New Hall of Famers for 2026

I have a loose card project for Hall of Famers and each year as a chance to add new cards to the mix - where I end up picking one random card per player / subject to induct into my collection.

With Jeff Kent being elected through a committee at the end of 2025, maybe it was a validation for a player who may not have been a well loved guy - but the slugging numbers as a second baseman couldn't be denied.

Kent has had a bunch of cards from the tail end of the junk wax era onward - I grabbed his 1999 Topps #330 as the card to add to my Hall of Fame collection, but the 1997 Bowman #65 sort of ends up a color match with the black borders.

Maybe Carlos Beltran was on shaky ground for a little bit as he got exposed as the supposed ringleader in the Houston Astros cheating scandal - but despite any sort of resistance from the peanut gallery now, his playing career has him a Hall of Fame legend.

Maybe I had the 1999 Upper Deck SP Top Prospects #15 in-hand as the card for my HOF project - but the 2006 Bazooka Blue Fortune #150 parallel kind of pops [even for a more basic, non-glossy, non-foil card] and has a one-time teammate [and Hall of Famer] Jeff Bagwell as a star-on-star bonus.

I did not think Andruw Jones would ever get enough support to be a Hall of Famer, where I was still looking at how his career fell off after leaving the Atlanta Braves - in my mind, he was destined to languish in the hall of very good at best

Maybe I still feel like he could have finished the last portion of his career better - but the momentum really built up where the numbers guys really did their work to shift the narrative, where Jones may have been one of the best all-around centerfielders of all time, rather just another guy who played the position and has some good years.

Maybe the Jones card on the left ends up my pick to click as far as being added to my HOF collection - though I wanted to show off a Japanese era card I dug up from a card shop bulk bin while I was in Japan last November, where he was someone I recognized as a foreign player and a one-time MLB star.

A couple of card show single pick ups

So at the card show where the last two posts worth of cards came from, I went back to table with what I term the dollar boxes of doom - through 2021, I was all about raiding those bargain boxes when I could get to them, but perhaps the relative quality had dwindled.

I didn't think I'd see the day where the dollar cards were now $0.50 each, but maybe the seller was preoccupied by other things - however my interests have shifted where I'd rather look for impulse purchases out of the scattered singles [$5-$20] boxes.

As is who knows if I can count on seeing cards I may have flagged in months and months ago - being generally in the same place, whether displayed in one of the showcases or in a box.

I plucked an MLB rookie year Derek Jeter insert and an Ichiro rookie year card, though I wasn't enthused about what I was finding - I thought this seller would have all these boxes of 'interesting' cards, but maybe it just depends on collections the person purchases, what maybe left and what he decides to put out.

I found a 1992 Bowman Mike Piazza RC #461 and while I really wanted a graded copy as part of my scratch the itch list - a loose, unslabbed card was in my wheelhouse as a notable single pick up where I'd rather have the card that not.

I still remember buying loose jumbo packs of 1992 Bowman for $12 each at least a few times off a random seller at the show that still runs at least a couple of times a week - after the fact, I don't think I pulled one notable player or rookie so maybe there was a sequence where pulling cards of note was a no-go.

I found several copies of the Carlos Beltran certified autograph card and while he has a Hall of Fame case with the career numbers that merit eventual induction - he may never avoid questions about his role in the Houston cheating scandal in 2017 and his firing as a New York Mets manager, before he even got to manage in a game.

As I considered making my singles purchases, I was absentmindedly digging through the $0.50 boxes - where I was trying to think about the combination of singles I'd relent to pick up, I just grabbed the Piazza and a Beltran for $20 to have a couple keepers beside all the other bulk cards I picked up.

1995 Topps Traded Carlos Beltran RC #18T

This rookie card was on my ‘holes to fill’ list and I randomly decided to finally pick a copy up for my PC - even though Beltran’s rookie card is messed up because it isn't his picture on the card.

The card pictures Juan LeBron, who was the Kansas City Royals' first round pick [19th overall] in 1995, but failed to reach the major leagues - Beltran, who was the Royals’ second round pick [49th overall] from the same draft class is pictured on LeBron’s card, though the card listed with Beltran’s name / bio should still be the one that commands any interest [regardless of the goof].

After a player retires like Beltran did in 2017, there maybe an extended period of time where you are just out of sight, out of mind - though as a borderline Hall of Fame player, Beltran may gain support for his eventual induction in Cooperstown.

Keeping his team from choking

Carlos Beltran homered from both sides of the plate and the New York Mets held on to defeat the Washington Nationals 9-7 Wednesday night - Jose Reyes and Carlos Delgado also hit home runs for a team in the thick of the playoff push.

The Mets are going to have to fight through - a shoddy bullpen and have lost key reserves Fernando Tatis [for the rest of the season] and Damion Easley.