Since players in the set needed to be retired, many players were ruled out. Mickey Mantle, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Ernie Banks and Roberto Clemente come to mind.
The 1970 set was a great follow-up to the 1969 Baseball Centennial All-Century Team voting.
The team included Gehrig (1B), Hornsby (2B), Wagner (SS), Traynor (3B), Ruth (OF), Cobb (OF), Joe DiMaggio (OF), Cochrane (C), Johnson (RHP), Grove (LHP) and McGraw (Mgr.).
The team voted in 1969 as the great living players was Sisler and Stan Musial tied (1B), Charlie Gehringer (2B), Joe Cronin (SS), Traynor (3B), DiMaggio, Ted Williams and Willie Mays (OF), Bill Dickey (C), Bob Feller (RHP), Grove (LHP) and Casey Stengel (Mgr.). Designing this set could be a future project for me.
So in the 1972 set where do Tris Speaker, George Sisler, Eddie Collins and Cy Young fit in? They were finalists for the all-century team but neither won their position. Sisler's card mentioned him as a finalist, so the team has no centerfielder, my favorite position.
Why did Joe DiMaggio get excluded? Everyone else on the all-century team got into the set. Was Mr. Coffee already too greedy to be in this set? Did that lead to another Babe Ruth card in the set? Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio?
Cochrane and Traynor both retired in 1937 but they didn't get elected to the Hall of Fame until 1947 and 1948 respectively.
Cochrane won two MVP awards. With the rules in place today he'd have won neither of those. In the 1920's a player wasn't allowed to win twice so Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig only won once before 1931. Check those stats. In 1934 he won the MVP because his team won the AL. Lou Gehrig hit .363 had 49 homers and 166 RBIs to earn the award.
Besides adding some of the 1960's players there are four others from the 1930s HOF induction classes that would be great additions to this set - Christy Mathewson, Pete Alexander, Nap Lajoie and Cap Anson.
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