Hall of Famers I've "actually" seen Play

Stone193

Hi everyone



This is gonna be an ongoing thread I thought of doing.



I'm gonna post the RC (where practical) of players that I actually saw play in my lifetime and who are in the HOF.



Since we all know these players, bio's are really not necessary - so in the interest of simplicity, I'm just gonna post the card and HOF plaque of the player.



Randy Johnson - inducted 2015













Frank Thomas - inducted 2014

ugaskidawg

That's awesome Mike! Would have loved to see Randy pitch. I'm sure he was a towering presence.



For me, it has been quite a few since the 80s. Having lived periods of time outside the bay area, KC, Dallas and Atlanta has helped with most of these.



Tommy Lasorda (as MGR)

George Brett

Nolan Ryan

Dennis Eckersley

Ozzie Smith

Rickey Henderson

Bobby Cox (as MGR)

Tony La Russa (as MGR)

Greg Maddux

Tom Glavine

Frank Thomas

John Smoltz

LarkinCollector

Great thread idea, Mike! I got to see the Big Unit live quite a few times when he was here with the Dbacks, but none can top game 7 of the 01WS.

billwaltonsbeard

Interesting idea.....I've never really thought about it. Here are mine

Nolan Ryan
Rickey Henderson
Gary Carter
Tony LaRussa (as Mgr)
Tommy LaSorda (as Mgr)
Ozzie Smith
Dave Winfield
Andre Dawson
Ryne Sandberg
Ken Griffey Jr.
Barry Larkin
Whitey Herzog (Mgr)
Craig Biggio
Tony Gwynn
Wade Boggs
Mike Schmidt

craig44

Great topic mike. Mine are

Wade Boggs

Cal ripken jr

Nolan Ryan

frank thomas

Bobby Cox

Greg maddux

dennis07

Not trying to hijack a great thread but this got me to thinking. I grew up 30 miles from Atlanta Fulton Co. stadium and went to many games in the 60's and 70's and a handful in the 80's and 90's.
Also lived in FLA for several years in the 80's and went to spring training games. So here is my list without the cards. Aaron, Bench, Biggio (spring), Boggs (spring), Brock, Carlton, G Carter (spring), Cepeda, Fingers, Bob Gibson,
Glavine, Koufax (1966-Braves beat him 2-1 on a HR by future HOF Eddie Mathews in the bottom of the 9th), Larkin (spring), McCovey, Morgan, Phil Niekro, Tony Perez, Puckett (when I first saw him play he looked so short I thought to myself this guy has no chance- good thing I'm not a scout), Schmidt (in ATL & spring) Seaver, Ozzie Smith (In 80-82 when the Padres then the Cards were in ATL I'd be there when the gates opened so I could watch Ozzie take infield practice), Smoltz, Stargell & Winfield. I'm fortunate in that I kept the ticket stubs from most of the Braves games in the 60's and 70's and have been able to go back and look up the lineups and results for the games I attended. (stubs not for sale )

KendallCat

HOFers I have seen are as follow:

Bench
Rose
Morgan
Schmidt
Carlton
Murray
Mantle*
Winfield
Thomas
Griffey
Piazza
Larkin
Gwynn
Ripken
Boggs
Palmer
Glavine
Maddux

Played against - Piazza and Thomas

* saw Mantle play in a fantasy camp game in Ft Lauderdale and got to meet him on the field and take photos with him and Whitey.

ThoseBackPages

Fantastic Stuff Mike!

KEEP EM COMING!

Stone193

Thanx for the kind words of encouragement guys and the contributions of the players you've seen. I'm thinking of extending it to players I saw on TV also - that'll make it more of a challenge - tho I have to say, tho I saw Mantle live - I don't and will not have his RC.



John Smoltz - inducted 2015

travis t

So many/too many to remember or name. The ones who stand out:



Clemente

Aaron

Mays

McCovey

Banks

Drysdale

Ryan

Reggie

Bench

Stargell

Gibson

Brock

Marichal

F. Robinson

Seaver

Carlton

Schmidt

Alston & Lasorda

P. Niekro

Sutton

Brett

Cepeda

T. Perez

Winfield

Ozzie

Carter

Murray

Eck

Sandberg

Gwynn

Dawson

Santo

all the inductees from '14, '15 & '16

Stone193

Pedro Martinez - inducted 2015

Stone193

Dave Winfield - inducted 2001

orioles93

Only ever actually saw a few in person.



Cal Ripken Jr.

Pedro Martinez

Craig Biggio

Frank Thomas

Ken Griffey Jr.



Saw lots of guys who could make it in the future like Jeter, Guerrero, Ortiz, Thome, etc.

Dialj

Off the top of my head, these are the ones that stand out

Aaron
McCovey
Mays
Banks
Ryan
Seaver
Carlton
Bench
Perez, Tony
Morgan
Clemente
Drysdale
Niekro
Schmidt
Brock
Gibson
Stargell
Sutton
Gwynn
Marichal
Ripken
Boggs

Nathaniel1960

Watched Maddux go for Win #300. He didn't get it. Still a great time.

flcardtrader

I have to admit, the "Randall" in Randy Johnson's HoF plaque threw me for a "Who?" loop for an instant.



Thanks for this thread as I enjoy the bust followed by the RC presentation.



Gives me a great idea for a display showing the RC to the left of the plaque alongside the last card off to the right of the plaque.

IndianaJones

Quite a few, as I reflect about the question.

However, there were two instances that truly stand out in my memory.

First, I was at a White Sox -- Twins game at Comiskey Park in mid-September, 1967. This unknown Twin comes to bat, smashes a blue dart, and in what seemed like only seven seconds, I declare, he was sliding into third with a triple. I couldn't imagine a player running the bases so fast. Awestruck was I. Thumbing through my scorecard, I looked up his uniform number to see who the Twin speedster was----Rod Carew. Never heard of him. Never forgot him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The very next year, I finally got to go to beautiful Wrigley Field to see my Cubs face the Pittsburgh Pirates in a double-header. My friend and his family invited me. Such a gorgeous ballpark in person. It was a perfect day--the Cubs swept the Bucs; however, that was the icing on the cake. My favorite player in all of baseball was Ernie Banks. This particular year had been excruciatingly painful for me, with the loss of my dear father. Bottom of the first, the Cubs load the bases, and Ernie Banks comes to bat. KA-BLAMO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Grand slam homer! I was so happy. I could not hear my voice cheering amidst all the many thousands screaming their delight at Mr. Cub. ---Indiana Jones (Brian Powell)

Stone193

Thanx for sharing Brian - I enjoyed reading.



Ryne Sandberg - inducted 2005











(pulled this from vending)

Stone193

Cal Ripken Jr. - inducted 2007











(pulled this from vending)



Ken Griffey Jr. - inducted 2016

Stone193

Mike Piazza - inducted 2016

ElvisP

When I was growing up I saw Pete Rose and Nolan Ryan play minor league ball in my hometown of Greenville, SC. among others. Rose played for the Macon Reds and came thru several times and actually dated my best friends aunt when he came to Greenville. I can still hear the fans calling him hotdog and hollywood because of the way he hustled and ran to first when he got a walk. Nolan Ryan went 17-1 for Greenville Mets one year so I got to see him many times. Later on the Greenville Braves had several HOF'ers including Smoltz and Glavine. I also saw Michael Jordan play baseball in Greenville when he was playing for Birmingham.

BLUEJAYWAY

Aaron,Yaz 1963 Cooperstown HOF game with parents. Lou Brock in the 60's at Shea Stadium. Cards vs. Mets. Dad and I took many bus trips to Shea to see our Cardinals play the Mets.

dennis07

Originally posted by: IndianaJones
Quite a few, as I reflect about the question.

However, there were two instances that truly stand out in my memory.

First, I was at a White Sox -- Twins game at Comiskey Park in mid-September, 1967. This unknown Twin comes to bat, smashes a blue dart, and in what seemed like only seven seconds, I declare, he was sliding into third with a triple. I couldn't imagine a player running the bases so fast. Awestruck was I. Thumbing through my scorecard, I looked up his uniform number to see who the Twin speedster was----Rod Carew. Never heard of him. Never forgot him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The very next year, I finally got to go to beautiful Wrigley Field to see my Cubs face the Pittsburgh Pirates in a double-header. My friend and his family invited me. Such a gorgeous ballpark in person. It was a perfect day--the Cubs swept the Bucs; however, that was the icing on the cake. My favorite player in all of baseball was Ernie Banks. This particular year had been excruciatingly painful for me, with the loss of my dear father. Bottom of the first, the Cubs load the bases, and Ernie Banks comes to bat. KA-BLAMO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Grand slam homer! I was so happy. I could not hear my voice cheering amidst all the many thousands screaming their delight at Mr. Cub. ---Indiana Jones (Brian Powell)

For this one day, which was July 7, 1968 I'll put you down for Banks, Santo, Billy Williams, Willie Stargell, Roberto Clemente and Bill Mazeroski.
Cubs won both ends of the twinbill 5-4 & 4-3 in the bottom of the 9th.
Clemente homered in game 2.
Edited to add: Carew had 2 triples at home in the month of Sept 1967. 1st one was Sept 4 against Cleve. 2nd was against the Yankees on the 24th with The Mick at 1st base.
The twins HOF'ers were Killebrew and Carew. Dean Chance won his 20th of the season that night.

SDSportsFan

I went to my first MLB game in 1971. Since then, I've seen in person:



Hank Aaron (Saw him hit a home run)

Roberto Alomar

Walter Alston

Sparky Anderson

Johnny Bench

Craig Biggio

Bert Blyleven

George Brett

Lou Brock

Rod Carew

Steve Carlton

Gary Carter

Nestor Chylak

Bobby Cox

Andre Dawson

Dennis Eckersley

Rollie Fingers

Carlton Fisk

Tom Glavine

Goose Gossage

Tony Gwynn

Doug Harvey

Rickey Henderson

Whitey Herzog

Reggie Jackson

Ferguson Jenkins (I was at the game where he got his 3,000th K {Gary Templeton})

Randy Johnson

Tony Larusssa

Tommy Lasorda

Greg Maddux

Pedro Martinez

Willie McCovey (saw him hit a few home runs)

Joe Morgan

Eddie Murray

Phil Niekro

Jim Palmer

Tony Perez

Gaylord Perry

Mike Piazza

Jim Rice

Pete Rose

Nolan Ryan (I was at his 7th no hitter)

Ryne Sandberg

Mike Schmidt

Tom Seaver

Ozzie Smith

John Smoltz

Willie Stargell (saw him hit a home run)

Bruce Sutter

Don Sutton

Frank Thomas

Joe Torre

Dick Williams

Dave Winfield (saw him hit several home runs)

Carl Yastrzemski

Robin Yount



All the games were in San Diego, Anaheim, Houston, Arlington TX, Atlanta and Denver.



Edited to add that I also went to a few old-timers games in San Diego in the early-mid 1970s, and was able to see guys like Satchel Paige, Yogi Berra, Duke Snider, Roy Campanella, and Whitey Ford, among others.



Steve

Stone193

Thanx for all your contributions everyone!



You've made this a better thread and definitely more enjoyable for me.



If anyone has any personal stories, please add them.



I just read this month's SMR and read something really interesting from Tommy Lasorda.



When he was a scout, he went to a young man's house in PA and wanted to sign him with a 10 grand bonus.



His response? Thanx but I promised my dad I would go to college.



The player? Joe Namath.

ldferg

Love this thread idea.

Off the top of my head I've seen Griffey, Maddux, Smoltz, and Glavine.

Saw Griff hit no. 500. Also, he and McGwire slammed a few at another game back when McGwire/Sosa were vying for 70.

Stone193

Reggie Jackson - inducted 1993











Not a fan of Reggie - I got this card from Rotman Auctions - for about 60 bucks.



Sat in the bleachers right "on top" of his head.



IMO, he brought excitement into the "routine" play but what an arm!



He was in right field - relatively deep - scooped up a base hit and threw it to third "on a fly!"



NY'ers didn't really care much for him even tho he said he would bring the WS and wins to NY.



He did.



They used to like to taunt him - sometimes they would just chant (with a sarcastic tone): "Reggie, Reggie, Reggie..."

mccardguy1

This thread got me curious as to how many Hall of Famers I have seen play in person. As a 52 year old guy who had a father that took him to countless baseball games starting at five years old, I realized I have seen quite a few.

Hank Aaron
Roberto Alomar
Walt Alston (saw him manage many games)
Sparky Anderson (saw him manage many games)
Ernie Banks
Johnny Bench
Craig Biggio
Bert Blyleven
Wade Boggs
George Brett
Lou Brock
Rod Carew
Steve Carlton
Gary Carter
Orlando Cepeda 1
Roberto Clemente
Bobby Cox (saw him manage many games)
Andre Dawson
Leo Durocher(saw him manage many games)
Dennis Eckersley
Rollie Fingers
Carlton Fisk
Bob Gibson
Tom Glavine
Goose Gossage
Ken Griffey, Jr.
Tony Gwynn
Doug Harvey (saw him umpire many games)
Rickey Henderson
Whitey Herzog (saw him manage many games)
Catfish Hunter
Reggie Jackson
Fergie Jenkins
Randy Johnson
Al Kaline
Harmon Killebrew
Barry Larkin
Tony La Russa (saw him manage many games)
Tommy Lasorda (saw him manage many games)
Greg Maddux
Juan Marichal
Pedro Martinezn
Willie Mays
Willie McCovey
Paul Molitor
Joe Morgan
Eddie Murray
Stan Musial
Phil Niekro
Jim Palmer
Tony Perez
Gaylord Perry
Mike Piazza
Kirby Puckett
Jim Rice
Cal Ripken, Jr.
Brooks Robinson
Frank Robinson
Nolan Ryan
Ryne Sandberg
Ron Santo
Mike Schmidt
Red Schoendienst (saw him manage many games)
Tom Seaver
Ozzie Smith
John Smoltz
Willie Stargell
Bruce Sutter
Don Sutton
Frank Thomas
Joe Torre
Bill Veeck (enjoyed his White Sox teams for many years)
Earl Weaver ((saw him manage many games))
Billy Williams
Dave Winfield
Carl Yastrzemski
Robin Yount

mccardguy1

Originally posted by: Stone193
Thanx for all your contributions everyone!

You've made this a better thread and definitely more enjoyable for me.

If anyone has any personal stories, please add them.

I just read this month's SMR and read something really interesting from Tommy Lasorda.

When he was a scout, he went to a young man's house in PA and wanted to sign him with a 10 grand bonus.

His response? Thanx but I promised my dad I would go to college.

The player? Joe Namath.

Personal stories? Well I do have a few.....Since I worked for seven years in Major League baseball with four of those years being dugout security (yes, I spent four seasons on the bench, watching baseball) I frequently has players borrow my handcuffs to play pranks. One I remember is borrowing my handcuffs to a few of the Cubs only to have Dennis Eckersley run out of the clubhouse, his hands cuffed in front of him begging me for my key. This is all happening during a game. Of course, I gave my key to the players and could not get him out of his predicament. They eventually let him loose and I dont think he ever forgave me after that.

Stone193

This one is "saw manage" a team.



Best memory? At a Mets game, the Dodgers were getting creamed.



Tommy left the dugout, pulled the 3rd base coach and proceeded to coach it himself.



Obviously to motivate his team - they lost but still a cool thing to do that I had never seen done before.











There's a really nice article in this month's SMR.



Favorite story from SMR - when he was a scout for the Dodgers, he tried to recruit a young man he liked (offered a 10K signing bonus!) who told him "he couldn't play right now since he promised his mom he would go to college." It was Joe Namath.



I like his take on life: (he turns 89 in September)

"I keep moving around so God can't find me." "And I always want people - especially kids - to know that no matter how down you may be in life, you can still become something. If it could happen to me, it could happen to anyone. I'll never stop saying that. The only time I'll ever stop is when I stop moving. That's when God will find me and it will be time for me to go."