1985 Donruss

This is a pack I got in a big random lot. One of them was placed into my recent card draft, and I kept one for myself. The wrapper is a little suspicious, something about the seal seems a little off, but whatever.

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
49, 50, 51 Lou Gehrig Puzzle
640 Mike Jones
632 Jim Gott
623 Ed Lynch

285 Joe Lefebvre
398 Mike Hargrove
511 Ed Vande Berg
622 Roy Smalley

125 Dave Rozema
239 Gary Matthews
26 Bob Brenly DK

576 Floyd Rayford
78 Larry McWilliams
69 Alvin Davis

181 George Hendrick
294 Dwight Evans

Not an outstanding pack, but adequate. I'd say this was not a searched pack. I have very few cards from this set, and now I'm going to go file these away.

1988 Donruss

It's the junkiest of the junkwax.
Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
420 Mike Henneman
418 Mark Williamson
419 Bill Schroeder (Woohoo, Brewers TV color man!)

17 Tommy John DK

300 Checklist
417 Curt Ford (Some pretty weird numbering in this pack so far.)
416 Brian Dayett
414 Damaso Garcia (At least these will be easy to sort.)
415 Brian Fisher
413 Nick Esasky
412 Greg Gross
411 Shane Mack

410 Dave Smith (Perpetually sunburnt on cards.)
409 Jim Winn
39 Kirt Manwaring RR

That was a pack of baseball cards of statistical significance only. I ended up needing 10 of the 15 cards, and some of the doubles actually went into the set as condition upgrades. Yeah, my '88 Donruss pile is an ugly bastard.

2003 Donruss Hobby

So I picked up a pack of 2003 Donruss at the local Target [$1.59] - I was looking for 2009 Goudey, but there wasn't any and I found several 2003 Donruss packs in the loose repack box.

Pack #1
#83 Troy Percival



#43 P.J. Bevis



#10 Randy Johnson Diamond King subset - from what is listed in the pack, there is a version numbered to 2,500.
#2 of 20 Jim Palmer Donruss Anniversary 1983 insert



#111 Mark Buehrle - gives up a ton of hits because that is the type of pitcher that he is, but has been consistent innings eater, who works quickly and has won a lot of games [not to mention throw a no-hitter and win a World Series].
#130 Wendell McGee



#119 Jim Thome
#190 Kazuhiro Sasaki
#254 Juan Cruz
#235 Byun-Hyun Kim
#268 Ryan Dempster
#365 Kevin Young - I remember him tossing me a ball once coming in from batting practice either in 1996 or 1999.
#385 Reggie Sanders

2005 Donruss Team Heroes

I have no idea what these cost when they were new, but with only four cards per pack, the price was too high. I suppose this was a 'premium' set, but after looking at the photos and cards themselves, there is no way I'd be calling this 'premium.'


Mark Teixeira (Rangers), Mike Schmidt (Phillies), Jose Contreras (White Sox), and Armando Benitez (Giants) are the cards that came out of their shell for today's APAD. I have to say the Schmidt looks good considering the actual photo is who knows how many years old. That is some serious photoshopping!

1992 Donruss - Finding Myself

Mr. Castle sent a box of Indians cards along with quite a few non-Indians which made me do some research. Turns out the non-Indians had all donned the Tribe uniform at one point in their careers. Included in the box of cards was a pack of 1992 Donruss, which I present to you because you can never get too much of the 1992 Donruss set. Well, maybe you can, but I present it anyway. After all, I found myself in this pack.

The first three cards feature one Bob Milacki. I had never heard of Milacki that I knew of until the box of cards from Castle. You see, Milacki's card (though a different one that is) was in my pile of non-Tribers. He had a very brief stint with the Indians (it lasted about 5 games) the year after the card below. Also in this trio is Steve Howe (Yankees) and Frank Tanana (Tigers):

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As I slid the Tanana card aside, I revealed my own baseball card. Well, not really MY card, but the card which bears my name. Dave Henderson (A's) has always been a favorite of mine, and yes, simply because we share the same name. Next is a pitcher with a most unfortunate name: Bob Walk (Pirates). Not only does his last name reflect what most pitchers wish to avoid, but even his first name refers to movement. It's a lot like having a vasectomy done by Dr. Pickelman. I should know. I did. Wrapping up this group is Charlie Leibrandt (Braves). I've always wondered, is it "Lee-Brandt" or "Le-Brandt?"

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If you've read Thorzul lately, you may remember Mr. Belcher (Dodgers), as one of the Dr. Steve's Altered Cards. We also have Roberto Kelly (Yankees) and former Triber Harold Baines (here in an A's uni).

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I did manage to pull an Indians player in an Indians uniform: Carlos Baerga. Unfortunately, he is caught in one of the worst baseball card poses I have ever seen. Who at Donruss said, "Yeahh, use THAT one!" Yeesh. Charles Theodore Davis (Twins) is up next. Of course, most fans know him as supper on a cold winter's night. Last in this group, caught doing his version of the Hokey Pokey, is Gregg Olson (Orioles).

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The final three cards in the pack are these: Juan Samuel (Dodgers), Jay Bell (Pirates), and a checklist. When I was a kid, I always thought checklists were 'worth more' depending on which names you found on the card. In this example, we see Cal Ripken, Ken Griffey Jr, Wade Boggs, Kenny Lofton, and others on the front. Cal Ripken, Junior and Boggs!? Man, that'd be worth flipping for many years ago. Though it occurred to me while writing that: in 1992 I was less than a year away from my Bachelor's degree. My childhood days were far behind me then.

The puzzle card was pieces 61, 62, and 63 of the Rod Carew. Why is it that only Harmon Killebrew's puzzle (as memory serves) was done in silver foil? No one else's that i can remember was done in 'chrome.' Hmmm...

1995 Donruss

If my memory isn't as faulty as I believe it to be at times, I think this is the third pack of 1995 Donruss I've ever purchased. Something about the full-bleed photos and the marked down price tags (currently 50 cents) keep bringing me back. The last two packs have each produced an Alex Rodriguez Rated Rookie card, which unfortunately doesn't bring me a whole lot of joy these days. Let's take a look at what I got the third time around.

4 - Luis Lopez (Lopez is shown with a position of "IF", which is never a good sign for a baseball player's longevity and notoriety.)
12 - William VanLandingham Rated Rookie (Wow. From Wikipedia: "On May 29, 1996, Van Landingham started against Jason Isringhausen, then a starter for the New York Mets. They tied a record for the longest combined names of two starting pitchers. Van Landingham also set the record for longest complete name in Major League Baseball, at twenty characters. The record has since been tied by Jarrod Saltalamacchia.")
194 - Darryl Strawberry (I had completely forgotten how awful Strawberry was after signing his big deal with the Dodgers in the early '90s. I wouldn't have guessed he played for the Giants, either, but I stopped paying much attention to baseball for a few years in the mid-'90s.)

253 - Ryan Klesko (I always thought Klesko had a bigger future than Chipper Jones.)
173 - Rey Sanchez
167 - Brian McRae (His rookie cards were good trade bait in 1991 for some reason.)
157 - Bobby Ayala

292 - Jose Rijo (Rijo was one of the most underrated pitchers of his era. He was extremely good. Unfortunately, he might be best remembered for his role in a recent recruiting scandal as a member of the Nationals front office.)

52 - Mike Piazza Elite Series 3454 / 10000 (I've never pulled a card like this. I bought boxes and countless numbers of packs of 1991 Donruss, but never found nor ever even witnessed an honest to goodness Elite card from that set. I don't know how the odds compared to the Elite cards in the 1995 set, where you apparently get one per 210 packs, but this was pretty surprising. Not bad for 50 cents.)

It seems like 10,000 of these cards floating around the world would make it fairly unremarkable, but I could only find one on eBay. I know that early '90s cards were incredibly overproduced and therefore worthless, but I don't see a lot of mid '90s to early '00s stuff floating around.

297 - Jeff Frye
121 - Pat Rapp
86 - Andy Ashby

95 - Felix Jose (I always think of him as a Cardinal, but he only spent 2+ seasons with them.)
108 - Jeff King
225 - Jose Lind (A surprising number of Royals graced this pack.)

14 - Walt Weiss (The former AL Rookie of the Year had the distinction of playing for both new expansion teams - Marlins and Rockies - in their first two seasons.)
39 - Shawon Dunston (Dunston was a walking strikeout machine and just a terrible baseball player and no one can convince me otherwise. He even made a stint with the Cards late in his career, but I will not be swayed by that. Sometimes Alfonso Soriano channels Shawon Dunston in his play, and I think that's hilarious.)
124 - Jose Oliva Rated Rookie

1989 Donruss cello

I found some 1989 Donruss cellos [$1.00 each x1] - I picked one up out of the scrap heap [pre-priced at $1.29] so I could see if I can pull and Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card. I already picked up a graded version of the card, but it is nice to see if you pull a similar card like the one you pulled out of a rack pack 20 years ago.

The back of the bottom card of the cello is visible and for full disclosure I could see Junior was right there before I bought the particular cello pack - the cello features six puzzle pieces and 39 cards.

#409 Bob Kipper

#BC-11 Dave Winfield - MVP insert or bonus card

#5 Robin Yount Diamond King subset
#158 Rich Gossage
#624 Ricky Jordan
#503 Shawn Hillegas
#379 Jim Presley

#649 Rod Nichols - I have to remind myself that no matter how many of these guys looked on their baseball cards, they appeared in at least one Major League game as players.
#251 Shane Rawley
#180 Alan Trammell
#58 Melido Perez
#526 Rick Aguilera
#16, #17, #18 Warren Spahn puzzle pieces
#7, #8, #9 Warren Spahn puzzle pieces

No. 12 Ellis Burks - Grand Slammers insert
#554 Steve Lombardozzi
#559 Dennis Rasmussen
#210 Storm Davis - a Tony LaRussa/Dave Duncan reclamation project in the late 1980s.
#161 Willie McGee

#636 Scott May - goes under my 'I would have never guessed this guy appeared in a Major League game' pile.
#BC-18 Kal Daniels - MVP insert
#351 Jeff Treadway
#591 Ernie Whitt
#242 Bo Diaz
#129 Lance McCullers
#551 Luis Aguayo
#438 Doug Jones
#560 Pat Borders
#565 Felix Fermin
#216 Bryn Smith
#100 Checklist
#46 Gregg Olson - relief star early in his career, became a journeyman for a while after injuries derailed him.
#470 Jeff Robinson
#357 Paul Assenmacher
#643 Jose Canseco - 40/40 card
#21 Harold Reynolds Diamond Kings subset - the star of the early MLB Network programming
#134 R.J. Reynolds
#557 Alejandro Pena
#444 Jerry Don Gleaton
#566 Darnell Coles
#571 Don Robinson
#33 Ken Griffey Jr. - there are fuzziness and imperfections along the top, where his name is.

So much for a nice pull -I think I got what I paid for.

2005 Donruss Team Heroes

Before I get to today's pack rip, I should wrap up last week's Royal Rumble Contest. Sam chose #8, represented by Shannon Stewart (see below). The eighth entrant in the Royal Rumble match, Randy Orton, won the whole magillah. So Sam is the winner! I'll need you to email me (brotz13 AT gmail DOT com) with your address and your favorite team so that I can send your prize. If I don't hear from you by the end of the day Wednesday, I'll move on to the runner-up.

So, are you going through Donruss Withdrawal? Never fear, a repacked pack of Team Heroes is here! I don't quite get the graph paper background on these, but I do like the team-color gradient bar on the left side. What do we have here?

241 Marlon Byrd - The card back mentions his 5-RBI game against the Expos. I miss those guys.

222 Barry Zito - Rockin' the double-knit flashbacks. Love the stirrups.

204 Tom Seaver - Hey, an actual Team Hero! Who'da thunk it? Great action shot of Tom Terrific in mid-delivery.

186 Justin Morneau - Probably didn't deserve his MVP award a few years back, but since he denied Derek Jeter the honors I can't complain.

373 Carl Pavano - One of Cleveland's big offseason pickups. Stop snickering.

349 Derek Lowe - It's D. Lowe, not to be confused with D'Lo.

308 Jose Cruz, Jr. - Shown in the Diamondbacks phase of his long career descent.

197 Victor Zambrano - One of the most useless of the Orioles parade of pitching horrors in recent years (0-1, 9.49 in 12.1 innings).

2005 Donruss Team Heroes

This pack was showing on the outside of one of those repack boxes where you can see the four packs on the outside and there's some "bonus" stuff inside. I took this one specifically because it had a Donruss pack showing because, well, how often can you buy a "new" Donruss baseball pack anymore? Well, aside from that silly unlicensed stuff, of course...

Anyway, I failed to notice the fact that this is not the base Donruss set but instead a set called Team Heroes. And I'm pretty sure I've bought a pack or two of this before, which makes me doubly unobservant. Oops.

417 - Gavin Floyd (Floyd finally had a breakout season in 2008 for the White Sox, posting a 17-8 with a 3.84 ERA after showing promise earlier in his career. He only turns 26 this month, so he could be a solid starter for years to come. He looks like he's about 14 on this card, though.)
375 - Logan Kensing (I've never heard of this guy, but he's a right-handed reliever who logged a career high in innings and appearances in his fifth season with Florida.)

333 - Ervin Santana (Santana was an All-Star last season for the first time and finished 6th in Cy Young voting. Still, he'll probably always be the "other Santana.")

108 - Jason Jennings Showdown Red (I'm not sure what Showdown is supposed to mean, but I guess it translates to an excuse to have multi-colored parallels. Jennings is not very good.)
69 - Corey Patterson (Patterson is one of those players whose name only comes up in fantasy league discussions. He seems to struggle to find a job every season in the real league.)
52 - Abe Alvarez (Another guy I've never heard of. Alvarez hasn't appeared in the majors since 2006.)

34 - John Smoltz (I keep getting Smoltz cards lately. It must be a Red Sox thing.)

1 - Adam Kennedy (Kennedy tried to get out of St. Louis last season after they signed Felipe Lopez for the stretch run. Then the Cards tried to trade him this offseason and found no suitors. He'll likely be the starter at 2B again, which to Tony La Russa means about 100 starts.)

1985 Donruss Rack Pack

I've already opened the first two sections of this pack here and here. You guys get the third section. Don't you feel special?? Maybe not if you're reading baseball card blogs on a Friday night. Ok, now I've made you all feel awkward. At least you're not POSTING to a baseball card blog on a Friday night. Now I feel awkward! Onward!

127 Marty Barrett
604 Davey Lopes
472 John Shelby
339 Pat Sheridan
205 Neil Allen
1 Ryne Sandberg Diamond King
548 Dave Smith
415 Jack Morris
161 Phil Garner
635 Lou Gehrig puzzle card
505 Bruce Bochy
260 Dave Rucker
126 Bobby Meacham
603 George Foster
471 Kirk Gibson
49 50 51 Lou Gehrig Puzzle

I didn't get a Clemens or Kirby out of this pack, but I got a hell of a lot of damn good Major Leaguers. Davey Lopes, Jack Morris, Phil Garner, George Foster, Kirk Gibson, those are some real players right there. The Lopes card just looks wrong though. The Cubs hat, the shadows, the terrible color on the card, it looks... wrong. I need to go look at one of Lopes cards in a Dodger uni to recover from that. The exact opposite of that card is the Sandberg Diamond King. That is an incredible looking card. The Lou Gehrig Puzzle is pretty sweet too, it's nice to see the puzzle completed without the inevitable misalignments you get when you punch out all the pieces and they don't fit together right. You all punched out your puzzles and put them together, right? Right?? Wow, more awkward. This was a good pack. I'm going to have to pick up a couple more the next time I buy a box online.

1987 Donruss: Donrussier than ever!

Seriously, I'm still a contributor here. Don't stare at me like that. Anyway, last month I rescued an assortment of Orioles cards from Mark of Stats on the Back. He was kind enough to toss in a few packs of 1987 and 1988 Donruss. Since nobody wants to see 1988 Donruss, here's the best pack of the bunch. Come along, won't you?

488 Dave Martinez - Pictured as a Cubs rookie; the Northsiders were the first of his nine(!) teams. In order: Cubs, Expos, Reds, Giants, White Sox, Devil Rays, Cubs again, Rangers, Blue Jays, and Braves. Whew.

11 Chris Brown Diamond Kings - Was a high school teammate of Darryl Strawberry.

89 Cal Ripken, Jr. - And here's the Hall of Famer for the pack. The first one, anyway (SPOILER ALERT).

572 Bob Kipper - Hails from Aurora, IL. Just like a certain cable-access duo.

440 Scott Bradley - Complete with horrifically red nose and muzzle. Not a pretty picture.

307 Todd Worrell - Sheesh, his mustache was even worse than mine.

297 Al Nipper - It's very difficult to be an effective major league pitcher with a name like Al Nipper. Exhibit A.

413 Tracy Jones - I believe this is the gentleman who is the last remaining holdout keeping me from completing my 1988 Topps set.

280 Jim Sundberg - According to the card back, he was in the midst of a TEN-YEAR contract that ran through 1990. If true, he would have signed it prior to 1981, when he was a 30-year-old catcher with the Rangers. Nice to see that dumb contracts aren't a new thing in Arlington.

271 George Bell - Or as he's better known, Juan Bell's brother.

138 Nolan Ryan - Hall of Famer #2! He had a mere 4,277 strikeouts at that time.

621 Fred McGriff - A Crime Dog second-year card! That's the icing on the cake; this pack is awesome.

42 Chris James Rated Rookie - In 1985 with the Patriots, his brother Craig was the last white running back to rush for 1,000 yards in the NFL.

33 Mike Birkbeck Rated Rookie - Who rated him?

90 Juan Nieves - Officially the worst pitcher ever to no-hit the Orioles. The best? Probably that Nolan Ryan guy.

Puzzle Pieces 52-54: Roberto Clemente's smiling face.

Well, that's about all you can ask for from a 20-year-old pack. The other pack of 1987 Donruss had Lance Parrish and Mike Schmidt as the big pulls, but this one wins easily. Thanks Mark!

1987 Donruss

I recently volunteered to perform a card rescue organized by the truly excellent blog Stats on the Back. Okay, fine, he was threatening toss perfectly reasonable baseball cards in the trash and I had to do something about it. This was more about public safety and the health of the environment than my unsettling interest in tiny pictures of baseball players, I swear! Possibly the most fun and unexpected thing about this card rescue, however, was that my package came with a bonus: bona fide unopened wax packs! There was an unopened pack of 1987 and 1988 Donruss, fresh from my days as a middle school card collector. I haven't quite yet decided what to do with the 1988 pack as I'm afraid that if my collection takes on anymore '88 Donruss cards that the entire box will spontaneously combust and produce amazing amount mold at the same time. However, I knew exactly what to do with the '87 pack - rip it open!

16/17/18 - Robert Clemente Puzzle
359 - Steve Jeltz (I got to see him play in person during the mid-'80s with the Portland Beavers)
227 - Scott Bailes (The back of the card boasts of his "outstanding rookie season" in which he went 10-10 with an ERA close to 5.00.)

94 - Fernando Valenzuela (Flash forward to my high school years. I was working at a card shop, and word started getting around that Fernando was going to be pitching for a AAA team facing the Beavers one weekend. I forget which team, but it was during one of his comeback attempts. He eventually made it back with the Orioles.)

577 - Jeff Lahti (An Oregon native.)
444 - Kelly Gruber (Gruber had a big year at one point in his career, but I can't recall which one.)
312 - Jim Winn

303 - Andres Galarraga (I just can't like him, after his awful season with the Cardinals. He ended up going on to have some big years with the Rockies and Braves.)
300 - Checklist
274 - Rob Deer (I still tend to think that Adam Dunn is a glorified Rob Deer.)

142 - Kal Daniels (Kalvoski Daniels! This was a nice pull back in the day. He only lasted 7 years in the majors.)
624 - Angel Salazar (One of my favorite things about Donruss cards was that they printed the player's contract status and details on how they were acquired. Salazar was "Traded from Mets to Royals 4/1/86 for P Tony Ferreira")

492 - Barry Larkin (Even better than Kal. If only I was a Reds fan. I always held a bit of a grudge against Larkin for challenging Ozzie Smith's supremacy as the best NL shortstop around.)
360 - Ed Whitson

228 - Rickey Henderson (Your 2009 first ballot Hall of Famer.)
95 - Andy Allanson (Not to be confused with Allan Anderson.)

This was a great pack in both 1987 and (almost) 2009. I'd have to say that throwing in unopened packs is a great way to sweeten up a trade or any packaged gift.