Hall of Famer Auto - Stan Musial

Time to share another of my Hall of Fame Autos this evening.  With all the discussions around the new Topps Archives release, my memory went back to a similar set from 2004.  This card happens to be one of my greatest pulls ever.  Back in 2004 I bit the bullet and decided to buy a box of All-Time Fan Favorites, at that time I generally shied away from anything outside of a standard base release but I loved (and still do) the concept behind these releases.  Picturing different photos on old designs has a big appeal to me and based on the nostalgia behind this set and comparisons to Archives, I think there is a lot of appeal throughout the blogosphere.

I do recall that two autos came out of the box but I only remember one - this wonderful Stan "The Man" Musial on-card auto.

What is there not to love about this card.  Stan is sporting his old school Cardinals uniform with the big red bird visible on his chest.  He is hanging out, most likely talking hitting, in front of the batting cage before a game.  We get a nice close up of Stan with a semi-smile and a beautiful on-card auto. According to Becket online, there were only 100 of these produced, it is one of the rarer autos in group C.   The auto is easy to read and he appears to take great care in giving out his autograph.  Over the past few years Mr. Musial's autos have gotten a little sloppier so I am very happy to have one from a few years back.

There are 122 different autos in this set with only 2 coming per box.  I definitely rate this pull as one of my greatest ever.  My typical luck would have netted me Ben Oglive and Tom Brunansky.

I have Stan Musial's recently released biography and it is one of the next baseball books on the read list.  I know a lot about his stats and his playing career but I am excited to learn more about The Man.