final tributes for the hit king

i bought a couple of singles from the 2012 leaf 'the living legend' pete rose set.  i was hoping to find a card from hit 4192 with the garv in the background, but i was sol.  instead, i picked up this card that comes from that same moment, just before or after rose points to the crowd with garvey looking on.  it's a fitting photo for a tribute.

of course, that moment came in 1985, and pete rose had another season to play.  and, his 1986 topps or fleer cards didn't even use photos from his historic night anyway.  yes, i contend that even the record breaker card that topps issued doesn't use a photo from hit 4192.  donruss did issue a card with images from hit 4191 and 4192, which was nice of them.

still, rose's true final tributes didn't come until the 1987 sets were released as he played in his final game on august 17, 1986.  in that game he sent himself to the plate as a pinch hitter against the padres, and struck out against goose gossage.  rose was released from his contract as a player after the 1986 season, but he was retained as the team's manager.  here is his topps final tribute

with his complete career stats on the back

he is still the all-time leader in games, at bats, hits, singles, plate appearances and times on base.  of course, he also made more outs than anyone else whoever played the game.

rose had two other cards in the 1987 topps set - his manager card

which was also the team checklist

and the reds leaders card

which showed a managerial visit to the mound, with the manager also being the first baseman

rose only played in 72 games for the 1986 reds, so he wasn't an offensive leader by any stretch.

here's what donruss offered in the way of a final tribute

with truncated career stats

here's the leaf version

with the french

i think donruss/leaf jumped the gun a bit on the 'future hall of famer' thing...

how about fleer's version?  here's the front

and back

they are missing a few years of stats there.

i think the topps version is my favorite.  in case you are wondering (since i showed the leaf version) o-pee-chee made one, too, which i have somewhere.

i am not a rose apologist, but i am a fan, and i wish that he had never bet on baseball so that he could be enshrined in cooperstown and featured in current licensed sets.  back in 2008, rose popped up in a couple of donruss sets, like this sports legends issue

and this donruss threads issue

i was pleased.  maybe someday rose will be reinstated (not likely) and we will see a bunch of topps cards featuring the hit king in full uniform with logos.  until then, we get cards like this one

at least steve sax is recognizable, even without the dodgers script on his chest.