5 Baseball Cards that Ran Out of Gas

Was it the Red tinge that derailed their trip to Cooperstown?

Aug 11, 2024

That late Vada Pinson was born on this day in 1938, which makes this a good time to look at his big league record again:

.286, 2757 hits, 256 HR, 1169 HR, 305 stolen bases, 54.2 WAR

Hall of Fame plaques have been cast from less convincing cases.

In Pinson’s case, though, a rapid tail-off in his 30s derailed his Cooperstown hopes. He wasn’t the only one, though, and I thought this would be a good time to look at a few of them.

Specifically, what follows are the baseball cards of five players who looked headed for the Hall early in their career, only to peter out later on…and who played for my Cincinnati Reds at some point in their careers.

To save you from a complete homer-fest, though, I’ll include rookie cards and first solo cards below so it’s not all Reds all the time (except in my heart, of course).

1958 Topps Vada Pinson (#420)

You know about our man of honor, at least at the macro level. What you may not know is that Pinson was tracking as roughly equivalent to Roberto Clemente through his age-35 season from a career-numbers perspective, according to Baseball Reference’s Similarity Scores.

By then, though, Pinson was already nearly a decade removed from his Reds peak and was with his fifth franchise (Cardinals, Indians, Angels, Royals).

He would play just one more season, batting .223 with the 1975 Royals, before bowing out and heading into a plaqueless future.

1971 Topps Cesar Cedeño (#237)

If you’ve hung around these parts for long, you probably know my affinity for Cedeño and especially his sunny, smiling, life-changing 1983 Donruss card. Suffice it to say, without Cesar and that card, you wouldn’t be reading this right now — you can decide whether you’d rather thank him or curse him for that.

As a player, Cedeño was a phenom, making the majors by age 19 and leading the majors with 40 doubles at age 20 in 1971, the same year his black-bordered Topps rookie card made its debut. By 1972, he was an All-Star and a 20-20 man, reeling off three straight 20-homer seasons for the Astros despite playing in the power deathtrap of the Astrodome.

Injuries and a few down seasons began to dim his star by the late 1970s, though, and Cedeño was a shell of his former self by the time Houston traded him to the Reds for Ray Knight in December of 1981.

Once trending along the career paths of Pinson and Carl Yastrzemski, Cedeño finished up more in Amos Otis-Nick Markakis territory.

1972 Topps George Foster (#256)

The Big Red Machine wasn’t fully gassed up until the Reds traded for Joe Morgan before the 1972 season, but they might never have had the firepower to steamroll baseball in the middle 1970s without George Foster.

Before Foster came to Cincy in a May 1971 trade, he was struggling to find playing time and his batting stroke with the Giants. He did generate enough stir to land on a Giants rookie card in the 1971 Topps set, but his first solo card was the one above, from 1972,.

By then…well, Foster was still struggling to find playing time and his batting stroke. It would take him another three years, in fact, before he really hit his stride. Is it any coincidence that the Reds won their first World Series title since 1940 once Foster became the (mostly) regular left fielder — and hit 23 home runs — in 1975?

Another title followed in 1976, then Foster went off in 1977 — .320, 52 home runs, 149 RBI, National League MVP.

He hit 40 more long balls in 1978 and was a constant threat to hit 30+ through the early 1980s. His career was shaping up like a young Willie Stargell’s, and it looked like Cooperstown was a distinct possibility.

But a trade to the Mets before the 1982 season didn’t reverse a general downward trend in Foster’s power numbers. He was still a 20+ homer man, but with the young Mets building toward something special, he began to lose some of his spotlight and playing time.

As New York pushed toward a title, they released Foster in August of 1986. He caught on briefly with the White Sox but was done at the end of the season. With fewer than 2000 career hits and “just” 348 home runs, he never stood a real chance at Hall of Fame election.

1974 Topps Dave Parker (#252)

When Parker won the National League MVP award with a majors-leading .334 batting average, to go along with 30 home runs and 117 RBI, it seemed like he had just reached the front of a long and productive peak.

After all, he was just 27 years old and had boosted his game pretty much each year since his 1973 debut — a .288 showing in 54 games that landed him the 1974 Topps solo rookie card you see above.

Parker was just a sliver off that peak in 1979, but the Pirates won the World Series, so no one was complaining.

But the early part of the 1980s were not kind to the Cobra, whose playing time and production fell as injuries, weight problems, and — we’d later learn — drug issues ate into his legend and numbers.

By the time the Reds signed him as a free agent before the 1984 season, most viewed Parker as damaged goods. He eventually regained much of his swagger with the mid-1980s Reds and once again became an MVP contender, but by then he was in his mid-30s and heading toward a final decline.

There are plenty of fans and collectors who still think Parker belongs in the Hall of Fame, but his rapid fall left his numbers short of where they might have been: 2712 hits, 339 home runs, and a .290 lifetime batting average.

1981 Topps Jeff Reardon (#456)

Truth be told, not all that many people ever thought Reardon was headed for the Hall of Fame. He was one of the relief stars of the 1980s, sure, but no one really knew what to do with a new breed of high-saves, mostly one-inning closers like Lee Smith, Dan Quisenberry, Rollie Fingers, Bruce Sutter, John Franco, Goose Gossage, and Reardon.

Today, Gossage, Smith, Fingers, and Sutter are in the Hall, but the criteria for closers to get a plaque are still murky at best.

Back to Reardon…

He saved 40+ games three times and 30+ four other times, on the way to 367 in his career, still 12th all time. Along the way, he spent his second-to-last year with the Reds, signing as a free agent for 1993 and saving eight games.

In the middle of his career, Similarity Scores say Reardon was most like Smith and Sutter. By the end, he was Roberto Hernandez.

Couple that “slide” with a 3.16 ERA and “just” seven strikeouts per nine innings — both not great for elite closers — and Reardon has about zero chance of ever gaining Hall of Fame election.

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Who are some players you thought would make the Hall of Fame but either tailed off or have been snubbed so far?

I’d love to hear your current thoughts on this always hotbed topic.

Thanks for reading.

—Adam