1970 Topps and 1987 Sportsflics - Darrell Evans

Darrell Evans might be in the Hall of Fame someday. He could mash, and he mashed for a long time. In 1973 he hit 40 home runs. He also hit 40 home runs in 1985. He hit 60 home runs after the age of 40. He also walked a lot. Consider this - in the 100 years of baseball played before the end of his career, only 22 people hit over 400 home runs, Evans was one of those elite few. Thirty-one players have surpassed Evans on the all-time list in the home run happy years hence. Only Evans and Dave Kingman (who, other than HRs, was not good) sit on the 400+ list from the pre-steroid era and are not in the Hall of Fame. Only Reggie Jackson, Mike Schmidt, Dave Winfield, Kingman, and Evans represent the 70s - 80s span on the list. Bill James names Evans the clear winner in the most-underrated category.

I loved watching Evans play for the Tigers because he always looked relaxed. Even his swing, as powerful as it was, looked easy.

I have been looking for a good rookie card of Evans for a long time. They aren't expensive, but it is challenging to find one that is well-centered. Most are shifted to the left. I found a good one a couple months ago, but it sold for more than I was willing to pay. But then I searched autographed versions and found this well-centered beauty for only a little more than the un-signed one I missed out on. There is ol' Darrell Evans sitting bespectacled and chill between a couple of mouth-breathers.

1970 Topps are kind of drab. The gray borders aren't the kind of gray that looks great as a card border. And the photography looks washed out in many cases. The backs are nice though, with the blue and yellow.

Here is a bonus card, a 1987 Sportsflics of the smooth-swinging Evans. This one is from my childhood collection. I was able to get a whole '87 Sportsflics set the other day from an old card dealer so now I have doubles. I love the Sportsflics. The scans for these are not very good, which is unfortunate because it is difficult to read the cornucopia of statistics.