I have mentioned before my aversion to those folding cards. There is no real good way to display them. I do make exceptions in rare situations though, and that is typically based on the player. The only one I had previously is an Al Simmons card, which represents the only Red Sox card I have yet seen of "Bucketfoot". Until now.
So, who is in this card that I had to add it? Well, let's look panel by panel to find out.
Well, first up we have Harry Hooper. Hooper is a Hall of Famer from the Deadball Era that played for the Red Sox from 1909 through 1920. There are three bat pieces here. Now, Hooper is a nice get here, but I do have a number of cards of him in my collection. This is the first relic card of him though, so there is that. Still, as great as it is to add a relic card of this Hall of Famer, Hooper is not the primary reason I bought this card.
The second panel is Walter Alston. Now, Alston is a Hall of Famer, known for managing the Dodgers from 1954 to 1976. Under his leadership, the Dodgers won four World Championships. I am not really sure why this has him listed with Brooklyn, he was helming the Dodgers for far longer in Los Angeles. Obviously this cannot be the reason I bought this card. I have no real desire to have Dodgers cards. It must be something else...
...and here it is. This is Elston Howard, who was with the Red Sox during the last two seasons of his career after spending much of his career with the Yankees. With the Yankees, he was the A.L. MVP in 1963 and was a member of a few World Championship teams. He did very little with Boston, but was the starting catcher during the Impossible Dream World Series. Howard has very few cards with the Red Sox. Just his 1968 card, a few reprints/reproductions, and a couple of oddballs. I never thought I would see a relic. So, despite the lack of a Major League license, I had to add this card.
So, there is one question about this card. Why these three? I have no clue. There are two players from Boston and a manager from Brooklyn. Howard was active while Alston was a manager, but never played for him, and Hooper's career was over thirty years before Alston became a manager. Alston did play, but only one year and not with Hooper. Hooper and Alston are Hall of Famers, but Howard is not. It's baffling. I have no clue why these three are together on this card.
Yeah, that's a really random combination! I mean, three legendary names, but I don't see why they'd be together at all. And it does seem really strange to me to even create a relic of Howard with Boston, but I guess I can see why a Red Sox fan would dig it. I certainly wouldn't mind a relic of, say, Duke Snider or Richie Ashburn as a Met.
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