You often see articles about the best player at each position. Who’s the best catcher, third baseman, etc. Well, how about taking a look at the best baseball card by position? Not the best player and their best baseball card at each position, but the single best baseball card of player at a particular position. So, if you think the T206 Honus Wagner is the best shortstop card ever, but that Cal Ripken, Jr. was a better shortstop, you’d pick the T206 Wagner over say, Cal’s 1982 Topps Rookie card. Factors considered here will include baseball card rarity, demand/value, design, impact on the hobby, player popularity/performance and a dash of personal opinion. If you’d like to chime in on your opinon of the best card for each position, please leave a comment.
Let’s start with the leader of the baseball diamond on defense, the catcher. (Each post will contain the best card for each position.) There are many catchers that could be considered in the discussion of the best catcher of all-time (considering offense and defense). Johnny Bench, Yogi Berra, Ivan Rodriguez, Carlton Fisk, Roy Campanella are just several of them. But remember that’s not our goal here. The goal is to find the best baseball card of a player at that position.
Catcher
1968 Topps Johnny Bench, #247 Rookie Card
There were too many cards to choose from for this position. (Why did I start with catcher?) Anyway, after taking a look at all the top catchers and their top cards, this is the one I selected. The 1968 Johnny Bench rookie card is one of the best Topps baseball cards of the 1960s. Bench was a phenomenal defensive catcher and a very good offensive one. Bench won the NL gold glove at catcher every year between 1968 and 1977. At the plate he belted a career 389 homers.
Man, Bench looks so young in that photo doesn’t he? I think the coolest thing about the card is the photo of bench with his white hat on backwards. Very cool. You also notice that there is no Reds insignia on this card. So other than the word “Reds”, this card could be a prototypical card that Upper Deck would be able to create and sell next year, given the MLB exclusive agreement with Topps beginning in 2010.
Anyway, for some reason, maybe nostalgia, I really like the rookie cards with multiple players on them, rather than the single player cards. They should keep making those multi-player rookie cards in my opinion.
This Bench rookie card is my choice for the best catcher card of all-time. And one of the nice things about this card is that it’s not out of the price range of most collectors. You can pick one up on eBay for under $100 if it’s not in mint or near-mint condition.
What do you think? Have a different opinon on the best catcher card of all-time? Let me know.
