1975 Topps Robin Yount RC #223

I added another old school rookie card to the personal collection and while this was more of an impulsive pick-up as opposed to a priority at the top of a wantlist - there is some lingering nostalgia over this card, especially when paired up with George Brett's rookie card [#228] from the same set.

While Brett's playing career was a bit more larger than life and his rookie card seems to be held in higher regard than Yount's - both players are one-team franchise legends who each got their 3,000th hit in 1992 and were part of the same Hall of Fame class in 1999.

While I was superficially aware of Yount as a HOF legend with all these accomplishments - I had to dig through his numbers to see how his playing career evolved since I somehow believed he was more of a compiler as opposed to being a dominant player at various points of his playing career.

Getting to the big leagues as an 18-year old really helped boost Yount's counting numbers - maybe if he'd come up at 23 or 24 like a more typical big leaguer, his playing career would be more like J.J. Hardy's than Derek Jeter's.

But what changed my perspective about about Yount's 20-year career is when he became an impact offensive player in his prime - for a 4-year period through the mid 1980s, Yount established himself as one of the best players in all of baseball, checking off all the boxes as far as a guy who could hit for average, hit for power, steal bases and be a good defender at shortstop.

If somehow I'd be aware of baseball when Yount was really putting up the numbers, he would have been a fun player to follow, reminiscent of offense minded shortstops who would come of age in the late 1990s - guys like Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and Nomar Garciaparra.