Watching Ken Burns’s baseball documentary reminded me of how amazing Hank Aaron‘s career was and inspired me to drop a little money to add another autograph of his to my collection. I liked this card, in particular, since it was an Emerald version. Green is my favorite color. It was meant to be.
This was also the first card that I ever got that came with the Ebay Authenticity Guarantee, which was kind of cool. Probably added a couple of days to the shipping time, but the packaging was cool and the extra buyer protection was good. So no complaints.
Just in case you needed a reminder of how great Aaron was: Albert Pujols is easily one of the greatest players of my generation, and is about to retire. In his 22-year career, Pujols has amassed 101.1 WAR. That is impressive. Tied with Randy Johnson for 29th all-time. Hank Aaron, in his 23-year career, amassed 143 WAR, putting him #7 overall. I guess there is a chance that Mike Trout could surpass Aaron someday, but he is only at 81.9 WAR through his 12th season, and I very much doubt he can stay healthy long enough to even land in the same ballpark as Aaron.