Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Top 5 Cards: Duke Snider


Yesterday I did a top 5 cards list of my favorite Astro of all-time Craig Biggio to honor their 2017 AL pennant-winning season. Today I have decided to do the same to commemorate the Dodgers NL pennant season with a top 5 cards of my favorite Dodger ever, Duke Snider.

Snider was a driving force behind the Dodgers' 1955 and 1959 World Series winning teams. The 8-time all-star 16 of his 18 years for the Dodgers, but surprisingly took 11 ballots to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Snider is a player I've been collecting since I started collecting cards, and over that time I have built my player collection of him up to 44 cards. As usual, here are my top 5.

#5 2015 Topps Archives
2015 Topps Archives consisted of 3 of the best sets ever made by Topps, 1957, 1976, and 1983. The Snider card was included with the other 1976 cards and as soon as I saw it in the dime bins it stuck out to me, in a good way, and I immediately decided to buy it. The classic blue and red combination were taken to the next level with bolder, better colors. The image is one we've seen before, but thanks to the 1976 set it helps to hide the reused picture, just a little bit. The 1976 Topps set is one of my favorites, in fact, I put it at #6 on my list of top 10 favorite Topps sets. I suppose that is what helped propel this card to the top 5. 

#4 1976 SSPC
After retiring from playing baseball, Snider became not only the hitting instructor but play-by-play announcer for the Montreal Expos beginning in 1973. He found that he excelled as an announcer and stayed at that position until 1986. This also happens to be one of the few cards ever made that shows Snider on the Expos, which is the main reason why it made the list. Snider looks so different in a Montreal jersey, but the card works. well. The dark background allows Snider himself to be the focal point of the card, which works considering people aren't really used to seeing him in an Expos jersey. That's why this crazy card made the cut.

#3 2005 Donruss Diamond Kings HOF Heroes
I have acquired many of these 2005 HOF Heroes cards, but not many of them stand out as much as this one of Duke. The different shades of brown give this card a vintage feel, similar to the era that Snider played in while the picture of him also has a brown background. It's very classy, almost like a framed picture. The only real pop of color is in the micro Dodgers logo below the picture of Snider which makes this card the perfect example of making a card work without many colors. This would be the last year Donruss had MLB licensing, but at least with a set like this, they were able to go out with a bang and produce a Snider card worthy of my list.

#2 2004 Donruss Team Heroes 
Here we have another Donruss card of Snider making the list, this one is from 2004 Team Heroes. This card builds on the blue and red theme by including a picture of Snider I haven't seen in any other set. This Team Heroes set highlighted stars, both current and past from their respected teams and the Snider card was literally a home run. Not only is a new picture nice and refreshing to see, but the rest of the card sticks to the blue and red theme and delivers a nice overall set. The Team Heroes logo along with the Dodgers logo on top are placed well along with the colors, while the bottom of the card features the player name and position. It's my favorite card of Snider from the modern era, but the #1 spot had to be an original card.

#1 1961 Topps
My oldest card of Duke also happens to be my favorite as this simple, yet stunning vintage card of Snider from 1961 takes the top spot on the list. The picture looks great especially for the time it was taken in and includes a shot of Duke swinging the bat, which hasn't been too common of a theme in Snider cards on the list. While the 1961 set is rather boring, this card is far from it. I've always been a stickler for vintage, which is why I attempt to include one on each top 5 cards list I can. It's just that the other cards couldn't beat an old, vintage card of Snider. The card is just way too amazing for that to happen.

Those are my top 5 cards of Duke Snider. The World Series begins tonight as the Astros face the Dodgers in LA. Who do you think will win when Keuchel faces Kershaw? Let me know in the comment section below who you think will come out on top in Game 1.




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