Vintage Legends Countdown #48: 1965 Topps Johnny Mize

**In this series, I am counting down my personal favorite cards in the 2010 Topps Vintage Legends insert series from #50 to #1.**

Now don't get me wrong here, but Johnny Mize shouldn't really be in the Vintage Legends set. Yes, he's a grade A Hall of Famer and he lost three seasons to his World War II service but his stats are comparable to Moises Alou, Todd Helton, Hank Greenberg, [editor's comment: per dayf's comment, Hank has been removed from my snide comment...when I wrote it I knew I was going to have problems but I went with it anyway...I hope someday that I can all earn your trust again...] and Dick Allen...not exactly the "legend" category.

2010 Topps Vintage Legends #2 Johnny Mize
**To see the other entries in this countdown, check out the links on the right under the heading "Vintage Legends Countdown."**

Comments

dayf said…
Mize is ranked 61st all time in Career Offensive WAR, tied with Tony Gwynn and sandwiched between Harmon Killebrew and Mike Piazza:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/WAR_off_career.shtml

Mize is 54th all time in WAR for position players, in between Jim Thome and Derek Jeter:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/WAR_bat_career.shtml

In Adjusted OPS+ Mize is ranked 16th all time, right above Tris Speaker and just below Stan Musial.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/onbase_plus_slugging_plus_career.shtml

He's tied in OPS+ with Hank Greenberg and - don't take this the wrong way - if you don't think Hank is a legend than you got some baseball learnin' to do. Hank is as legendy as you get.

Plus his nickname was Big Jawn. Don't you wish your nickname was Big Jawn?
December 7, 2010 at 11:38 PM
Matt Flaten said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
December 8, 2010 at 12:16 AM
Matt Flaten said…
A 1,000 pardons on the Greenberg comment and it's been corrected but your stats are sort of making my case. Mize is great, but not a legend. This set has so many undeniably better players it just seems like Mize and Pee Wee Reese are just sort of squeezed in there.

And why didn't they include Greenberg by the way?
December 8, 2010 at 12:18 AM
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