Y’all know I like refractors. Well, one niche that especially interests me are guys’ 1st Refractor, specifically talking about old-timers who played before such parallels were a thing. And in poking around, I found this 10-card “Before There was Topps” insert set from 2001 Chrome that features the first refractor produced of several inner-circle HOFers, and so I went about completing it. Took me a couple years, but I tracked them all down, paying about $10-20 per card. The base versions typically run a buck or two, but the refractors were tougher pulls– 1:200 odds compared to 1:20 for base (per baseballcardpedia).
They didn’t go too nuts in imagining what a Topps design from way back then would look like, going with a simplified 1959 Topps design with the photo circle in the middle. If this “what if” set came out today, chances are the pictures would be artificially colorized, but back in 2001, at least, Topps went old-school and kept the photos black and white.
With all these household names, you’d never guess what ended up being the final card I needed to track down. If you can believe it, it was Grover, who one might argue is the least-remembered of these 10 men today if you were forced to rank them. Hey, that gives me an idea, let’s use TCDb to see which of these legends has the most cards out there as of May 2025.
#1 with 16,275 cards – Babe Ruth
Might as well do the list in descending order, since Babe Ruth having the most cards surely isn’t a surprise. He’s the original GOAT and still well-known today despite his heyday being a century ago.
I’d pick full stats over a little write-up any day, so I’m happy with these backs. Neat to see the Boston bookends to the Bambino’s career.
#2 with 5,518 cards – Lou Gehrig
Quite a drop in card volume, with second-place Lou Gehrig having over 10,000 fewer cards out there than Ruth.
Great career ended by a tragic disease.
#3 Joe DiMaggio, Total Cards: 4,822
Yankee supremacy continues with Joe DiMaggio in third place.
I always thought it was a bummer that Joltin’ Joe narrowly missed getting a playing-days Topps card.
#4 Ty Cobb, Total Cards: 4,729
Cobb just missed third place with less than one hundred fewer cards currently on the market than DiMaggio.
Ty Cobb still gets talked about a lot today, though it’s often in conversations regarding Pete Rose. While he might not have the “Hit King” crown these days, check out that insane lifetime average.
#5 Honus Wagner, Total Cards: 3,189
Honus Wagner places fifth out of these fellas in terms of cards produced of their likeness.
Honus Wagner is best known in the hobby for his T206 SSP that’s considered the all-time “best baseball card” to many. But yeah, he was a pretty good player, too! Not a lot of pop, but hey, that’s pre-Ripken shortstops for you, right?
#6 Rogers Hornsby, Total Cards: 2,361
From Honus to Hornsby. Took me a while to notice the subtle lines of stars in the design.
More teams on the back than we’ve seen in the post so far. Hornsby was player/manager for most of the latter half of his career, which helps explain sticking around with limited action as his career wound down.
#7 Christy Mathewson, Total Cards: 1,423
The remaining players in this list are all pitchers. Christy Mathewson is arguably the greatest pitcher of all time, though his 1,423 different cards on the market are dwarfed by, say, Roger Clemens (19,958), but that’s modern cards for you.
Imagine guys today pitching that many innings!
#8 Walter Johnson, Total Cards: 1,190
Walter Johnson is among the 3 graded cards in my completed set. I got the trio from COMC, though not all at once. I don’t particularly want them graded, but I haven’t been motivated to break them out either.
His total of 110 career shutouts is the record. One of those firmly unbreakable records.. at least until robot pitchers are legalized in 2063.
#9 Cy Young, Total Cards: 1,021
Cy Young is mentioned plenty today thanks largely to MLB’s pitcher-of-the-year award being named after him. Barely a thousand different cards of him out there, though.
Tons of wins and losses. Cool seeing forgotten teams Spiders and Naps on the back.
Last at #10 Grover Alexander, Total Cards: 480
As I suspected, Grover Cleveland “Pete” Alexander does have the fewest cards out of the 10 players in this insert set. Less than 500 cards means he’s not even halfway to the #9 spot.
30+ wins.. 3 years in a row.. Can you imagine?!
And that wraps it up. Nice group of shiny cards featuring all-time greats.
After completing this set, I decided I should go after the “What Could Have Been” refractors, also from 2001 Chrome, basically a similar 10-card set but with Negro League players. I don’t have any of those yet, but I’m keeping an eye out.
Thanks for stopping by.