A few years ago, my family took a road trip to the Northeast, starting from Texas and riding the East Coast all the way to Maine. It was an amazing trip, and it was my first time visiting the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Early on in our journey, in North Carolina, we stopped by an antique shop where I found this:
These are old photos so they aren't the best, but I can't take better ones because, sadly, I seem to have misplaced this. It's annoying, to be sure, but I'm sure it's around here somewhere.
At any rate, I love autographs, and I have a decent collection of them that will show up on this blog over time. Eddie Mathews is particularly cool, as he formed a one-two punch with Hank Aaron that hit more home runs than Ruth and Gehrig (1,267 to 1,207). Mathews led the Majors in home runs in 1953 and 1957, finishing second in the MVP race each season, and hit 512 dingers in his career.
I thought it would be funny to close by noting that, at the antique store, they were selling a similar photo of Ernie Banks, autographed and framed, for $48, exactly double the $24 they were charging for this Mathews. When my dad asked me what I thought, I said that I preferred the Mathews because it was half the cost of the Banks when they both hit 512 home runs.
Any thoughts on who was better?
Hmmm…
ReplyDeleteBanks or Mathews? Both played most of their career before I was following baseball. From my limited knowledge, I’d give the “better player” edge to Banks. I will say that Mathews’ 512 home runs were probably a more impressive performance given that Banks played approximately half of his career in Wrigley Field.
I have a Mathews autograph, 2000 Fleer Greats of the Game card. I’ve been looking for a (reasonably priced) 2001 Fleer Traditions - Stitches in Time autograph card of Banks for a couple of years now.
I visited the Baseball HOF in the spring of 2004 with my son. It was a wonderful experience. I’m hoping to convince my (now 37 year old) son that we need to make the trip again, while I can still get around.
I hope you find your framed Eddie Mathews.
Edwin in my opinion was Mike Schmidt of the 50s & 60s he had the power in his bat you said about what he & Aaron combined to do
ReplyDeleteHe had good leadership skills as well reason for why he was named manager after Lum Harris was fired in 1973 plus he showed it during his short stint with the Tigers someone wrote on a chalkboard stating "Don't forget to check your brain at the door" in which Edwin said "Well...I didn't bring mine." Plus he remains the only Braves player to play 1 game at least for all the 3 homes where the Braves played at. As for Ernie he was always ready to play 2 games hence why he said "Its a beautiful day for a ballgame so let's play 2" so both players were equally good in my opinion.