Player Name: Tim Salmon
Card Sets: 1991 Bowman
Card Numbers: 203
Why are these cards must have?: This is what I love about Bowman cards, you get the stars about a year or two earlier than when they make it to the bigs. Tim wasn’t the Sultan of Swat most collectors go for, instead he killed with consistency. His career numbers were 0.282/289/1016, he won the Rookie of the Year award in 1994 and a Silver Slugger award in 1995. After that he just cranked out on average about a 0.282/29/98 statline every year for about 11 years. He is probably one of the best players to never make it to an All Star game, he played his entire career with the Angels, and he will always be one of my year after year got to guys for fantasy baseball. Tim retired after the 2006 season. He’ll be eligable for the Hall of Fame in 2011. He won’t get in, but I do hope he gets some votes. Even one vote would be validate what was an excellent career.
Scale of 1 – 10, how must have are these cards: 3, maybe not the most incredible numbers everput up, but his good guy status and consistency gets himon this list. The card books for $1.50, but on eBay it’s running $1 and more if graded ($2). Too bad card values don’t take into account your consistency and personality. It would be worth a lot more.
Tim Salmon was ROY and had some fanfair back in the 90′s. But I wonder if there are player collectors out there that still collect his cards.
I’m pretty surprised Salmon never made an all-star team; looking it up, he and Kirk Gibson stick out as two who never played in the midsummer classic.