Featured autograph - Barry Larkin

Barry Larkin - I got the autograph card signed through the mail 'via venue' c/o the Atlanta Braves during the 2000 All-Star break.

I remember writing to Larkin and then Pittsburgh Pirates All-Star catcher Jason Kendall - Larkin responded with my card signed in blue ballpoint pen.

If I had a vote in the 2012 Hall of Fame ballot - I'd only vote for Larkin to be inducted with Ron Santo into the Hall of Fame this year.

While I've assumed he was a very good player, I don't think I've seen him as anything but a borderline Hall of Famer - however, Larkin was a 'one-team' guy who spent his entire 19-years as a MLB player for the Cincinnati Reds.

Looking at the shortstop position, Larkin was as good as you were going to get before guys like Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter and Nomar Garciaparra came onto the scene in the late 1990s - Larkin got on-base, hit for average, hit for some pop, stole bases and play pretty good defense.

Featured autograph - Tim Raines

Tim Raines - I got this autograph in-person as he signed a couple of cards for me as a Chicago White Sox coach back in 2005.

I don't think he is getting into the Hall of Fame anytime within the next few years but he's getting more support from the numbers guys and for Raines - it means he is getting another opportunity for baseball pundits to evaluate his playing career in a positive light and expose the similarities between his contemporaries [already in the Hall of Fame] like Rickey Henderson and to a certain extent, Tony Gwynn.

Featured autograph - Edgar Martinez

Edgar Martinez - I got this autograph in the mail four or five years ago.

I have my issues with him being inducted in the Hall of Fame any time soon, but he probably became Seattle's Tony Gwynn - there were bigger superstars who may have overshadowed Martinez' playing career, but he was also the one All-Star who stayed with the Mariners from start to finish, building up a lot of goodwill in the community.

Featured autograph - Jeff Bagwell

Jeff Bagwell - I got the autograph card signed in-person at the Big League Home Run Challenge in Las Vegas back in 2002, where he was a commentator.

I wouldn't be surprised if he gets inducted into the Hall of Fame sooner than later - his stats probably make him one of the best players of his era, but maybe the people who claim to care about cheating and PED use should scrutinize Bagwell's career more instead of give him a Hall pass.

Bagwell played in the steroid era and just by looking at his cards, his body changed as much as Barry Bonds did over the course of their playing careers - at his peak, Bagwell put up some [figuratively, maybe literally] juiced up numbers and I just don't buy the fact that he is being persecuted as harshly as portrayed by the majority of 21st century baseball pundits believe.

Featured autograph - Dale Murphy

Dale Murphy - I got this autograph card and probably one more signed through the mail about nine years ago. I have to dig it out somewhere, but I think he also responded to my letter that I sent to him.

From what I've read about him and from the cards I've flipped through over the past 20 years - I do know Murphy was an early to mid 1980s 'superstar' whose Major League career started to careen off course in his 30s.

Maybe if he'd maintained some of the numbers he'd put up in his peak - he'd be a Jim Rice sort of Hall of Fame inductee without receiving the 'hate' from 21st century baseball pundits, since by all accounts Murphy was a 'nice guy' during his playing career.