to name a few or others like Mantle, Mays, Maris, McCovey and Bob Gibson and have to pay a king's ransom for them. I'll probably keep my start date at 1970.
That player that won 3 times in the 2000s wouldn't be this guy would it?
@nam812 said:
So Willie Hernandez kept the extra $10?
Nick, No he sent me another card which was a beater with a smudged auto. At least he sent me another card. I said to a buddy of mine, he couldn't just put AL 84 MVP instead of sending me another card.
"EVERYBODY LOVE EVERYBODY IT SAYS IT RIGHT THERE ON THE WALL" - JACKIE MOON
@frankhardy said:
I love what you are doing with this project.
Will you ever decide to go older than 1970 or newer than 2001?
By the way....here is my personal opinion on the MVP / Player of the Year debate. Again, this is a personal opinion. To me, the most "valuable" player is by default the "best" player, no matter what the rest of his team does. I think the term "Most Valuable Player" was coined years ago as an official title decades ago to sound prestigious in order to describe the best player. Years later, it is my contention that, media people that wanted to sound superbly intelligent started arguing that a great player that played on a team that didn't win couldn't possibly be "most valuable". To me, and, in my opinion, the original intent is that the Most Valuable Player is the exact same thing as the Player of the Year, which is the best player.
I have had that on my chest for many years and I have finally made known my opinion! I feel better!
Shane, I appreciate the nice words. I totally agree with you, prime example is what Andre Dawson did in 1987 for the last place Cubs. He was the "best player" in the NL for the 87 season.
When I started this project, I was just going to collect MVPs from 1970-2000, but when I picked up the 2001 BC Ichiro and had the Bonds already, I expanded it to 2001. I picked up a card recently that I think is a big card at least for my standards of a guy who won the award 3 x's in the 2000's. I might have to expand this project to 2010. As far as older, it's tough to find the vintage RC's signed of players like Clemente and Killebrew to name a few or others like Mantle, Mays, Maris, McCovey and Bob Gibson and have to pay a king's ransom for them. I'll probably keep my start date at 1970.
That player that won 3 times in the 2000s wouldn't be this guy would it?
This is from my collection
You got it. Here's mine. Your 2005, 2008 & 09 NL MVP
"EVERYBODY LOVE EVERYBODY IT SAYS IT RIGHT THERE ON THE WALL" - JACKIE MOON
@frankhardy said:
I love what you are doing with this project.
Will you ever decide to go older than 1970 or newer than 2001?
By the way....here is my personal opinion on the MVP / Player of the Year debate. Again, this is a personal opinion. To me, the most "valuable" player is by default the "best" player, no matter what the rest of his team does. I think the term "Most Valuable Player" was coined years ago as an official title decades ago to sound prestigious in order to describe the best player. Years later, it is my contention that, media people that wanted to sound superbly intelligent started arguing that a great player that played on a team that didn't win couldn't possibly be "most valuable". To me, and, in my opinion, the original intent is that the Most Valuable Player is the exact same thing as the Player of the Year, which is the best player.
I have had that on my chest for many years and I have finally made known my opinion! I feel better!
Shane, I appreciate the nice words. I totally agree with you, prime example is what Andre Dawson did in 1987 for the last place Cubs. He was the "best player" in the NL for the 87 season.
When I started this project, I was just going to collect MVPs from 1970-2000, but when I picked up the 2001 BC Ichiro and had the Bonds already, I expanded it to 2001. I picked up a card recently that I think is a big card at least for my standards of a guy who won the award 3 x's in the 2000's. I might have to expand this project to 2010. As far as older, it's tough to find the vintage RC's signed of players like Clemente and Killebrew to name a few or others like Mantle, Mays, Maris, McCovey and Bob Gibson and have to pay a king's ransom for them. I'll probably keep my start date at 1970.
IMO, it's hard to make a case for Dawson being the "best player" in the NL in 1987. In fact, it's hard to argue that he was "among the best" after 1983.
An aside: it's impossible to believe that Cal Ripken, with a 10.0 WAR, got only a single tenth place vote in 1984. I know no one knew about WAR in 1984 and that WAR doesn't say everything about a player, but one would have thought that Ripken's excellence in 1984 was more obvious than that.
Here's your 1974 AL MVP of the second place Texas Rangers: Jeff Burrough.
Burrough batted .301, hit 25 bombs, drove in an A.L. league high 118 runs. He received (10) 1st place votes as Joe Rudi finished 2nd, Sal Bando 3rd and Reggie Jackson 4th for the World Champion A's. I think those three places splitting votes from the same team helped Burroughs win that year. I believe Reggie should have won and that would have been his second in consecutive years.
"EVERYBODY LOVE EVERYBODY IT SAYS IT RIGHT THERE ON THE WALL" - JACKIE MOON
Here's my latest MVP pickup. I just received this back from the National. This was a card that I pack pulled from the 2019 National at the BBCE both, then subbed for the signing. Larry Walker won the 1997 N.L. MVP.
Walker beat out Mike Piazza for the N.L. MVP in 97. Larry received (22) 1st place votes to Piazza's (3) and Bagwell's (3). Walker batted .366, lead the NL in homers with 49 and drove in 130 runs while stealing 33 bases. Walker was 30/30 that year. His WAR was 9.8. The Rockies finished 3rd place in the West with an 83-79 record and did not make the playoffs.
Right now, I have nothing in the pipeline, so I'll be parking the project for a little while.
My remaining autos that I need to obtain of the current living players:
A.L. : Mo Vaughn & Pudge Rodriquez
N.L. : Joe Torre, Pete Rose, Sammy Sosa, Chipper Jones and Jeff Kent.
The deceased players that I will have a hard time obtaining.
AL. : Dick Allen & Thurman Munson
N.L. : Willie Stargell (I had this card at one time) It pains me to type this.
The Walker was a pack pull at the 2019 National at the BBCE booth.
"EVERYBODY LOVE EVERYBODY IT SAYS IT RIGHT THERE ON THE WALL" - JACKIE MOON
Here is my recent dual grade sub that recently popped of my MVP's. Disappointed in the 1977 Dale Murphy, I knew the auto would not grade well, but this was a PSA 7 crack out. I was also hoping the Frank Thomas auto would be a 10 but had a feeling it would come back a 9. Giambi was a crack out PSA 10, really an 8?
Here's how I did before sending in.
Lynn was a PSA 8, Eck was Raw, Dale Murphy was PSA 7 and Sandberg was a PSA 8
McGee was Raw, Thomas Raw. Gonzalez Raw and Giambi was a PSA 10
"EVERYBODY LOVE EVERYBODY IT SAYS IT RIGHT THERE ON THE WALL" - JACKIE MOON
I was able to pickoff another MVP RC auto off my list this week.
We all know Joe Torre as the Hall of Fame manager, but Torre had a pretty solid playing career. Torre was a 9 x All-Star in his 18-year career. He won the 1971 NL MVP as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals. Torre beat out my childhood idol Willie Stargell to win the award that year. Torre received (21) 1st place votes to Stargell's (3). Stargell help lead the Pirates to the 71 World Series where the Cardinals finished 7 games back of the Bucs in the NL East.
Torre won the NL batting title with a .363 average, drove in a league-leading 137 runs, hit 24 home runs and lead the league in hits with 230. Played all but one game that season (161)
Stargell lead the league in Home Runs with 48, batted .295, drove in 125 and score 104. Pop's only played 141 games.
Torre's 1962 Topps RC, Signed in Red without the NL inscription.
"EVERYBODY LOVE EVERYBODY IT SAYS IT RIGHT THERE ON THE WALL" - JACKIE MOON
It's been 3 plus months since I tackled this project. Even though my project is from 1970-2001. I went to 1967 when Carl Yastrzemski won the triple crown and won the American League MVP with ease. He received 19 of the 20 1st place votes as Cesar Tovar garnered the other 1st place vote. Here's your 1967 AL MVP and Triple Crown Winner. The promoter would only have YAZ inscribe HOF 89 or TC. He would not do 67 AL MVP, so I settle for 67 TC
This will be heading to PSA in the next month or so.
"EVERYBODY LOVE EVERYBODY IT SAYS IT RIGHT THERE ON THE WALL" - JACKIE MOON
I haven't updated in a few months, because the guys I need are not signing. I just received my Ivan Rodriquez 1991 Upper Deck back from a recent signing.
Pudge won the American League MVP in 1999 when he was a member of the Texas Rangers. Rodriquez received (7) 1st place votes, but Pedro Martinez received 8. Pudge beat out Pedro by 13 points. Rodriguez won the award with 252 points and Martinez 239. Robbie Alomar and Manny Ramirez finished 3rd with (226) points.
Rodriguez stat line for 1999 season .335 Avg, 35 Home Runs, 113 RBI's and 25 stolen bases. Ivan played in 144 total games but 141 as a catcher.
"EVERYBODY LOVE EVERYBODY IT SAYS IT RIGHT THERE ON THE WALL" - JACKIE MOON
Here's my recent signed rookie card of the 1995 A.L. MVP of the Boston Red Sox Mo Vaughn. Vaughn nearly lost the award edging out Albert Belle of the Cleveland Indians. Vaughn received 12 of the 26 1st place votes as Bell received 11 of the 1st place votes. Vaughn received 308 points to Belle's 300. I believe Belle should have won the award, but his rocky relationship with the media probably caused a few votes to go the other way.
Mo Vaughn batted .300 with 39 homers, 126 RBI's 98 runs scored with a WAR of 4.3
Albert Belle batted .317 with 50 homers, 126 RBI's, 121 runs scored with a WAR of 7.0 Belle also had 52 doubles with a slugging percentage of .690
Vaughn becomes my 26th of 29 that I need signed Rookie of the A.L MVP. I'm just needing the deceased players (Don Baylor, Thurman Munson and Dick Allen) to finish out the American League.
"EVERYBODY LOVE EVERYBODY IT SAYS IT RIGHT THERE ON THE WALL" - JACKIE MOON
@BPorter26 said:
Here's my recent signed rookie card of the 1995 A.L. MVP of the Boston Red Sox Mo Vaughn. Vaughn nearly lost the award edging out Albert Belle of the Cleveland Indians. Vaughn received 12 of the 26 1st place votes as Bell received 11 of the 1st place votes. Vaughn received 308 points to Belle's 300. I believe Belle should have won the award, but his rocky relationship with the media probably caused a few votes to go the other way.
Mo Vaughn batted .300 with 39 homers, 126 RBI's 98 runs scored with a WAR of 4.3
Albert Belle batted .317 with 50 homers, 126 RBI's, 121 runs scored with a WAR of 7.0 Belle also had 52 doubles with a slugging percentage of .690
Perhaps the Indians winning the Central by 30 games devalued Belle's season?? Spare a thought for Edgar Martinez who was (obviously) necessary to the Mariners' division win. I think he was even more deserving than Belle, though very close:
Jeff Kent is an extremely hard auto to find and to top it off the man just doesn't sign after his playing days. I was hoping to get his 1992 Fleer Update signed, but this Score Traded came available in which I picked up and here's the 2000 N.L. MVP.
Kent won the N.L MVP in 2000 against his Giants teammate Barry Bonds. Kent received (22) 1st place votes to Bonds (6) and Mike Piazza (3). The MVP could have gone to any of these players, I personally think with Kent playing 16 more games than Bonds & 23 then Piazza helped him win the award.
Kent: 159 Games, batted .334 with 33 Home runs, 125 RBIs scored 114 Runs & 12 SB's. OBP .424, OPS 1.021 & WAR 7.2
Bonds: 143 Games, batted .306 with 49 Home Runs, 106 RBIs, Scored 129 runs & 11 SB's. OBP .440, OPS 1.127 & WAR 7.7
Piazza: 136 Games, batted .324 with 38 Home Runs, 113 RBIs Scored 90 runs & 4 SB's. OBP.398, OPS 1.012 & WAR 5.1
"EVERYBODY LOVE EVERYBODY IT SAYS IT RIGHT THERE ON THE WALL" - JACKIE MOON
I haven't added anything in the last several months, but I did send my Blue Flips and Red Flips "Trading Card" into PSA for the dual grade service. I didn't do very well with the grades, but at least all my cards are now uniformed with Dual Grades. I'll be adding a few big names to my MVP collection soon.
"EVERYBODY LOVE EVERYBODY IT SAYS IT RIGHT THERE ON THE WALL" - JACKIE MOON
I'm expanding my MVPs from 1970-2000 to earlier or later. I have added Alex Rodriguez who won the award 3 times. He won the A.L. MVP in 2003 with the Texas Rangers and twice with the New York Yankees in 2005 & 2007.
2003 AROD nipped Carlos Delgado in a very close MVP race. Rodriquez batted .298, 47 Homers, 124 Runs scored and knocked in 118. Add 17 steals.
2005 Rodriguez beat out David Ortiz for the MVP honors with a .321 average 48 bombs, 124 run scored and 130 RBI's with 21 Steals.
2007 Rodriguez won the award running away. He batted .314, 54 HR's , 156 RBI's, 143 Runs scored & 24 steals. Steroids in full force during this season.
"EVERYBODY LOVE EVERYBODY IT SAYS IT RIGHT THERE ON THE WALL" - JACKIE MOON
I'm super excited to add this to my MVP collection. Willie Stargell won the N.L. MVP in 1979 but he shared the award with Keith Hernandez as both finished with 216 points, but Stargell had more 1st place ballots 10 to 4. Stargell batted .281, with 32 home runs, 82 RBI's his WAR was only 2.8. As a die hard Pirate's fan I think Dave Winfield who finished 3rd in voting should have won the award. He had better stats then both Pop's and Hernandez. Winfield's final stats in 1979 .308, 34 HR's, 118 RBI's, 97 Runs, 15 SB's and a WAR of 8.3. The Padres only won 68 games.
"EVERYBODY LOVE EVERYBODY IT SAYS IT RIGHT THERE ON THE WALL" - JACKIE MOON
@BPorter26 said:
I'm super excited to add this to my MVP collection. Willie Stargell won the N.L. MVP in 1979 but he shared the award with Keith Hernandez as both finished with 216 points, but Stargell had more 1st place ballots 10 to 4. Stargell batted .281, with 32 home runs, 82 RBI's his WAR was only 2.8. As a die hard Pirate's fan I think Dave Winfield who finished 3rd in voting should have won the award. He had better stats then both Pop's and Hernandez. Winfield's final stats in 1979 .308, 34 HR's, 118 RBI's, 97 Runs, 15 SB's and a WAR of 8.3. The Padres only won 68 games.
Congratulations Bobby! I know how much you love Pops, this is perfect for your collection.
Collecting anything and everything relating to Roger Staubach
This is a very very cool project. I'm working on rookie cards of HOFers. I know I won't get many of the older ones, but there are many others that are obtainable, especially TTM. Good stuff!!!
I sent these in for grading in March and got these back a few weeks ago and finally had time to scan them into my computer.
I've posted these already as either raw or a different type of flip other than the dual grade, but they all now have numerical dual grades for consistency in my collection.
"EVERYBODY LOVE EVERYBODY IT SAYS IT RIGHT THERE ON THE WALL" - JACKIE MOON
As I wait for my final 3 cards to pop at PSA, I recently added this 1987 Topps Barry Bonds auto card to my MVP and Pirates collection.
Bonds is a 7x NL MVP: He won the award Pre-PED in 1990, 1992 & 1993. During his PED usage, he won the award in 2001,2002, 2003 and 2004. Bonds hit 113 HR during his Pre-PED 3 MVP seasons and 209 during his PED 4 MVP seasons.
To me this is a crazy stat: Bonds walked 346 times during his Pre-PED MVP seasons, but was issued 755 walks during his 4 PED MVP seasons.
"EVERYBODY LOVE EVERYBODY IT SAYS IT RIGHT THERE ON THE WALL" - JACKIE MOON
To me this is a crazy stat: Bonds walked 346 times during his Pre-PED MVP seasons, but was issued 755 walks during his 4 PED MVP seasons.
The truly amazing part is the IBB. The 284 IBB Bonds drew over those four seasons is higher than the CAREER total of all but Musial, Aaron, and Pujols.
My final batch of cards has finally popped at PSA. I've decided to put this project to bed. I'm going to sell off the majority of non HOF auto's. It was a fun project but it's time to move onto something else. If anyone is interested in the non HOFers LMK
PSA 4 crack out
SCG 6.5 crack out. I damaged the back of the card cracking it out. Plus, the auto sucks.
Bought raw off ebay
"EVERYBODY LOVE EVERYBODY IT SAYS IT RIGHT THERE ON THE WALL" - JACKIE MOON
Comments
I received this Rollie Fingers TTM. Rollie added per my request the 1981 AL MVP. In the strike shorten 1981 season Fingers won both the A.L. Cy Young and the MVP. He beat out Rickey Henderson in a very close race. Finger received (15) 1st place votes as Rickey received (12). Finger went 6-3 that season with an ERA of 1.04 and 28 Saves. He pitched 78 innings giving up only 3 homers. Rickey in 108 games scored 89 times, stole 56 bases, batted .319 with 6 homers.
I picked up the card raw on eBay
Here is my latest pickup. I know I'll have to crack this card out and resub with PSA. Cal Ripken is a two-time winner as he won the award in 1983 & 1991.
In 1983 Ripken beat out O's teammate Eddie Murray. Ripken led the AL in Games played, Runs, Hits and AB's that year. He also homered 27 times while driving in 102 runs. His WAR was the highest in baseball that year at 8.2
In 1991 Cal Ripken beat out Ceil Fielder to win his second AL MVP. He batted .323 with 34 Home Runs, drove in 114 and scored 99. His WAR was once again the highest in baseball that year with 11.5
I have a total of 5 more that I will be getting, 3 at the National and 2 TTM and then the project will be parked for a while. It's been fun, but it's time for a break.
Bobby, is there any reason you went with the 1972 card instead of his 1971 rookie card? Sorry if I missed you mentioning it somewhere else in the thread.
Nick, I made a mistake. When I was searching for Don Baylor signed RC, the 1972 came up and didn't even realize 1971 is his true RC. It will probably be impossible for me to find but I will try. Thanks for letting me know.
I just got this back from the National today. I sent in my cracked-out PSA 4.5 1968 Johnny Bench rookie to be signed and it turned out quite nice. The signing was not allowing inscription of any type on any trading cards or tickets. Johnny Bench won the N.L. MVP in both 1970 and 1972.
In 1970 Bench won easily as he had 22 1st place votes to the Cubs Billy Williams 2. Bench finished the season with a .293 average homered 45 times, knocked in 148 and scored 97 times for the National League Champion Reds who lost to the Baltimore Orioles that year.
In 1972 Bench once again beat out Billy Williams to win the award. He batted .270 with 40 bombs, drove in league leading 125 runs and scored 87 times for the National League Champion Reds who lost this time to the Oakland A's who would go on to win 3 straight World Series.
This was a crack out PSA 4.5
GO PIRATES !!!!!!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Major_League_Baseball_players_from_Panama
Here's another auto I got back from the National. I had this card already signed and graded (PSA 4 w/10 Auto) but had an opportunity to trade that card and some others for a 1969 Topps basketball set that included 17 graded cards that included a PSA 5 Lew Alcindor. I made the deal.
Here's my new Rod Carew which was an SGC 4 crack out.
Rod Carew won the AL MVP in 1977 by batting a league high .388 and led the A.L. in Run scored with 128, Hits 239. He also hit 14 home runs, drove in 100 while stealing 23 bases. Carew beat out Al Cowens of the Kansas City Royals. Carew finished the 1977 season with a WAR of 9.7 which was the highest in all of baseball that year.
I saw on SCN that Willie Hernandez has a very good success rate with TTM. I thought I would give it a shot. He charges $10 per signature, so I added an additional $10 for him to add his MVP inscription. Well, he sends me, my card back signed without an inscription, but adds a price list of what he charges for inscription for Cy Young and MVP's which are $20 each. Anyone that is looking for inscription I might add a little more.
1984 Willie Hernadez won both the A.L. CY Young and MVP award as he beat out Ken Hrbek and Dan Quisenberry for the MVP. Hernandez finished with a 9-3 record, 32 saves and an ERA 1.80 for the World Champion Detroit Tigers. He received 16 1st place votes, to Hrbek's and Quisenberry's 5.
I love what you are doing with this project.
Will you ever decide to go older than 1970 or newer than 2001?
By the way....here is my personal opinion on the MVP / Player of the Year debate. Again, this is a personal opinion. To me, the most "valuable" player is by default the "best" player, no matter what the rest of his team does. I think the term "Most Valuable Player" was coined years ago as an official title decades ago to sound prestigious in order to describe the best player. Years later, it is my contention that, media people that wanted to sound superbly intelligent started arguing that a great player that played on a team that didn't win couldn't possibly be "most valuable". To me, and, in my opinion, the original intent is that the Most Valuable Player is the exact same thing as the Player of the Year, which is the best player.
I have had that on my chest for many years and I have finally made known my opinion! I feel better!
Shane
Shane, I appreciate the nice words. I totally agree with you, prime example is what Andre Dawson did in 1987 for the last place Cubs. He was the "best player" in the NL for the 87 season.
When I started this project, I was just going to collect MVPs from 1970-2000, but when I picked up the 2001 BC Ichiro and had the Bonds already, I expanded it to 2001. I picked up a card recently that I think is a big card at least for my standards of a guy who won the award 3 x's in the 2000's. I might have to expand this project to 2010. As far as older, it's tough to find the vintage RC's signed of players like Clemente and Killebrew to name a few or others like Mantle, Mays, Maris, McCovey and Bob Gibson and have to pay a king's ransom for them. I'll probably keep my start date at 1970.
So Willie Hernandez kept the extra $10?
That player that won 3 times in the 2000s wouldn't be this guy would it?
This is from my collection
Shane
This is a great project. I have enjoyed seeing the cards and reading the write ups. Looking forward to more updates!
Nick, No he sent me another card which was a beater with a smudged auto. At least he sent me another card. I said to a buddy of mine, he couldn't just put AL 84 MVP instead of sending me another card.
You got it. Here's mine. Your 2005, 2008 & 09 NL MVP
That's a beauty!
He should have also been the MVP in 2006 for sure and possibly even 2002, 2003, and 2004.
Shane
IMO, it's hard to make a case for Dawson being the "best player" in the NL in 1987. In fact, it's hard to argue that he was "among the best" after 1983.
An aside: it's impossible to believe that Cal Ripken, with a 10.0 WAR, got only a single tenth place vote in 1984. I know no one knew about WAR in 1984 and that WAR doesn't say everything about a player, but one would have thought that Ripken's excellence in 1984 was more obvious than that.
Here's your 1974 AL MVP of the second place Texas Rangers: Jeff Burrough.
Burrough batted .301, hit 25 bombs, drove in an A.L. league high 118 runs. He received (10) 1st place votes as Joe Rudi finished 2nd, Sal Bando 3rd and Reggie Jackson 4th for the World Champion A's. I think those three places splitting votes from the same team helped Burroughs win that year. I believe Reggie should have won and that would have been his second in consecutive years.
Here's my latest MVP pickup. I just received this back from the National. This was a card that I pack pulled from the 2019 National at the BBCE both, then subbed for the signing. Larry Walker won the 1997 N.L. MVP.
Walker beat out Mike Piazza for the N.L. MVP in 97. Larry received (22) 1st place votes to Piazza's (3) and Bagwell's (3). Walker batted .366, lead the NL in homers with 49 and drove in 130 runs while stealing 33 bases. Walker was 30/30 that year. His WAR was 9.8. The Rockies finished 3rd place in the West with an 83-79 record and did not make the playoffs.
Right now, I have nothing in the pipeline, so I'll be parking the project for a little while.
My remaining autos that I need to obtain of the current living players:
A.L. : Mo Vaughn & Pudge Rodriquez
N.L. : Joe Torre, Pete Rose, Sammy Sosa, Chipper Jones and Jeff Kent.
The deceased players that I will have a hard time obtaining.
AL. : Dick Allen & Thurman Munson
N.L. : Willie Stargell (I had this card at one time) It pains me to type this.
The Walker was a pack pull at the 2019 National at the BBCE booth.
Here is my recent dual grade sub that recently popped of my MVP's. Disappointed in the 1977 Dale Murphy, I knew the auto would not grade well, but this was a PSA 7 crack out. I was also hoping the Frank Thomas auto would be a 10 but had a feeling it would come back a 9. Giambi was a crack out PSA 10, really an 8?
Here's how I did before sending in.
Lynn was a PSA 8, Eck was Raw, Dale Murphy was PSA 7 and Sandberg was a PSA 8
McGee was Raw, Thomas Raw. Gonzalez Raw and Giambi was a PSA 10
I was able to pickoff another MVP RC auto off my list this week.
We all know Joe Torre as the Hall of Fame manager, but Torre had a pretty solid playing career. Torre was a 9 x All-Star in his 18-year career. He won the 1971 NL MVP as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals. Torre beat out my childhood idol Willie Stargell to win the award that year. Torre received (21) 1st place votes to Stargell's (3). Stargell help lead the Pirates to the 71 World Series where the Cardinals finished 7 games back of the Bucs in the NL East.
Torre won the NL batting title with a .363 average, drove in a league-leading 137 runs, hit 24 home runs and lead the league in hits with 230. Played all but one game that season (161)
Stargell lead the league in Home Runs with 48, batted .295, drove in 125 and score 104. Pop's only played 141 games.
Torre's 1962 Topps RC, Signed in Red without the NL inscription.
It's been 3 plus months since I tackled this project. Even though my project is from 1970-2001. I went to 1967 when Carl Yastrzemski won the triple crown and won the American League MVP with ease. He received 19 of the 20 1st place votes as Cesar Tovar garnered the other 1st place vote. Here's your 1967 AL MVP and Triple Crown Winner. The promoter would only have YAZ inscribe HOF 89 or TC. He would not do 67 AL MVP, so I settle for 67 TC
This will be heading to PSA in the next month or so.
I haven't updated in a few months, because the guys I need are not signing. I just received my Ivan Rodriquez 1991 Upper Deck back from a recent signing.
Pudge won the American League MVP in 1999 when he was a member of the Texas Rangers. Rodriquez received (7) 1st place votes, but Pedro Martinez received 8. Pudge beat out Pedro by 13 points. Rodriguez won the award with 252 points and Martinez 239. Robbie Alomar and Manny Ramirez finished 3rd with (226) points.
Rodriguez stat line for 1999 season .335 Avg, 35 Home Runs, 113 RBI's and 25 stolen bases. Ivan played in 144 total games but 141 as a catcher.
Here's my recent signed rookie card of the 1995 A.L. MVP of the Boston Red Sox Mo Vaughn. Vaughn nearly lost the award edging out Albert Belle of the Cleveland Indians. Vaughn received 12 of the 26 1st place votes as Bell received 11 of the 1st place votes. Vaughn received 308 points to Belle's 300. I believe Belle should have won the award, but his rocky relationship with the media probably caused a few votes to go the other way.
Mo Vaughn batted .300 with 39 homers, 126 RBI's 98 runs scored with a WAR of 4.3
Albert Belle batted .317 with 50 homers, 126 RBI's, 121 runs scored with a WAR of 7.0 Belle also had 52 doubles with a slugging percentage of .690
Vaughn becomes my 26th of 29 that I need signed Rookie of the A.L MVP. I'm just needing the deceased players (Don Baylor, Thurman Munson and Dick Allen) to finish out the American League.
Sweet Yaz Bobby. That's a great card to break out of your 1970 - 2001 zone with.
Perhaps the Indians winning the Central by 30 games devalued Belle's season?? Spare a thought for Edgar Martinez who was (obviously) necessary to the Mariners' division win. I think he was even more deserving than Belle, though very close:
https://stathead.com/tiny/8P42K
Jeff Kent is an extremely hard auto to find and to top it off the man just doesn't sign after his playing days. I was hoping to get his 1992 Fleer Update signed, but this Score Traded came available in which I picked up and here's the 2000 N.L. MVP.
Kent won the N.L MVP in 2000 against his Giants teammate Barry Bonds. Kent received (22) 1st place votes to Bonds (6) and Mike Piazza (3). The MVP could have gone to any of these players, I personally think with Kent playing 16 more games than Bonds & 23 then Piazza helped him win the award.
Kent: 159 Games, batted .334 with 33 Home runs, 125 RBIs scored 114 Runs & 12 SB's. OBP .424, OPS 1.021 & WAR 7.2
Bonds: 143 Games, batted .306 with 49 Home Runs, 106 RBIs, Scored 129 runs & 11 SB's. OBP .440, OPS 1.127 & WAR 7.7
Piazza: 136 Games, batted .324 with 38 Home Runs, 113 RBIs Scored 90 runs & 4 SB's. OBP.398, OPS 1.012 & WAR 5.1
I haven't added anything in the last several months, but I did send my Blue Flips and Red Flips "Trading Card" into PSA for the dual grade service. I didn't do very well with the grades, but at least all my cards are now uniformed with Dual Grades. I'll be adding a few big names to my MVP collection soon.
I'm expanding my MVPs from 1970-2000 to earlier or later. I have added Alex Rodriguez who won the award 3 times. He won the A.L. MVP in 2003 with the Texas Rangers and twice with the New York Yankees in 2005 & 2007.
2003 AROD nipped Carlos Delgado in a very close MVP race. Rodriquez batted .298, 47 Homers, 124 Runs scored and knocked in 118. Add 17 steals.
2005 Rodriguez beat out David Ortiz for the MVP honors with a .321 average 48 bombs, 124 run scored and 130 RBI's with 21 Steals.
2007 Rodriguez won the award running away. He batted .314, 54 HR's , 156 RBI's, 143 Runs scored & 24 steals. Steroids in full force during this season.
I'm super excited to add this to my MVP collection. Willie Stargell won the N.L. MVP in 1979 but he shared the award with Keith Hernandez as both finished with 216 points, but Stargell had more 1st place ballots 10 to 4. Stargell batted .281, with 32 home runs, 82 RBI's his WAR was only 2.8. As a die hard Pirate's fan I think Dave Winfield who finished 3rd in voting should have won the award. He had better stats then both Pop's and Hernandez. Winfield's final stats in 1979 .308, 34 HR's, 118 RBI's, 97 Runs, 15 SB's and a WAR of 8.3. The Padres only won 68 games.
I loved Willie. His cards are so under appreciated and under valued.
Congratulations Bobby! I know how much you love Pops, this is perfect for your collection.
This is a very very cool project. I'm working on rookie cards of HOFers. I know I won't get many of the older ones, but there are many others that are obtainable, especially TTM. Good stuff!!!
I sent these in for grading in March and got these back a few weeks ago and finally had time to scan them into my computer.
I've posted these already as either raw or a different type of flip other than the dual grade, but they all now have numerical dual grades for consistency in my collection.
As I wait for my final 3 cards to pop at PSA, I recently added this 1987 Topps Barry Bonds auto card to my MVP and Pirates collection.
Bonds is a 7x NL MVP: He won the award Pre-PED in 1990, 1992 & 1993. During his PED usage, he won the award in 2001,2002, 2003 and 2004. Bonds hit 113 HR during his Pre-PED 3 MVP seasons and 209 during his PED 4 MVP seasons.
To me this is a crazy stat: Bonds walked 346 times during his Pre-PED MVP seasons, but was issued 755 walks during his 4 PED MVP seasons.
Congrats on a very cool project. I finished something similar 2 years ago. PSA/DNA and HOF rookies - 69-83.
Steve
The truly amazing part is the IBB. The 284 IBB Bonds drew over those four seasons is higher than the CAREER total of all but Musial, Aaron, and Pujols.
My final batch of cards has finally popped at PSA. I've decided to put this project to bed. I'm going to sell off the majority of non HOF auto's. It was a fun project but it's time to move onto something else. If anyone is interested in the non HOFers LMK
PSA 4 crack out
SCG 6.5 crack out. I damaged the back of the card cracking it out. Plus, the auto sucks.
Bought raw off ebay
