I found a random, loose pack of 1981 Topps [$1.00] - didn't know it what year it was and had to look closer at the wrapper for any sort of year. Ironically I was going to pick up a Harold Baines rookie card and also a Tim Raines [multiplayer] rookie card for $0.50 each, but it went to this pack instead.
It is still 'junk wax,' but a little older than 1987 Topps or 1988 Donruss, so it has that going for it - if absolutely nothing else. Maybe I'd pull a 'star card,' worth $1.00 or so. The 1981 Topps set was sandwiched between Topps sets with a couple of 'true' key rookie cards [Rickey Henderson in 1980 and Cal Ripken Jr. in 1982].
I picked up the pack 'as is,' meaning it may or may not have been resealed - the cards were facing the other direction with the 29 year old stick of gum infront of the pack.
Going from the first card at the bottom facing me - I have to flip the card over to see what number it is.
#502 Chris Bourjos, Al Hargersheimer and Mike Rowland [Giants Future Stars] - Bourjos' son Peter plays for the Angels' farm system, while Bourjos is currently a scout.
#646 Marvis Foley #525 Mike Torrez #356 George Stablein, Craig Stimac and Tom Tellmann [Padres Future Stars] #346 Larry Christenson #564 Ron Hassey #399 Mike Boddicker, Mark Corey and Floyd Rayford [Orioles Future Stars]
#144 Allen Ripley
Hit to Win game card - I'm sort of fascinated by promotional cards and non-player filler cards, especially if they are a little more 'animated.' #270 Greg Luzinski #378 Dave Rader #481 Bob Lacey #246 Ed Ott
#195 Rich Murray - brother of Eddie
#700 George Brett - I'm overtly paranoid with busting any packs and wonder if this card was planted in this pack. The card is off-center, though it is an all-star/Hall of Fame player.
#490 Eddie Murray - along with Brett, another all-star type who actually got to the Hall of Fame. It is a coincidence I find his card in the same pack with his brother's.
29 year old stick of gum - I'm almost tempted to chew the nice, pink, intact stick.
Pack #4 in Dave in Michigan's pile of junkwax, is an unopened waxpack of 1988 Fleer. Of all the sets released in '88 Fleer was (by default) the best. Granted, that's not exactly saying a whole lot; but the design is nice looking and it has the only true rookie card of Edgar Martinez.
Base: Ellis Burks In his rookie season of 1987, Burks became only the third Red Sox to go 20/20. Curiously, he did not receive a single ROY vote.
Major League Prospects: R. Velarde/A. Peterson Randy Velarde would go on to have a 16-year career with the Yankees, Angels, A's and Rangers. On the other hand, Adam Peterson pitched in parts of five seasons for the White Sox and Padres. He final career stat line: 5-11, 5.46 ERA, 1.50 WHIP
Dave Henderson It says on his BR Bullpen page, "Henderson will most be remembered for his enthusiastic style of play and for his spinning leap after he hit the Game 5 HR in 1986." The ghost of Donnie Moore would, respectfully, disagree.
Al Pedrique Served as interim manager of the D-Backs in '04.
Gary Redus Gary hit .462 for Billings in '78, which remains to this day the highest batting average ever recorded in professional baseball history.
Bob Welch Bob is shown on his '88 Fleer card as a Dodger, but before the season he was dealt to Oakland. There, he developed a splitter and won 27 games for Oakland in 1990.
Superstar Special: "The O's Brothers," Billy & Cal Ripken, Jr. Still not as cool as the Cal, Jr./Cal, Sr./Billy card in '88 D'Russ.
Al Hall I could find nothing on this guy.
Terry Kennedy One of the 80s better catchers, Kennedy made four All-Star appearances in the decade.
Mike Scott Although the Mets won the pennant, Scott was named 1986 NLCS MVP. He also won the Cy Young award that season.
Alvin Davis Here's another award winner: The 1984 ALROY. Davis is the greatest player in pre-Griffey Mariners history.
Checklist: NYM,TOR,MKE,MON
Scott Lusader Hit .246 in 260 ABs over five seasons with Detroit and the Yankees.
Chuck Finley Oh sure, he won 200 games and led the AL in ERA twice. But when I hear the words "Chuck Finley," my first thoughts are...
Pete Incaviglia
Always good to get another '93 Phillie. But did you know that Inky holds a place in MLB Draft history?
Montreal picked Incaviglia in the first round of the 1985 draft. Incaviglia demanded the Expos sign him to a Major League contract, and promote him immediately -- something the Expos didn't want to do. With negotiations at a standstill, the Expos traded his draft rights to Texas.
Shortly after this trade, MLB changed the rules prohibiting teams from trading away draftees until one year after they had been drafted.
Upon ripping, I am greeted by a very old piece of gum, though gladly not stuck to any cards.
In order we have:
612 Harry Spilman 731 Lynn Jones 285 Darrell Porter 535 Bo Diaz - wow two dead catchers in a row. 196 Don Slaught - third straight catcher, but he's still alive. Damn it! 82 Doug Bird 76 Alfredo Griffin - there appears to be two guys having buttsecks in the background
521 Pete Falcone All-Star Baseball Game sweepstakes card
313 Mike Jorgensen 602 John Wathan - our fourth catcher so far 714 Active AL Career Stolen Base Leaders - Bert Campaneris, Dave Lopes, and Omar Moreno
482 Enos Cabell 155 Frank White
228 John Rabb - fifth catcher!
195 Jack Morris
Not a wonderful pack but not terrible. Seems like Jack Morris is always in these older packs, a ridiculous idea I know. Five catchers in 15 cards is quite a high ratio. Frank White was a solid major-leaguer, overrated by Royals fans but underrated by the rest of the world.
Keeping in time honored tradition, this mid-eighties Fleer pack is filled top to bottom with headshots. Hell, in this pack of 15, there are only 2 cards that I wouldn't consider a straight up headshot-- and, even then, I'm being awful generous to Mr. Pacella. Besides these 2 Twinkie pitchers, there isn't anything close to action photography. But, still, you have to appreciate how excited Hal McRae is in this photo-- although, I guess it is with good reason: he had a monster year in '82. Per usual, I'll leave it to an old Hall of Famer to clean up this pack-- Yaz saves the day as the last card pulled. Game 2 of the Series is about to start and for those of you not keeping track at home, I pulled 1 Red Sock and 0 Rockies... just kidding: Go Rockies!
#119 Hal McRae #123 Don Slaught #654 Padres/Yankees Checklist #563 John Butcher #276 Jim Wohlford #622 John Pacella #621 Jack O’Connor #655 Indians/Blue Jays Checklist #426 Jim Clancy #58 Rick Dempsey #382 Ken Griffey #384 Dave LaRoche #156 Larry Christenson #140 Rufino Linares #200 Carl Yastrzemski Blue Jays Sticker
I was pretty excited to find this pack for $1.50; remembering it as a pretty classic looking set. Sure it wasn't the crisp '85 Fleer set, but it was before the red, white & blue mess of 1988 or even the pinstripe debacle of 1989. The one thing I apparently forgot is how bland the photography is on this set-- 11 of my 15 cards are headshots. Besides not having a bona fide star, this pack was straight boring-- in fact, the only card I'm going to even bother showing is the Famous Feats Lajoie sticker. This is a subset that I really wouldn't mind collecting; 22 cards with a classic "Heads Up" feel, but still 21 years old.
#245 Tim Burke, RC #581 Brett Butler #267 Floyd Youman, RC #573 Wayne Tolleson #36 Brian Harper #83 Danny Heep #13 Charlie Liebrandt #441 Greg Gross #530 Milt Thompson #62 Cliff Johnson #178 John Franco #242 Lou Whitaker #29 Cesar Cedeno #196 Max Venable #197 Juan Agosto Minnesota Twins/Nap Lajoie #21/22
The search for the Sandberg rookie continues... Well, that's not the only reason I bought a bunch of these 1983 Fleer packs, but it sure wouldn't hurt to break up the monotonous flow of forgotten commons. Wow- I pulled 3 cards from the 18 card Special Super Star subset in the same pack-- not to mention the Black/Blue pair. I don't know if it was common for Fleer to put these 2 cards in the same pack, but I assume it wasn't. And... with every praise comes a complaint: why is the Vida Blue card numbered lower than the Bud Black card? If put in pages, the cards would look like this. They also did this with the Reggie Jackson/Rickey Henderson Speed & Power cards-- however, if this set were put in pages, Jackson and Henderson would be on different rows! Blasphemy! But, the Pirates sticker is really cool and pulling a Hall of Famer really does validate any pack.
#212 Candy Maldanado, RC? #205 Terry Forster #641 Joel Youngblood – Two Teams Same Day #535 Tom Underwood #364 Sixto Lezcano #287 Randy Lerch #284 Bill Gullickson #644 Black & Blue – Bud Black #577 Billy Sample #261 Atlee Hammaker, RC? #326 Kent Tekulve #304 John Candelaria #643 Black & Blue - Vida Blue #428 Jerry Garvin #69 Jim Palmer Pirates Sticker
This is the 100th post on the A Pack A Day blog; but unfortunately, this pack is a complete dud. In my opinion, 1984 Topps is a very classic set. The layout is spot on with 2 photos on the front and the team name down the side; all without the overly ornate stripes and facsimile autographs from 1982. And the square head shot makes this set look a little bit more classic than the rounded shots of 1983-- all great sets in my opinion; I just think the layout on the '84 set is superior. What a drag it is that Champ Summers didn't become a star-- he sure had the name (and look) of one.
#774 Tom Gorman #319 Al Bumbry #564 Al Holland #175 Graig Nettles #86 John Shelby #88 Rob Picciolo #770 Ken Griffey #558 Mike Davis Topps All-Star Baseball Game #178 Bill Krueger, RC #274 Rick Monday #643 Mike Brown #768 Champ Summers #626 Bob Clark #734 Odell Jones #356 Glenn Abott
I took Chris Harris's suggestion and headed to Turn Two Collectibles in Raleigh and promptly bought most of their older wax. I felt I got a pretty good mix of different sets-- gambling more on sets that had cards I wanted to chase. Aesthetically, 1986 Donruss baseball is not even close to one of my favorite sets, but if memory serves, I don't think I ever actually obtained the sleazy Canseco rookie that everyone coveted for so many years. At $1.50 USD, I could afford to see if luck was on my side. Unfortunately there was no Canseco rookie pulled, but it wasn't a total loss.
I really wish I would have posted this pack 17 days ago on the 21st anniversary of Mike Scott's division clinching no-hitter. I moved to Houston in 1987 and quickly became an Astros fan. Without a doubt, he's the highlight of the pack; followed closely by Eddie Murray.
Also of note: the other day Jason pulled a card of "Wild Guy" Tom Hume-- what was up with Hume in '84 and '85?? He pitched in a total of 110 games those 2 years, but there isn't an action shot of him on ANY of his cards-- and to top it off, dude looks hekka square.
Hank Aaron puzzle 46, 47, 48 #89 Dion James #199 Steve Bedrosian #442 Scott Sanderson #553 Chris Brown #54 Dave Kingman # 651 Fleet Feet: Coleman/McGee #521 Hal McRae #144 Lee Smith #254 David Palmer #365 Tom Hume #476 Mike Scott #587 Dickie Noles #88 Eddie Murray #331 Bill Gullickson #441 Rick Aguilera, RC #552 R.J. Reynolds
I found this pack for just the right price at $1.50. I always loved this set from Topps for some reason. I am not sure if it was the subpar gloss on the cards or the horrible photography. The blockteam lettering on the top sure made it easy to sort the cards by teams.
Orel Hershiser (nice! right off the bat with a damn great player from the mid to late 80s) Larry Parrish Donnie Moore Thad Bosley Tim Teufel Butch Wynegar Mark Salas Lou Thornton Mike Schmidt (I really think a pack is a good one if you get at least one HOF'er) Giants Leaders Steve Mura Mike Jeffcoat George Brett (two HOF'ers!) Mark Clear Alejandro Pena (with gum stuck to it)
I needed a pack like this after that damn Fleer cello pack. The first card was Hershiser, who I think needs to be in the HOF, but never will. It is wasn't for the Dodger's blatent over use of him from 85 to 89, he'd had a long career like Glavine and Smoltz. I also sadly think his 59 consecutive scoreless inning record will someday soon be broken. I met Hershiser back in the late 80s and we talked about baseball and hockey cards, school, and other Dodgers. He was a genuinely nice guy who seemed to care about his fans. I hope he takes Grittle's job as a Dodger manager, or at least comes in as a coach.
Puzzle pieces 19, 20, 21– Ty Cobb's Right Ear Cesar Geronimo Frank Tanana Dick Williams Dave Beard Marc Hill Juan Bonilla Dusty Baker Greg Brock – RC Harry Spilman Larry Andersen Atlee Hammaker Bill Gullickson Jack Perconte Glenn Wilson - RC Geoff Zahn
What a drag-- I don't know how this pack could get any worse. Ty Cobb was a racist and Larry Andersen looks like Freakshow from Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle.
I recently came up on a few packs of 1983 Fleer and plan to post them all on here-- unfortunately, this first pack is a bit of a snoozer. The look of these cards is really spot on: nice borders, cool team logos and name/position clearly printed on the front. The color and shape of the borders and encircled team name are reminiscent of the classic 1968 Topps set; so, while I didn't pull any superstars, it still was nice to be reacquainted with the set. Although a boring, unchanging logo, what a great time to pull a Phillies team sticker-- NL East Champs! Besides Keith Hernandez and Dave Parker, there really notables here; weren't any real however, Bobby "Super Mario" Castillo looks like he has a belly full of wine and spaghetti... and, on the other end of the emotion chart, Gorman Thomas- also sporting baby blue- looks like he's sizing up Paul Molitor for a back alley fight. A classic look and some dated logos really help this pack out, but hopefully we see a little less Terry Kennedy and a little more Ozzie Smith in the packs to come.
Sticker - Phillies #362 Terry Kennedy #527 Dan Meyer #653 Checklist: Pirates/Tigers #342 Elias Sosa #331 Mike Ivie #8 Keith Hernandez #391 Graig Nettles #487 Rick Sweet #414 Bake McBride #402 Len Barker #315 Dave Parker #608 Bobby Castillo #48 Gorman Thomas #591 Ben Hayes #597 Eddie Milner
