A Trio of '59 HOFers!

Recently I scored 9 pretty significant additions to my '59 Topps set build when an eBay seller listed out nearly an entire set individually, with each card starting at a penny and combined shipping offered.  I showed off the first three a while back, today I've got the second trio to get to and each one happens to feature a Hall-of-Famer to boot...

In the lead-off spot is my favorite of today's three cards, second baseman Nellie Fox.  This one is a particularly cool addition to my set given that Fox won the AL MVP in 1959.  Nellie was posthumously selected for enshrinement by the Veteran's Committee in 1997, more than two decades after tragically losing his battle with cancer.

Next up, strikeout pitcher (and politician!) Jim Bunning.  1959 was the first of three times that Jim would lead the league in strikeouts.  Over the course of his 17-season career Bunning was a very reliable pitcher with flashes of brilliance (two no-hitters, one of them a perfect game).  Jim enjoyed a long political career representing the state of Kentucky after hanging up his spikes.  He was selected by the Veteran's Committee one year before Nellie Fox, in 1996.

Rounding out today's trio is a nice Sporting News All-Star card of a young Orlando Cepeda.  Orlando had captured Rookie of the Year honors in 1958, and continued to progress in 1959 with a .317 average (a career high).  Cepeda also cleared 100 RBI in 1959 for the first time in his career, and garnered some MVP votes for the second straight season.

The best thing about this card though, aside from the large, awesome cartoon on the back, is that it's a high-numbered card.  The high series (#s 507-572) cards are tough, in fact despite the fact that I am now up to 245 cards in the binder this is just my second one!

Nice to get some heavy hitters into my set here.  I'll have the final three cards from my purchase up sometime in the next week, and they're even more impressive than this trio if you ask me!