Now that top-tier PC guys of mine Fred McGriff and Dick Allen are finally in Cooperstown, I'm much less emotionally invested in Hall of Fame drama. It's a refreshing change of pace. I remember stressing out the year Larry Walker barely broke the threshold, keeping a close eye on the ballot tracker data for weeks. These days I happily don't give much of a shit-- though yeah, it'd be nice to see holdovers Mattingly and Murphy make it in someday (Don't you think the "character clause" should also swing the other way? Like if a guy spends decades being a stand-up humanitarian and positive ambassador for the game, as both Donnie and Murph are, shouldn't that be factored in along with the stats and help push them over the top? Tiant too. But here I am working myself up again! lol)
Anyways, I've never full-on collected this year's HOF inductees, though the 3 of them each have a page in vol. 1 (last names A-L) of my "9 Pocket PC" binder. In recent years as I try to rein in my collection and figure out the keepers from the non-keepers among cards not in specific buckets (PCs, setbuilds, or other collecting projects/themes), I've started the old hobby standard of filling a 9-pocket page per player. These are players who might strike a sentimental chord with me or something, but I don't feel strongly enough about them to officially christen them a "PC guy" of mine. I also try to get a page filled for every HOF guy (that I don't already PC) (from the "Topps era" [as in not including old-timey players I'm not really familiar with]).
When I come across a 10th card of a "9-pocket PC" guy, I've got to make a call whether to reject a card into my non-keepers, find a home for it elsewhere, or if I just can't narrow the PC down to 9 cards, I'll promote the player to a full PC guy, moving his cards to my PC boxes.
I figure showing off these 9-pocket PCs makes for an easy blog post. (It seems most of my post ideas kicking around have heavy lifting I need to do that makes me procrastinate instead of working on them, and next thing you know two weeks have gone by without a post.) I'm tempted to do a thing like The Diamond King where I list off names and readers tell me who they want to see.
But for now, here's how the new HOF guys are looking in the binder.
Carlos Beltran's page is heavy on Kansas City cards and there's not much here that wouldn't be on the bubble if nicer Beltran cards fall in my lap. Again, these are just random cards gathered from my collection, so it's not really a curated spread. Ideally I'd love to have a card for each team the guy played for, but hey this isn't my Vagabond Binder, so those rules don't apply. But chances are it won't be long until I work in Mets and Astros representation on Beltran's page. Funny thing, I had been gearing up to make him a full PC guy, but then the 2017 Astros cheating scandal broke, scuttling that plan.
I also have one other Carlos Beltrán card that's too thick/nice for the binder.
Pretty sure I landed this auto in a Nachos Grande mixer group break a decade or so ago.
Next up, Andruw Jones.
Nothing too eye-popping here, just some random Braves cards. I should try to mix in a couple later cards of his. Andruw was in his prime when I wasn't collecting, and by the time I returned to the hobby his career was stumbling to the finish line. So yeah, just didn't shake out that I ever collected him much, despite the Braves being a second-tier favorite team of mine (I wear my Braves hat out more than my Padres hat, but it's really just a comfort thing).
As for Jeff Kent's page, it's still incomplete.
The pair of cardart superfractors at the bottom are things I made for a buyer who ended up flaking, so guess I'll just hang onto them. The '92 Leaf black gold in the center is a dupe from that parallel set I completed a year or two ago. Happy I had an extra of that, as it's probably his most desirable pack-pulled rookie card (ie, not from boxed sets). And I gotta point out that the Donruss Rookies card at the top was plucked directly from the small percentage of my collection that I've had since childhood. There's something nice about pulling a card as a kid, thinking "I should probably hang on to this one", and then 33 years later, that becomes a Hall of Fame rookie card. Justified! :)
