Hall of Famer Auto - Enos Slaughter

It has been a while since I have picked up a new edition to my Hall of Famer auto collection.  This Enos Slaughter I picked up in a Sportlots auction recently is my 60th different player in my HOF auto collection.

The Card
This card is from the 2001 Donruss Signature Series release and is part of the Team Trademarks set.  There are 57 cards in this set featuring 54 different players (Frank Robinson, Mike Mussina and Roger Clemens are feature on cards from two separate teams).  This Slaughter card is serial numbered 016/215.  The 215 card print run for this cards is the highest in the set.  As a Giants fan I naturally gravitate to the Giants in this set and found it interesting that the Willie McCovey card only has 26 copies (I do have one) while Willie Mays has 197 (the 4th most in the set).  This is typically reversed in today's card releases.  I like the design of these cards despite the sticker auto with the player prominently displayed showing off his uniform and the team logo and colors are integrated into the card design.

Outside of the McCovey, I don't have any other cards from this set but there are a few, including the Mays I would like to target someday.  The checklist is filled with HOFers and star players. I might need to go after the Eddie Murray, Phil Rizzuto or Mike Schmidt, all HOFers I still need that are included in this set.  I still have some "lowish" hanging fruit on my list but it is going to get tough to get an affordable new HOFer pretty soon.

The Player
Enos Slaughter was nicknamed "Country" and is mostly known for his time with the St. Louis Cardinals although he did play with the Milwaukee Braves, KC A's and Yankees during his career.  He has some pretty impressive stats finishing his career with a .300 batting average, 2383 hits, 413 doubles, 148 triples, 169 HRs and 1304 RBI.  These stats were all accumulated despite missing 3 years for WWII from age 27-29, typically peak years.  The years bookending his service each produced more than 180 hits so 3000 hits may have been in range for Enos if he didn't serve his country.

He still ranks high on a number of Cardinals all time lists - 2nd in RBI, 4th in Games, 5th in At Bats and 6th in doubles.  He was a 10 time All Star and finished in the top 7 in the MVP race 5 times throughout his career.  One play helped make him famous - "Slaughter's Mad Dash" - where he scored the winning run from first after a Harry Walker single in the 8th inning of the 1946 World Series.  Back in 2001, Sporting News ranked this play number 10 on the list of Baseball's 25 Greatest Moments.

(woo hoo, my first embedded video)

He was enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1985 along with Lou Brock and Hoyt Wilhelm.  Slaughter passed away in 2002, just a year or so after this card was released.

I am very happy to have this card in my collection.