collect &#8211; Hardball Retro

https://www.beckett.com/search/?term=1988+fleer&year_start=1988

The 1988 Fleer Baseball Set

References and Resources

Beckett, Dr. James, Rich Klein and Grant Sandground. Beckett Almanac of Baseball Cards and Collectibles. Dallas, TX: Beckett Publications, 1997. Print.

https://www.tcdb.com/ViewSet.cfm/sid/121/1988-Fleer

Trading Card Database – Photo Gallery

About the Authors

Derek Bain is a New Jersey native with a passion for baseball, statistics, computers and video games who enjoys spending quality time with his family.

Tom Corby – Cousins with Derek, I am a history teacher at New Egypt High School. I have three kids, Addison, Jaclyn, and Mason and I’m happy that I get to coach them in their sports as well. In my spare time I enjoy reading, anything beach related, and fishing when time allows.

Derek’s Books

“Hardball Architects – Volume 1 (American League Teams)”, published in July 2020, is available in paperback and digital (Kindle) format at Amazon.com.

“Hardball Architects – Volume 2 (National League Teams)”, published in April 2022, is available in paperback and digital (Kindle) format at Amazon.com.

Hardball Architects examines the trades, free agent acquisitions, draft picks and other transactions for the 30 Major League Baseball franchises, divided into a 2-volume set (American League and National League). All key moves are scrutinized for every team and Sabermetric principles are applied to the roster construction throughout the lifetime of the organization to encapsulate the hits and misses by front office executives.

“Hardball Retroactive”, published in June 2018, is available in paperback and digital (Kindle) format at Amazon.com. Hardball Retroactive is a modest collection of selected articles that I have written for Seamheads.com along with my Baseball Analytics blog since 2010. Exclusive content includes the chapter on “Minors vs. Majors” which assesses every franchise’s minor league successes and failures in relation to their major league operations.

“Hardball Retrospective” is available in paperback and digital (Kindle) format at Amazon.com. Supplemental Statistics, Charts and Graphs along with a discussion forum are offered at TuataraSoftware.com. In Hardball Retrospective, I placed every ballplayer in the modern era (from 1901-present) on their original teams. Using a variety of advanced statistics and methods, I generated revised standings for each season based entirely on the performance of each team’s “original” players. I discuss every team’s “original” players and seasons at length along with organizational performance with respect to the Amateur Draft (or First-Year Player Draft), amateur free agent signings and other methods of player acquisition. Season standings, WAR and Win Shares totals for the “original” teams are compared against the real-time or “actual” team results to assess each franchise’s scouting, development and general management skills.

Don Daglow (Intellivision World Series Major League Baseball, Earl Weaver Baseball, Tony LaRussa Baseball) contributed the foreword for Hardball Retrospective. The foreword and preview of my book are accessible here.

“Hardball Retrospective – Addendum 2014 to 2016” supplements my research for Hardball Retrospective, providing retroactive standings based on Wins Above Replacement (WAR) and Win Shares (WS) for each “original” team over the past three seasons (2014-2016). Team totals from 2010 – 2013 are included for reference purposes. “Addendum” is available in paperback and digital (Kindle) format at Amazon.com.

The 1988 Donruss Baseball Card Set

Derek Bain — Wed, 14 Dec 2022 16:55:08 +0000

Derek’s (Re)collections

A half-decade of innovative design came to a screeching halt as the 1988 Donruss offering featured a rather bland format on the card fronts. The photography remained on par with previous efforts but the border and overall layout failed to impress me. The ‘88 sets in general suffer from a dearth of prospects when compared to prior seasons. Donruss could be forgiven for an off-year but several new manufacturers joined the ranks as the decade drew to a close and the fight for collector’s attention led to additional bloat in product lines.

Corby Corner

1988 represented the turning point in 1980’s card collecting to me. It was at this moment that it became a business and printing cards meant printing cash for the companies. Sadly this left too many cards of average players in the mix. Coming off of what I felt was the strongest and most consistent four years of cards by any company in the business overall, the 1988 Donruss set disappointed. Now I understand that a set is only as good as the players within, especially the rookies, but this set struggled on players and design. The background felt “safe” and not what the last two years of Donruss cards embodied. The pictures were mostly standstill shots, the “Rated Rookies” didn’t really create excitement, and the one ballyhooed rookie, Gregg Jefferies, never really panned out. Every year can’t have an ‘83 rookie crop, but this one was flat and really hurt all sets during the year. I was willing to give Donruss a mulligan after their climb the past five years and looked forward to 1989. Little did I know…

Features

The 1988 Donruss cards consist of a predominantly blue border with several black and red accents. The player’s name and primary position are listed in white on a red background towards the bottom of the card. The Donruss ‘88 logo appears in the top left corner while the player’s team logo sits near the bottom right.

Diamond Kings (one player per team) run from card 1 through 26 with a “DK” checklist included as card # 27 highlighted by Mark McGwire (#1) and Cal Ripken Jr. (#26). The Rated Rookies subset (card 28 through 47) features Roberto Alomar (#34) and Mark Grace (#40). The “Ripken Baseball Family (Billy Ripken / Cal Ripken Sr. / Cal Ripken Jr.)” is depicted on card # 625 and Stan Musial puzzle appears on card # 641.

Donruss eliminated their Highlights and Opening Day offerings in favor of a 336-card “Baseball’s Best” set which borrowed the design from the standard ‘88 Donruss set but modified the border colors to orange and black. The Rookies set also shared a similar appearance while utilizing a green, red and black border. Brady Anderson and Chris Sabo top a mediocre lineup in the Rookies set. All-Stars, Pop-Ups and Super DK’s survived the cut for another go-round in ‘88. Donruss inserted bonus MVP’s into random wax and rack packs. The only way to distinguish the MVP’s from the standard cards is the “MVP” logo on the front and the “BC” (bonus card) prefix in the card numbering on the backs.

The subset values according to the 1997 edition of the Beckett Almanac of Baseball Cards and Collectibles are as follows: Rookies $15, Baseball’s Best $15, All-Stars $8, Bonus MVP’s $3, Pop-Ups $5, Super DK’s $12.

1988 Donruss The Rookies

1988 Donruss All-Stars

1988 Donruss Baseball’s Best

1988 Donruss Super DK’s

1988 Donruss Pop-Up’s

One-and-Dones

The players listed below made their lone appearance on a regular-issue baseball card in the 1988 Donruss set. Appearances on multi-player “rookie” or “top prospect” cards are not included – this is limited to individual cards for each particular player.

Manny Hernandez (# 481) – The long road to the Majors began in November 1978 when Manny Hernandez signed a contract with the Houston Astros as a 17-year-old amateur free agent. He registered a pair of wins along with a 2.57 ERA in nine relief outings during his inaugural campaign in the Gulf Coast League in ‘79. Hernandez won 5 of 7 decisions in the following year for the GCL Astros before spending three successive seasons (1981-83) with the Daytona Beach (A) squad where he compiled a 22-14 record with an ERA of 3.82. The right-handed continued his slow march to the Majors over the next three years with the Tucson Toros (AAA). He finally reached the big leagues in June 1986 when Houston needed a healthy arm in the starting rotation to replace the injured Nolan Ryan. The “Ryan Express” was placed on the 21-day disabled list with an elbow injury (New York Times, June 2, 1986). Hernandez took the mound at Dodger Stadium on June 5, 1986 and held Los Angeles to 3 hits in 5 ⅔ innings. After notching his first MLB strikeout (Mike A. Marshall in the fourth inning), he was saddled with a hard-luck 1-0 defeat after serving up a triple to Steve Sax and a sacrifice fly to Ken Landreaux in the bottom of the sixth inning. One week later he claimed his first MLB victory, 4-1 over the Giants when he yielded one run in 5 ⅔ innings. His ERA climbed from 1.59 to 2.86 with a pair of sub-par starts at Cincinnati and San Francisco whereupon Ryan was activated and reclaimed his spot in the rotation. Hernandez recorded a victory with a scoreless inning in relief against the Dodgers on June 29, 1986 but the Padres roughed him up two days later (⅓ IP, 3 H, 2 BB, 4 ER) resulting in a demotion to triple-A. He continued to pitch well for Tucson and earned a September call-up. In three relief appearances, Hernandez hurled 4 ⅓ IP with 4 strikeouts and only one earned run to finish his rookie year with a record of 2-3 and an ERA of 3.90. He returned to Tucson and compiled a 3.00 ERA with a 1.056 WHIP in 9 starts to merit a September call-up. Hernandez held the Cubs to three runs (one earned) over 7 innings in a home start against the Cubs on September 1, 1987 but he was saddled with a 3-2 loss. His ERA swelled from 1.29 to 5.40 by the end of the season and Hernandez registered an 0-4 mark in 6 appearances (3 starts). Back with the Toros for a fifth consecutive season and pitching in his eleventh year of professional baseball, Hernandez logged a pedestrian 10-9 record in 30 starts along with an ERA of 4.24. He was granted free agency in October 1988 and latched on with Minnesota one month later. The veteran minor leaguer was released in August 1989 after posting a 9-8 mark with a 3.91 ERA for the Portland Beavers (AAA). The Mets quickly signed him and he pitched “lights-out” for the Tidewater Tides. Over 7 appearances (6 starts) he fashioned an ERA of 1.69 and a WHIP of 0.914 to earn one last promotion to the big leagues. New York trailed Montreal 10-1 in the sixth inning on September 16, 1989 when Hernandez was summoned from the bullpen. The right-hander retired the Expos in order, inducing a pair of groundouts sandwiched around a swinging strikeout of catcher Mike R. Fitzgerald. Overall his MLB career statistics include a 2-7 record with a 4.47 ERA in 50 ⅓ innings pitched. He notched 12 victories in 23 decisions for Tidewater in ‘90 but the Mets did not add him to the expanded roster in September. Hernandez pitched one more minor league season, splitting time between the Tides and the Brewers triple-A affiliate in Denver while logging only 29 innings on the mound. He spent two campaigns with the Brother Elephants in Taipei (1995-96) and yielded a 10-12 mark before calling it a career.

Tom Newell (# 604) – Selected in the 24th round of the June 1983 Amateur Draft by the Fightin’ Phillies, Tom Newell was assigned to Helena (Rk) where he commenced his professional career as an outfielder. He compiled a .274 BA in 130 plate appearances but struggled mightily in the subsequent season as he slashed 185/.272/.237 for Bend (A-). Converted to a starting pitcher in ’85, Newell battled control issues but managed an ERA of 3.82 with Spartanburg (A). He showed significant improvement during the 1986 campaign as he fashioned a 2.90 ERA and reduced his WHIP from 1.520 to 1.297 across 27 outings (17 starts) for Clearwater (A) and Portland (AAA). Newell’s control problems resurfaced as he started 28 games for the Maine Guides (AAA) in ’87 with a composite 1.512 WHIP. Yet the Phillies promoted him to the big lesgues in September. Skipper Lee Elia summoned Newell in the eighth inning as his ballclub trailed the Mets 9-5 on September 9, 1987. He retired Tim Teufel on a grounder to shortstop. Dave Magadan drew a base on balls, and then Darryl Strawberry clubbed a long drive deep into the left field seats. Kevin McReynolds and Gary Carter delivered successive singles to right, chasing Newell in favor of Freddie Toliver. Nine days later, the Expos roughed up Bruce Ruffin and Elia called upon the rookie right-hander with one out in the fourth, Phillies behind 4-0. Newell got Vance Law on a fly ball and issued an intentional pass to Mike R. Fitzgerald to bring the opposing starter to the plate. Newell notched his lone MLB strikeout when Bryn Smith went down looking. Tim Raines led off the next frame with a walk and promptly pilfered second base. Mitch Webster laced a triple down the right field line. Elia again brought Toliver out of tte pen. A sacrifice fly to right off the bat of Hubie Brooks closed the book on Newell’s outing. He did not appear in any more contests for Philly in September and thus finished the season and his MLB career with a 36.00 ERA. Newell backslid to Double-A in the middle of the ’88 campaign after he dropped 5 of 6 decisions while posting an ERA of 6.14 with Maine. After missing the entire 1989 season, Newell agreed to a minor league deal with the Yankees. He concluded his professional baseball career with a pair of sub-par seasons as a spare part in the NY farm system, yielding a 5.50 ERA between high-A and triple-A ball.

Randall Byers (# 605) – A four-time draft pick during the years when the MLB held their amateur draft in January and June of each year, Byers finally agreed to a contract after San Diego selected him in the first round (eight overall) of the 1984 MLB January Draft-Secondary Phase. He reported to the Spokane Indians (A-) where he played in 69 contests and batted .231 with 43 RBI and 13 stolen bases as a 19-year-old. He established personal-bests with 32 two-baggers and 94 RBI while slashing .319/.354/.461 for the Charleston Rainbows (A) in his sophomore campaign. Promoted to the Beaumont Golden Gators (AA) in ‘86, Byers increased his home run output to 11 at the expense of nearly every other offensive statistic from the prior campaign. Moving up the ladder to the Las Vegas Stars (AAA) in the subsequent season, he attained career-highs with 12 round-trippers and 14 stolen bases to merit a September recall. Byers made his big league debut with the Padres on September 7, 1987. Pinch-hitting in the eighth inning against Jim Acker of the Braves with his ballclub ahead 11-4, Byers flew out to left fielder Ken Griffey. Despite the Padres’ woeful record (the club finished the ‘87 season with a 65-97 mark), Byers rode the pine for a week before getting another opportunity to pinch-hit on September 15. Facing the Giants’ Jon Perlman with one out in the eighth and the Padres trailing 13-3, Byers laced a single to center field for his first MLB base knock. San Diego skipper Larry Bowa finally penciled Byers into the starting lineup with one week remaining in the Friars’ dismal season. Batting fifth on September 29 against Kelly Downs and the Giants, he notched a pair of hits including his lone two-base hit in “The Show”. Byers lifted his batting average to .500 with a 2-for-3 effort on October 1 against Cincinnati while registering his first run, RBI and stolen base. His BA dipped to .313 as he went hitless in six at-bats over the final three games. Byers was unable to crack the Opening Day roster but spent three weeks in May 1988 as a spare part off the Friars’ bench. He made no starts, appearing as a pinch-hitter in 11 contests. Byers drilled a double off Bob Walk in the eighth inning of a 1-1 pitchers duel on May 6, 1988 but Roberto Alomar grounded out to end the threat. The Bucs’ Sid Bream launched a three-run walk-off blast against southpaw Mark W. Davis in the twelfth frame. Byers, batting for Ed Whitson in the seventh inning of an eventual 3-2 loss to the Expos, rapped his last big-league base knock off Dennis Martinez on May 14, 1988. He went hitless in five pinch-hit appearances spanning the next week, culminating in a pop-up to Phillies’ shortstop Steve Jeltz against Steve Bedrosian on May 21, 1988. The Friars banished the backup outfielder to Las Vegas (AAA) for the remainder of the season where he drilled 27 doubles and batted an unremarkable .267. Byers kicked off the ‘89 campaign in fine fashion, slashing .328/.382/.656 across 16 contests for the Stars before San Diego flipped him to St. Louis in exchange for relief pitcher Jeremy Hernandez. Playing for the Louisville Redbirds he compiled a .260 BA in 94 games. Byers walked away from professional baseball after the 1989 season.

Did You Know?

In addition to biographical and statistical records, Donruss card backs incorporated each player’s “Career Highlights” along with their contract status and how they were acquired by their current team.

Jimmy Key (#72) – “In ‘85 became 1st LH starter to win a game for Blue Jays since ‘80, a total of 614 games”

Rob Murphy (#82) – “Set Major Lg. record for most appearances by L.H. pitcher last year.”

Manny Lee (#650) – “Was the only teenager on an opening day roster in Majors in ‘85.”

Errors

The 1988 Donruss set does not contain any significant error variations.

Rookie Cards

Tom Glavine, Roberto Alomar, Mark Grace, Ken Caminiti, Jeff Blauser, Al Leiter, David Wells, Jay Buhner, Ellis Burks, Matt Williams, Ron Gant, Jack McDowell and Roberto Kelly are among the players making their cardboard debuts in the ’88 Donruss set.

Price Guide (Then and Now)

The “Beckett Almanac of Baseball Cards and Collectibles” (1997 edition) cataloged the 1988 Donruss Baseball complete set at $8 while the Rookies set logged a $15 value.

Please add a comment below if you would like to share any memories from collecting the 1988 Donruss baseball card set or your experiences with card collecting in general!

Articles in the Series

https://www.beckett.com/search/?term=1988+donruss&year_start=1988

References and Resources

Beckett, Dr. James, Rich Klein and Grant Sandground. Beckett Almanac of Baseball Cards and Collectibles. Dallas, TX: Beckett Publications, 1997. Print.

https://www.tcdb.com/ViewSet.cfm/sid/119/1988-Donruss

Trading Card Database – Photo Gallery

About the Authors

Derek Bain is a New Jersey native with a passion for baseball, statistics, computers and video games who enjoys spending quality time with his family.

Derek’s Books

“Hardball Architects – Volume 1 (American League Teams)”, published in July 2020, is available in paperback and digital (Kindle) format at Amazon.com.

“Hardball Architects – Volume 2 (National League Teams)”, published in April 2022, is available in paperback and digital (Kindle) format at Amazon.com.

The 1987 Fleer Baseball Card Set

Derek Bain — Mon, 02 May 2022 15:22:38 +0000

Derek’s (Re)collections

While the changes from the previous year’s effort were subtle, I immediately appreciated the design of the 1987 Fleer baseball cards. I made multiple attempts to acquire the cards but they were very difficult to track down. My recollection is that the product was highly sought after and the prices quickly exceeded a threshold that I was not willing to cross. As I wasn’t a big fan of the 1987 Topps offering at the time, I focused instead on my ‘87 Donruss collection. Many years later I was able to locate a dealer with a 5000-count box of 1987 Fleer commons, so I finally got my hands on the majority of this set.

Corby Corner

Ok, I’ll say it, I personally liked the Fleer set the best in 1987. It was not the most glamorous, didn’t have the Rated Rookies like Donruss, but there was something about that set that made me want to buy those wax boxes and create set after set. I believe I made three if I am not mistaken. Again, if you are looking for a reason, I don’t have one, and sometimes it’s cool that certain players or sets just strike your fancy. Well the set did have some solid cards in it. Will Clark, Ruben Sierra, Bobby Bonilla were hot items in ‘87, though their stars would fade as the 90’s approached. “Wally World” Joyner lit up the league and his “rookie” card was in the set, and the same can be said for Barry Bonds. Like I stated prior, this set didn’t light the world on fire, but it also didn’t disappoint. Sadly, to me, this was the peak of baseball card collecting. I think the 1988 sets just lacked any real star power, and in 1989 the saturated market officially moved the hobby from collecting to greed.

Features

Fleer softened the color scheme from the dark blue in ‘86 to a two-tone border, using a lighter blue on the top half with white towards the bottom. Player names and primary fielding positions are incorporated into the upper left corner while the team logos are affixed to the lower right. The readability of the card backs is improved from the prior year due to the color scheme, which utilizes the light blue-white combo along with a pair of pink columns. The formatting of each player’s biographical and statistical information mirrors previous Fleer releases. Similar to past releases, the set is ordered based on the final standings from last season and alphabetically by the player’s last names. The back end of the set includes nineteen “Superstar Specials” (usually two or more players with a specific theme), ten “Major League Prospects” (two players per card) and seven checklists for a total of 660 cards.

Fleer opened the floodgates with regards to their production of subsets in 1987, ramping up the offerings from seven in ‘86 to seventeen one year later! The six-card “Headliners” substituted for the previous season’s “Future Hall of Famers” in Fleer rack packs. A twelve-card “World Series” subset were issued in collated sets only to hobby dealers. Subsets that were composed of 44 cards and sold exclusively in chain stores include “Award Winners” (7-11), “All-Stars” (Franklin), “Exciting Stars” (Cumberland Farms), “Hottest Stars” (Revco), “League Leaders” (Walgreens), “Limited Edition (McCrory’s), “Record Setters” (Eckert’s Drug Stores). Multiple chain stores distributed “Game Winners” – Bi-Mart, Pay’n’Save, M.E. Moses, Mott’s, and Winn’s. All of the subsets featured standard size cards with the exception of the “Mini” series which were printed on 1 13/16” by 2 9/16” stock.

The subset values according to the 1997 edition of the Beckett Almanac of Baseball Cards and Collectibles are as follows: Update $15, Glossy $30, Update Glossy $10, Mini $6, All-Stars $22, Headliners $8, Award Winners $4, Baseball All-Stars $5, Exciting Stars $4, Game Winners $5, Hottest Stars $5, League Leaders $5, Limited Edition $4, Record Setters $4, Sluggers/Pitchers $5, Star Stickers $15, World Series $2.

1987 Fleer Update

1987 Fleer Award Winners

1987 Fleer All-Stars

1987 Fleer Baseball’s Best Sluggers / Pitchers

1987 Fleer Mini

1987 Fleer Exciting Stars

1987 Fleer Game Winners

1987 Fleer Hottest Stars

1987 Fleer League Leaders

1987 Fleer Limited Edition

1987 Fleer Record Setters

1987 Fleer Star Stickers

One-and-Dones

None of the players in the 1987 Fleer set qualify for the ‘one-and-done’ designation (i.e. all appeared on other regular-issue cards during their careers). This does not include multi-player cards such as “Major League Prospects”.

Did You Know?

Fleer card backs replaced the career highlight information from previous offerings with a “Pro Scouts Report”. Pitchers received rankings for six different pitch types ranging from “average” to “awesome” while hitters depicted three strike zones outlining the locations where they produce the best results.

Errors

The 1987 Fleer set does not contain any significant error variations.

Rookie Cards

Barry Bonds, Bo Jackson, Barry Larkin, Will Clark, Kevin Mitchell, Wally Joyner, Ruben Sierra, Bobby Bonilla, Devon White, Chuck Finley, Jamie Moyer, John Kruk, Terry Steinbach, Mitch Williams and Mike Stanley highlight the list of players making their cardboard debuts in the ’87 Fleer set.

Price Guide (Then and Now)

The “Beckett Baseball Card Monthly Price Guide” (December 1987 edition) cataloged the 1987 Fleer Baseball complete set at $40. The Major League Prospects card (#652) featuring Orioles’ backstop John Stefero along with Royals’ rookie sensation Kevin Seitzer fetched $7 during the winter of ‘87 but was eclipsed in later years by Fleer’s first regular issue cards of Barry Bonds, Will Clark and Bo Jackson, among others. At the present time, a Bo Jackson (#369) with a grade of PSA 9 can be found in the $20-$40 range.

Please add a comment below if you would like to share any memories from collecting the 1987 Fleer baseball card set or your experiences with card collecting in general!

Articles in the Series

https://www.beckett.com/search/?term=1987+fleer&year_start=1987

References and Resources

Beckett, Dr. James, Rich Klein and Grant Sandground. Beckett Almanac of Baseball Cards and Collectibles. Dallas, TX: Beckett Publications, 1997. Print.

Beckett.com (requires subscription to view prices):

https://www.tcdb.com/ViewSet.cfm/sid/115/1987-Fleer

Trading Card Database – Photo Gallery

About the Authors

Derek Bain is a New Jersey native with a passion for baseball, statistics, computers and video games who enjoys spending quality time with his family.

Derek’s Books

“Hardball Architects – Volume 1 (American League Teams)”, published in July 2020, is available in paperback and digital (Kindle) format at Amazon.com.

“Hardball Architects – Volume 2 (National League Teams)”, published in April 2022, is available in paperback and digital (Kindle) format at Amazon.com.

The 1987 Donruss Baseball Card Set

Derek Bain — Tue, 22 Feb 2022 13:47:48 +0000

Derek’s (Re)collections

Hands down, the ‘87 Donruss cards are one of my favorites from the Eighties. I’m a fan of the company’s regular season issues from 1984 to 1987 but this particular set delivered rookies by the dozens and the card design is clean, crisp and appealing to the eye. Fleer upped their game in ‘87 but I recall the product was in short supply at all of my local card shops. Topps went back to basics with the woodgrain borders and it was a step in the right direction but in my opinion it was Donruss that dominated the mid-Eighties. The Rated Rookies, Diamond Kings, puzzles, along with the continued enhancements in design and photography made them my go-to product, at least until Upper Deck blew the doors off of the entire industry in 1989.

Corby Corner

Fresh off what I believed was the best card in 1986, Donruss held strong with their 1987 set. It was definitely the first one that I began to collect for my annual card-by-card collected set. By this point within the hobby, I saw Fleer, Toops, and Donruss on equal footing, and though I don’t feel this year’s Donruss had that same “wow” factor, I do believe that it more than held its own to maintain its top level status. Again, every Donruss set was carried by their rated rookies, good or bad. Bo’s card was late to the party but still pretty awesome. The two Cubbies, Mr. Maddux and Palmerio were solid choices. Barry Bonds rookie, as well as McGwire’s made this set a must have. Now, as with other sets this year, this is when the steroid dominos started falling and wiped out gains that had been made on many of these players to that point in their careers. Overall, I found this set to be a fun one to collect, just wish some of the individual cards within it had taken off like an ‘84T Mattingly, ‘85T Gooden, or ‘86D Canseco

Features

Returning to the black border from the ‘85 series, the card fronts include a pair of yellow lines near the center surrounding a gray section filled with baseballs. The Donruss logo and year appear in the top left of the photo with the player’s team logo in the opposing corner. A row containing the player’s name and primary position is anchored above the bottom border with the background color reflecting that of the represented team. The layout on the flip side replicates the Donruss format from season’s past. The upper section lists the player’s biographical information, center encompasses up to five year’s worth of statistics, and the bottom reveals contract status, transactional information and career highlights. The font size and type remain the easiest to read among the big three manufacturers. Following in the Donruss tradition, the Diamond Kings 26-card subset bats leadoff in the checklist followed by 20 “Rated Rookies”. The Roberto Clemente puzzle card (#612) is the lone card depicting a former ballplayer

The standard and All-Star wax boxes included 3 cards on the bottom of the boxes along with a Roberto Clemente puzzle card. The Rookies 56-card set mimicked the regular issue ‘87 series except for the border (green instead of black) and featured Greg Maddux, Matt D. Williams, Fred McGriff and Mark McGwire.. Donruss offered a new product dubbed “Opening Day” for the first time in ‘87. This set contains 272 cards with a maroon border and a valuable error card (the original run incorrectly substituted Johnny Ray’s photo on Barry Bonds’ card). The large form All-Stars set (60 cards, 3 ½” x 5”), Pop-Ups (2 ½” x 5”), Super DK’s (nearly 5” x 7”) and the standard-size Highlights (56 cards) round out the Donruss subset catalog.

The subset values according to the 1997 edition of the Beckett Almanac of Baseball Cards and Collectibles are as follows: Rookies $20, All-Stars $6, Highlights $4, Opening Day $10, Pop-Ups $5, Super DK’s $12.

1987 Donruss Rookies

1987 Donruss Highlights

1987 Donruss Opening Day

1987 Donruss All-Stars

1987 Donruss Pop-Ups

1987 Donruss Super DK’s

One-and-Dones

The players listed below made their lone appearance on a regular-issue baseball card in the 1987 Donruss set.

Ray Chadwick (#505) – California selected Chadwick in the 16th round of the June 1983 Amateur Draft. The North Carolina native was assigned to the Salem Angels of the Northwest League where he started in 10 of 16 appearances, going 3-5 with a 4.97 ERA and striking out nearly one batter per inning (82 K’s in 83 ⅔ IP). Pitching for the Peoria Chiefs (A) in ‘84 he made 25 starts and posted a record of 11-9 with a 3.99 ERA and 7.8 SO9. Chadwick achieved multiple promotions in ‘85 but struggled with his control as his walks (64) outnumbered his whiffs (63). Assigned to the Edmonton Trappers (AAA) coming out of Spring Training in ‘86, Chadwick rebounded with 9 victories and a 4.79 ERA. In July 1986 the Angels stormed into the division lead ahead of the Rangers and Ron Romanick, a 14-game winner in ‘85, was scuffling with a 5-8 mark and a 5.50 ERA. The ballclub farmed Romanick out to Edmonton and called upon Chadwick to assume his spot in the starting rotation. Manager Gene Mauch slated Chadwick’s debut for July 29, 1986 against Oakland. He fell behind in the second inning after issuing a leadoff walk to Bruce Bochte and serving up a one-out double to Dave Kingman but the Angels tied the game in the next frame on a single by Gary Pettis. The Halos assumed the lead when Dick Schofield clubbed a long ball to deep left off Dave Stewart to commence the top of the fifth. Chadwick entered the seventh inning having allowed only a pair of hits while working around five bases on balls. Dwayne Murphy singled and Donnie Hill doubled to begin the home half of the seventh, so Mauch signaled to the bullpen for left-hander Gary Lucas. The bases were loaded after Alfredo Griffin reached on an error. Tony Phillips grounded into a 6-4 force out but Murphy scored the tying run. Lucas induced Mike Davis to loft an infield fly to Rob Wilfong for the second out. Doug Corbett replaced Lucas and promptly gave up a base hit up the middle off the bat of Jose Canseco which plated Hill with the go-ahead run. The inning unraveled further as Bochte singled against Chuck Finley. Carney Lansford coaxed a bases-loaded walk to force Phillips home with the fourth tally. Kingman ended the rally with a groundout against the Angels’ fourth reliever of the inning, Vern Ruhle. Oakland triumphed 4-2 and Chadwick took the loss but held a 3.00 ERA after his first MLB outing. His second outing was a disaster as he failed to retire any of the five Mariners that batted in the first inning (four singles and a bases on balls to Ken Phelps) before Mauch gave him the quick hook. Seattle assumed a 4-0 lead and held on for a 6-3 victory despite seven scoreless innings of long relief by Ruhle. The Halos pivoted to Ruhle for the next three turns in the rotation where he delivered a 1-2 record with a 7.98 ERA. Chadwick returned to the mound for a starting assignment against the Orioles in Baltimore on August 23, 1986. He surrendered gopher balls to Cal Ripken, Jr. and Jim Traber in the bottom of the first to fall behind, 3-2. However Mauch stuck with him and Chadwick held the O’s to one hit over the next three frames. Fred Lynn launched a long ball leading off the fifth and Mauch called upon rookie left-hander Chuck Finley to close out the final three innings with the Angels trailing 4-2. Finley flummoxed the Birds but the California crew was unable to mount a comeback against Mike Flanagan, Rich Bordi and Don Aase. One week later Chadwick pitched six strong innings and took a no-decision against the Tigers. Holding a 3-2 advantage with two outs in the visitor’s sixth, Darrell Evans crushed a solo shot deep into the right field corner. Detroit went ahead in the eighth when Gary Lucas served up Evans’ second long ball of the game. California claimed the walk-off win after Brian Downing drew a free pass leading off the bottom of the ninth and Doug DeCinces launched one into orbit down the right-field line off Bill Campbell. Squaring off against the Bronx Bombers at Anaheim Stadium on September 5, 1986, Chadwick retired the first 8 Yankees he faced before issuing a two-out walk in the third to Wayne Tolleson. New York tied the score at 1-1 on consecutive base hits by Claudell Washington and Willie Randolph. In the fourth inning, a single by Don Mattingly and a Dan Pasqua base on balls set the table for an RBI knock by Mike Easler and a two-run single off the bat of Joel Skinner. Mauch called upon Chuck Finley to stop the bleeding. He whiffed Tolleson but the Yankees prevailed 7-4. California held a 6 ½ game lead in the American League Western division standings and the manager opted to skip Chadwick’s next turn in the rotation. He sat for 17 days before receiving another start, opposing Cleveland in the second game of a doubleheader. Chadwick issued a one-out walk to Brett Butler and gave up back-to-back two-baggers to Joe Carter and Mel Hall as the Tribe registered two runs in the first frame. Julio Franco led off the third with a double and scored on a one-out base knock by Hall to put the Indians up by 3. Tony Bernazard’s fourth inning two-base hit plated Brook Jacoby and knocked Chadwick out of the contest. Rich Yett quieted the Halos’ bats as he twirled a 4-hit shutout and Cleveland emerged with a 7-0 victory. In his final Major League appearance the Angels rallied for 5 runs in the sixth inning against the Royals but Chadwick did not figure in the decision. California snatched a quick 1-0 lead when Gary Pettis roped a double to left, swiped third and scored easily on a sacrifice fly to center by Wally Joyner. The Royals responded with three unearned runs in the bottom of the first after Mark Ryal dropped a fly ball off the bat of leadoff man Rudy Law although Chadwick contributed by allowing three singles and a walk. Jack Howell ripped a double to center off Bret Saberhagen and scored on Joyner’s single to right field but the Halos trailed 3-2 after three innings. In the home half of the fourth, Bo Jackson walked, stole second and moved to third on a Bill Pecota groundout. Mauch hooked Chadwick in favor of Chuck Finley but Buddy Biancalana greeted the lefty with a line drive base hit to right to plate Jackson. The Angels’ offense erupted when the Royals replaced Saberhagen on the mound with fellow right-hander Scott Bankhead. Ryal hit a line drive single to right and Rob Wilfong followed with a bunt hit towards third base. The bases were loaded when Jerry Narron coaxed a walk. The runners were unable to advance on a fly out to center by Dick Schofield. Pettis drew a base on balls to force Ryal home. Kansas City manager Mike Ferraro summoned Steve Shields but he issued a walk to the free-swinging rookie left fielder Devon White to knot the score at 4-4. Howell’s sacrifice fly put the Halos ahead and following an intentional walk to Joyner, Reggie Jackson ripped a two-run single to increase the advantage to 7-4. Kansas City was unable to solve Finley as the southpaw struck out five and allowed only two hits and no runs over 5 ⅔ innings to pick up the victory. Chadwick was assigned to Edmonton (AAA) to begin the ‘87 season and his command issues prevented him from returning to the big leagues. He started 25 games and made a pair of relief appearances for the Trappers, posting a 7-10 record with a 5.86 ERA and an unsightly WHIP of 1.799 while issuing a career-worst 114 free passes. California released him and he signed a minor league deal with the White Sox in May 1988. Pacific Coast League opponents continually feasted on Chadwick as he yielded an ERA of 6.51 in 14 outings (13 starts) for the Vancouver Canadians. Demoted to the Birmingham Barons (AA) he finally turned in some decent outings, furnishing a 3-2 mark with a 3.92 ERA and a 1.231 WHIP in six starts. He swapped Sox in August 1989, traded from Chicago to Boston in return for outfielder Dana Williams. Starting in seven contests for Pawtucket, the right-hander was pummeled as he allowed 52 hits and 24 walks in just 38 innings for a 6.39 ERA and a ghastly 2.000 WHIP. Chadwick’s final minor league stop came with the Royals’ double-A affiliate in 1990. Working primarily in long relief while making 16 starts for Omaha, Chadwick logged 7 wins against 11 losses with a 5.00 ERA and a 1.431 WHIP.

Randy Asadoor (#574) – Texas selected Randy Asadoor in the third round of the June 1983 Amateur Draft and immediately assigned him to the Tulsa Drillers (AA). He slugged .503 across 46 contests and returned to the club the following year. His output declined somewhat from his stellar debut but he still contributed 22 two-base knocks, 16 bombs and 17 stolen bases. Upon the conclusion of Spring Training in ‘85, the Rangers sent Asadoor packing to the Padres in exchange for Mitch “Wild Thing” Williams. The Friars assigned him to Las Vegas (AAA) where he spent most of the next three campaigns, compiling a .262 BA with 19 doubles and 11 jacks. In 1986 he produced his highest BA (.280) and OBP (.388) along with 10 triples to merit a recall in September as San Diego limped towards a fourth-place finish. Taking over at the hot corner for veteran Graig Nettles, Asadoor played nearly every day down the stretch. He drew a tough assignment for his first MLB game on September 14, 1986. Facing Mike Scott, the eventual 1986 NL Cy Young Award winner, he struck out in all three plate appearances before being lifted for a pinch-hitter. The man who replaced him, Carmelo Martinez, belted a two-run walk-off blast off Scott with one out in the ninth as the Padres prevailed, 3-2. Asadoor collected his first MLB hit the following night against Mike Krukow in a 4-1 loss to the Giants. One week into his big league career, he delivered a pair of base hits and notched his first RBI while Jimmy Jones one-hit the ‘Stros on September 21, 1986. Asadoor enjoyed a banner evening against Atlanta at Fulton County Stadium twenty four hours later, collecting four safeties in five trips to the dish and raising his batting average to .421 in a 9-8 loss to the Braves. Over his next three games the rookie registered four hits (three doubles) and four ribbies to maintain a .400 BA. He had an adventurous day on the basepaths versus the Reds on September 26, 1986. After San Diego knocked Chris Welsh out of the contest in the bottom of the first, Asadoor stepped to the dish and rapped a two-run double to put the Friars ahead 5-3. Making a mental note as the rookie extended his lead off third (he advanced on the throw home), Bo Diaz caught a ball from reliever Carl Willis and fired down to third. Asadoor was stuck in no-man’s land, and the Reds tagged him out in a rundown (C-3B-P). However he redeemed himself by stroking a single to start the sixth, swiped second on Gary Green’s strikeout and advanced to third on Diaz’s throwing error. Facing the Dodgers on September 30, 1986, Asadoor hammered a two-run double to knot the scoring at 6-6 in an eventual 11-8 victory by the Padres. In his final big league contest Asadoor struck out against Ron Robinson in his last at-bat but he collected two base knocks in the game to end the season with a .364 BA (20-for-55) with 9 runs and 7 ribbies. The Padres acquired Kevin “World” Mitchell in the off-season to be their everyday third baseman which left Asadoor to battle with Randy Ready and Tim Flannery among others for playing time. He was optioned to Las Vegas when the club broke camp in ‘87 and his batting line (.248/3/28) did nothing to convince the Padres’ brass to recall him at any point during the season. The infielder spent the majority of the 1988 campaign with the Albuquerque Dukes (AAA), an affiliate of the Dodgers, before latching on with the Rangers’ Port Charlotte (A) ballclub for 19 games. Asadoor compiled a woeful slash line of .216/.291/.335, did some soul-searching in the off-season and decided to look for another line of work.

Did You Know?

Donruss card backs included “Career Highlights” which revealed interesting facts about the players.

Errors

The 1987 Donruss set does not contain any significant error variations.However, the 1987 Donruss Opening Day set botched the Barry Bonds card (#163). The original version displays a photograph of Bucs’ second baseman Johnny Ray and sells for three times above the corrected edition.

Rookie Cards

Greg Maddux, Barry Bonds, Bo Jackson, Barry Larkin, John Kruk, Will Clark, Rafael Palmeiro, Kevin J. Brown, B.J. Surhoff and Doug Drabek highlight the list of players making their cardboard debuts in the ’87 Donruss set.

Price Guide (Then and Now)

The “Beckett Baseball Card Monthly Price Guide” (December 1987 edition) cataloged the 1987 Donruss Baseball complete set at $33. Mark McGwire’s “Rated Rookie” / first regular issue Donruss card ranked as the highest individual value at $7.50 followed closely by Eric Davis’ Diamond King ($3), Don Mattingly ($2.50) and Wally Joyner’s rookie card ($2.50). At the present time, a Greg Maddux (#52) with a PSA 8 grade can be found in the $10-$25 range while the Barry Bonds (#361) is selling between $5 and $15.

Please add a comment below if you would like to share any memories from collecting the 1987 Donruss baseball card set or your experiences with card collecting in general!

Articles in the Series

https://www.beckett.com/search/?term=1987+donruss&year_start=1987

References and Resources

Beckett, Dr. James, Rich Klein and Grant Sandground. Beckett Almanac of Baseball Cards and Collectibles. Dallas, TX: Beckett Publications, 1997. Print.

Beckett.com (requires subscription to view prices):

https://www.tcdb.com/ViewSet.cfm/sid/112/1987-Donruss

Trading Card Database – Photo Gallery

About the Authors

Derek Bain is a New Jersey native with a passion for baseball, statistics, computers and video games who enjoys spending quality time with his family.

Derek’s Books

“Hardball Architects – Volume 1 (American League Teams)”, published in July 2020, is available in paperback and digital (Kindle) format at Amazon.com.

“Hardball Architects – Volume 2 (National League Teams)”, published in April 2022, is available in paperback and digital (Kindle) format at Amazon.com.

The 1986 Fleer Baseball Card Set

Derek Bain — Fri, 29 Oct 2021 00:29:50 +0000

Derek’s (Re)collections

My collecting days began as Fleer really hit their stride. Following an uneven debut in ‘81 and a lackluster ‘82, Fleer ironed out the rough spots and delivered a solid effort through the next half-decade. The ‘86 effort did not disappoint as the company introduced minor tweaks to the previous campaign to produce another winning product. Fleer employed a simple but effective system for the running order of their checklists: teams were represented based on the standings from the prior season and the players were grouped by team and then sorted alphabetically by last name. This was extremely conducive to set or team building as opposed to the random order in the competition’s sets. Speculative collectors were already clamoring for Jose Canseco rookie cards based on his September 1985 MLB debut (.302 BA, .490 SLG, 5 HR, 13 RBI). Fleer hedged their bets as Canseco was paired with reliever Eric Plunk on one of the new “Major League Prospect” cards rather than making his initial Fleer entry on an individual card.

Corby Corner

After a successful 1985 set, I feel that Fleer played it safe in 1986, not really embarrassing the decade’s wild side like Donruss did this year. The card itself seemed to be just a flip of the ‘85 one, meaning they just took the team logo from top to bottom and rounded it off a bit. That said, I believe that Fleer really missed an opportunity in 1986, one that Donruss jumped on.

After 1985’s rookie class, there was bound to be some letdown in 1986, but the drop off was dramatic. Outside of the “Eric Plunk rookie”, there really wasn’t another youngster in the Clemens, Doc, Kirby type realm we saw the year past. To me, sets are more fun to collect and show value when the greatness is spread out and not concentrated in one guy, though I have to admit, when you opened a pack and saw Jose Canseco staring back at you, it was like hitting the lottery as a kid.

I will give Fleer a pass on this year, maybe they were just distracted since they were putting together an NBA set as well. If I remember correctly there was a rookie with the last name of Jordan in it, UNC guy I think. Maybe you’ve heard of him?

Features

A dark blue border surrounds the player photo on the 1986 Fleer card fronts. A rounded, thin white line encloses the photo and extends into an oval bubble towards the base of the card which displays the team logo to the left and the player’s name and primary position in the center. Each oval utilizes a primary color from the team uniform as it’s background and the checklist is grouped by franchise and ordered alphabetically by player’s last names which greatly aids in sorting and set-building. The checklist runs in descending order based on the standings from the previous season with the 1985 World Series champion Royals leading off. Averaging 25 cards per team, the standard player cards consume the first 625 cards out of 660 in the set. The remaining 35 cards are divided into three categories: special cards depicting stars or superstar players “in-action” or in a group photo; “Major League Prospect” cards with a pair of rookies; and seven checklist cards to close out the set. The Jose Canseco/Eric Plunk rookie card was high on collector’s wish lists from the get-go while the market for several other prospects including Benito Santiago, Andrés Galarraga and Cecil Fielder/Cory Snyder spiked at various times. Each wax pack included a team logo sticker and the wax boxes now held some additional value as the bottom of the box displayed three players and a team logo. There were two box-bottom variations: box #1 contained the Kansas City logo along with George Brett, Ozzie Guillen and Dale Murphy while box #2 depicted the St. Louis logo, Tom Browning, Gary Carter and Carlton Fisk.

The third iteration of the Fleer Update set retained the same layout as the regular series along with the standard 132 additional cards. To differentiate the update sets, the card numbers are prefixed with a “U-”. Barry Bonds, Will Clark, Ruben Sierra, Bobby Bonilla, Wally Joyner and Kevin Mitchell make their first Fleer appearances while Jose Canseco and Andres Galarraga get their own card after sharing the spotlight in the regular series. The Future Hall of Famers series consisted of six players that were destined for enshrinement with the exception of Pete Rose. Randomly inserted into “three-packs”, this one-and-done set packed a punch with Steve Carlton, Tom Seaver, Rod Carew, Nolan Ryan and Reggie Jackson. The All-Stars subset made its debut in ‘86 igniting a decade-long run as random inserts in wax and cello packs. The card fronts consist of red (American) and blue (National) backgrounds, depicting a dozen ball players selected by Fleer to represent their “All-Star” team. The ‘86 edition contains superstars such as Cal Ripken Jr., Don Mattingly, George Brett, Rickey Henderson and Dwight Gooden. McCrory’s were the exclusive retailer of the 44-card Limited Edition box sets for the second straight year. The Sticker series continued to be a mainstay in the Fleer lineup as it matched the regular issue for longevity (the product was discontinued after the ‘88 season). New releases included the 120-card Mini set along with League Leaders and Sluggers/Pitchers box sets with 44 cards apiece. The Minis replicated the regular card format from the ‘86 edition albeit with a different photo, and the card size was scaled down to 1 13/16” x 2 9/16”.

The subset values according to the 1997 edition of the Beckett Almanac of Baseball Cards and Collectibles are as follows: Update $15, All-Stars $30, Future Hall of Famers $18, League Leaders $5, Limited Edition $5, Mini $8, Sluggers/Pitchers $5, Sluggers/Pitchers Box Cards $10, Sticker Cards $15, Stickers Wax Box Cards $4, Regular Series Wax Box Cards $5.

1986 Fleer Update

1986 Fleer Future Hall of Famers

1986 Fleer Star Stickers

1986 Fleer Sluggers / Pitchers

1986 Fleer Mini

1986 Fleer League Leaders

1986 Fleer Limited Edition

One-and-Dones

The players listed below made their lone appearance on a regular-issue baseball card in the 1986 Fleer set.

Bruce Tanner (#218) – The son of former MLB outfielder and long-time skipper Chuck Tanner was drafted in the fourth round of the June 1983 Amateur Draft by the White Sox. The righty tallied 25 relief appearances for three minor league affiliates in the Summer of ‘83 – Appleton (A), Niagara Falls (A-) and Glen Falls (AA). He fashioned a composite ERA of 3.16 and notched 4 saves in spite of an unsightly 1.765 WHIP. Tanner pitched exclusively for the Appleton Foxes in ‘84 and responded with 12 victories along with a 1.96 ERA and WHIP of 1.019 in 37 outings (9 starts). Assigned to Buffalo (AAA) to begin the ‘85 campaign, he spent two months with the club prior to earning a promotion to the big leagues. ChiSox skipper Tony La Russa awarded Tanner the starting nod against Seattle on June 12, 1985 and he secured his first (and only) MLB victory with 6 ⅔ innings of 2-run ball. He retired the first 9 Mariners he faced and then allowed four straight singles to knot the score at 2-2. Rudy Law doubled home a pair of Sox in the fifth and Daryl Boston blasted a 2-run shot off Roy Thomas as Chicago claimed a 6-3 win. Tanner started 4 contests in June for the Pale Hose. Opposing the Athletics in his second start, he issued a bases-loaded walk to Alfredo Griffin (which is REALLY hard to do, given the fact that Griffin only drew four free passes in the previous campaign!). Otherwise he delivered a solid effort, throwing 5 innings of 1-run ball. He exited the contest ahead 3-1 but Dusty Baker cracked a 2-run shot off Bob James in the eighth which propelled the match into extra innings. Harold Baines crushed a walk-off bomb off Keith Atherton leading off the bottom of the 13th, lifting Chicago to a 4-3 victory. Tanner’s third start was abysmal as the Angels tagged him for seven runs in 1 ⅓ innings. Rod Carew and Reggie Jackson knocked in two runs apiece and Ruppert Jones launched a long ball to contribute to the onslaught as the visiting Halos filled up the scoreboard in a laugher, 11-1. In his last MLB start, Tanner yielded 9 hits and 4 runs to the Twins in 5 ⅓ frames which punched his ticket back to Buffalo. He crafted a 3.46 ERA through two stints with the Bisons to merit a September call-up. Deployed strictly as a reliever as the Sox were still in the thick of the division race, Tanner made 6 appearances down the stretch. Through 8 ⅓ innings of relief work he allowed only 2 earned runs along with 7 hits and 2 walks. Tanner’s final MLB outing was eventful – he gave up a pair of singles and made a throwing error on a sacrifice bunt attempt before regaining his composure to strike out the last batter he faced (Tony Phillips). Back in Buffalo for the ‘86 campaign, Tanner fashioned an ERA of 4.16 along with a record of 8-10 in 23 starts. The ChiSox dealt Tanner along with Gene Nelson to the Athletics in December 1986 in exchange for infielder Donnie Hill. He missed most of the ‘87 season but made 16 starts in the following year for Huntsville (AA) resulting in 7 victories and a 3.23 ERA. Tanner split his final campaign (1989) between the Tacoma Tigers (AAA) and the Phoenix Firebirds (AAA).

Colin Ward (#645) – The southpaw was chosen in the third round of the June 1982 Amateur Draft by Detroit. Plagued by control problems throughout his career, the Tigers quickly soured on Ward after a season and a half in which he compiled a WHIP of 1.624. San Francisco picked him up in a February 1984 swap for fellow lefthander Pat Larkin. Despite posting a 5.41 ERA and a 1.720 WHIP for Phoenix (AAA) over the next two years, Ward received a promotion in the middle of September 1985 as the Giants barreled towards a 100-loss campaign. Four days after Roger Craig replaced Jim Davenport as the San Francisco skipper, Ward made his debut as a reliever against the rival Dodgers with his club trailing by 10 runs after six frames. True to form, he issued a free pass to the first batter he faced, Mike Scioscia. The lefty composed himself and retired the next three batters in order. In the eighth inning, Ward walked free-swinging leadoff hitter Mariano Duncan and yielded a one-out single to first-sacker Enos Cabell before inducing a grounder to third by Mike A. Marshall and a fly out to center off the bat of Bob Bailor. Called upon four days later, the portsider whiffed Bobby L. Brown of the Padres to prevent further damage after Greg Minton allowed 3 runs after San Diego extended their lead to 7-2. Ward held the division-winning Dodgers at bay with a pair of scoreless frames on September 27, 1985. After retiring Cabell on a foul pop-up two days later, the left-hander’s pitching record included a 0.00 ERA in 4 ⅔ innings. Craig rewarded the portsider with a pair of starting assignments in the final week of the season. Opposing the Astros on October 2, 1985, Ward breezed through the Houston lineup. He faltered briefly in the fourth, yielding back-to-back singles to Kevin Bass and Glenn Davis followed by a Phil Garner sacrifice fly. Otherwise his first start was a resounding success: 6 innings, 3 hits, 2 walks and 1 run along with 5 whiffs. Holding a 2-1 advantage, Craig turned the game over to the bullpen with predictable results. Mark W. Davis worked in and out of trouble in the seventh but gave up a gopher ball to Jim Pankovits leading off the eighth inning, the first of four Astros to score in an eventual 7-2 defeat. Ward did not fare well in his second start and final MLB appearance against Atlanta on October 6, 1985. He recorded consecutive outs on fly balls to begin the contest, followed by a walk to Dale Murphy and a two-bagger off the bat of Bob Horner to place runners on second and third. Terry Harper ripped a base hit to left field which plated Murphy but Jeffrey “HacMan” Leonard gunned down Horner at home to limit the damage. In the second inning, Ward issued a one-out walk to Paul Runge and a single to the backstop, Larry Owen. Braves’ starting pitcher Steve “Bedrock” Bedrosian laid down a sacrifice bunt. Andres Thomas delivered a two-run single and Paul Zuvella knocked Ward out of the game with a double. Albert Hall greeted reliever Frank Williams with a two-run base knock, leaving Ward with a pitching line of 1.2 IP, 5 H, 2 BB, 5 ER. His ERA bloated from 0.84 to 4.38. Giants GM Al Rosen dealt Ward to the Reds for left-hander Bob Buchanan in November 1985. However the deal was voided three months later when Buchanan failed a physical. Failing to make the big-league roster out of Spring Training, the lefty spent the majority of the ‘86 season with Phoenix (AAA) and made 4 starts for the Shreveport Captains (AA). Overall in 26 outings (25 starts), Ward tallied 9 wins against 12 losses along with an ERA of 4.70. Rosen completed a 4-player swap in April 1987 which sent the southpaw to San Diego. Ward appeared in 12 games for the Las Vegas Stars (AAA) in ‘87 and then spent his final year in pro ball with the Vermont Mariners (AA). He made a pair of starts for the independent San Bernadino Spirit, fashioning a 1.86 ERA in 9 ⅔ innings before hanging up his spikes.

Did You Know?

Fleer included interesting facts about some of the players on the bottom section of the card backs.

Vince Coleman (#31) – “Stole 289 bases in 323 minor league games from ‘82 to ‘84.”

John Tudor (#47) – “High school pitching coach noted flaw in his delivery while watching him pitch on TV, called him to correct it, and he won 18 of next 19 games.”

Mike Marshall (#131) – “Nickname is ‘Big Foot’ because of size 14 shoe.”

Ted Power (#187) – “Was only 20-game winner in professional baseball in ‘81 and had to do it with Albuquerque (18 in regular season, 1 in playoffs) and Dodgers (1).”

Terry Francona (#248) – “Nicknamed ‘Mandrake’ by his teammates for magical way he swings bat.”

Joe Hesketh (#250) – “Baseball rarity: Charged with a balk even before he threw his first major league pitch in Expos debut in ‘84.”

U.L. Washington (#264) – “Ever-present toothpick is his symbol.”

Marty Barrett (#340) – “Twice got baserunners with hidden ball trick.”

Tom Brunansky (#387) – “Logs each pitch, at bat and result in notebook.”

Jim Gantner (#487) – “Nickname is Gumby.”

Brad Komminsk (#520) – “Hall of Famer Hank Aaron has labeled him as a ‘can’t miss major leaguer’ after watching him move through Braves organization.”

Brad Wellman (#553) – “Earned $1000 in ‘83 by responding to clubhouse dare and shaved his head.”

Mike Mason (#565) – “Was credited with capturing a pack of vicious dogs at Jack Russell Stadium in Clearwater, Fla., while pitching there in Rookie League in ‘82.”

Errors

The 1986 Fleer set does not contain any significant error variations.

Rookie Cards

Jose Canseco, Benito Santiago, Paul O’Neill, Cecil Fielder, Lenny Dykstra, Ozzie Guillen, Kal Daniels and Vince Coleman highlight the list of players making their cardboard debuts in the ’86 Fleer set.

Price Guide (Then and Now)

The “Beckett Baseball Card Monthly Price Guide” (November 1986 edition) lists the 1986 Fleer Baseball complete set at $20. The rookie combo card depicting Jose Canseco and Eric Plunk suggested a $4 value while the Dwight Gooden card fetched a couple of bucks. The Canseco / Plunk rookie (#649, graded PSA 8) currently sells in the $10-$25 range.

Please add a comment below if you would like to share any memories from collecting the 1986 Fleer baseball card set or your experiences with card collecting in general!

Articles in the Series

https://www.beckett.com/search/?term=1986+fleer&year_start=1986

References and Resources

https://www.tcdb.com/ViewSet.cfm/sid/107/1986-Fleer

Trading Card Database – Photo Gallery

About the Authors

Derek Bain is a New Jersey native with a passion for baseball, statistics, computers and video games who enjoys spending quality time with his family.

Derek’s Books

“Hardball Architects – Volume 1 (American League Teams)”, published in July 2020, is available in paperback and digital (Kindle) format at Amazon.com.

“Hardball Architects – Volume 2 (National League Teams)”, published in April 2022, is available in paperback and digital (Kindle) format at Amazon.com.

“Hardball Architects” examines the trades, free agent acquisitions, draft picks and other transactions for the 30 Major League Baseball franchises, divided into a 2-volume set (American League and National League). All key moves are scrutinized for every team and Sabermetric principles are applied to the roster construction throughout the lifetime of the organization to encapsulate the hits and misses by front office executives.

“Hardball Retroactive”, published in June 2018, is available in paperback and digital (Kindle) format at Amazon.com. A cross-section of essays that I penned for Seamheads.com along with my Baseball Analytics blog spanning nearly a decade touching on subjects including “Taking the Extra Base”, “General Manager Scorecard”, “Worst Trades”, “BABIP By Location” and “Baseball Birthplaces and the Retro World Baseball Classic”. Rediscover your favorite hardball arcade and simulations in “Play Retro Baseball Video Games In Your Browser” or take a deep dive into every franchise’s minor league successes and failures in relation to their major league operations in “Minors vs. Majors”.

The 1986 Donruss Baseball Card Set

Derek Bain — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 21:09:47 +0000

Derek’s (Re)collections

Impressed with both the standard and subsets of Donruss products from the two previous years, I anxiously awaited the release of the 1986 cards. They did not disappoint! I rushed to my local card shop and other vendors to gobble up as much product as I could afford. When the dust settled I managed to hand-collate nearly 4 complete sets while placing one of my Jose Canseco rookie cards aside for safe keeping. I loved the angles, the blue-black borders, the crisp photos and of course, the Rated Rookies! Later that year, I scraped together some birthday money and picked up the inaugural Donruss “The Rookies” set. The card layout is similar to the regular set while substituting a green-black border on the front along with a light green background on the flip side.

Corby Corner

After such a strong 1985 campaign from all companies, there was an eagerness to see the 1986 series. One of the companies that did not disappoint was Donruss. Their cards were designed in a modern way but without selling out completely to the New Wave 80’s. The “big get” from this set was the Jose Canseco “Rated Rookie”. Canseco’s impact on the game with both speed and power forced many of us to re-examine which players we would want to collect. I moved into players like Eric Davis and Rickey Henderson, who had started combining power with his speed. Yet the card I most remember from this set was the Fred McGriff “Rated Rookie” which I bought at a show in Atlantic City. I admired McGriff’s consistency and felt that this investment would be as safe as they get. Overall, I think that the 1986 Donruss set was by far the strongest this year and catapulted them into a level that 3 years ago seemed almost impossible.

Features

The ‘86 Donruss card front features sharp blue borders with a series of black lines, angled white text for the player names and position on a red background, team logo in the lower left corner of the photograph and the Donruss logo in the upper left corner. Following the tradition from prior releases, the Diamond Kings subset kicks off the 1986 edition with one player depicted from each of the 26 MLB teams, highlighted by the Dwight Gooden (#26) entry. The rookie card craze reached “next-level” status with the inclusion of Oakland outfielder Jose Canseco (#39) as a member of the “Rated Rookies”. Fred McGriff, Andres Galarraga, Danny Tartabull, Paul O’Neill and Todd Worrell round out the stellar list of first-year players that added to the appeal of the ‘86 set. Hank Aaron puzzle pieces are included in every wax pack and card # 602 depicts the finished puzzle. Pete Rose makes three appearances – card # 62 as the Reds’ first baseman / manager, card # 644 shows a split view of hits 4,191 and 4,192 in his quest to overtake Ty Cobb as the player with the most base hits in MLB history (hence the “Pete Rose Ty-Breaking” designation) and card # 653 is a Diamond Kings portrait entitled “King of Kings”. The Niekro Brothers are featured on card # 645 (“Knuckle Brothers”). The Redbirds’ swift outfielder tandem of Vince Coleman and Willie McGee are highlighted on the “Fleet Feet” card (#651). Seven checklist cards (one for the Diamond Kings series and six for the standard player cards) round out the set. With the exception of the light blue background, the card backs are nearly identical to the 1985 Donruss regular edition.

Donruss dropped the “Action” from the Action All-Stars set in ‘86 and retired the HOF Sluggers from their lineup. The company produced a new 56-card Rookies set which sparked immediate interest among collectors. The 1986 Rookies featured the first Donruss cards for future stars such as Barry Bonds, Bobby Bonilla, Will Clark, Bo Jackson, Wally Joyner and Ruben Sierra. Another inaugural offering was the 18-card Pop-Up series which portrayed the starting players from the ‘86 All-Star Game on oversized (2 ½” x 5”) die-cut cards. Highlights and Super DK’s returned with card counts similar to the previous editions.

The subset values according to the 1997 edition of the Beckett Almanac of Baseball Cards and Collectibles are as follows: Rookies $25, All-Stars $6, Highlights $3, Pop-Ups $5, Super DK’s $12.50.

1986 Donruss Highlights

1986 Donruss “The Rookies”

1986 Donruss All-Stars

One-and-Dones

The players listed below made their lone appearance on a regular-issue baseball card in the 1986 Donruss set.

Johnny Abrego (#32) – Selected in the first round of the June 1981 Amateur Draft by Philadelphia with the 20th overall pick, Abrego started 12 games for the Rookie League affiliate in Helena, Montana where he posted a 4.70 ERA and issued 52 walks in 67 innings. An elbow injury forced him to miss the entire ‘82 campaign but he returned in the subsequent campaign where he delivered a 7-5 mark with a 3.97 ERA for the Bend Phillies of the Northwest League. The Cubs obtained Abrego in the December 1983 Rule 5 Draft. He enjoyed a breakthrough season with the Lodi Crushers in ‘84 as he yielded career-bests in ERA (2.10), WHIP (1.177) and strikeouts (139). The right-hander made 5 starts for the Iowa Cubs (AAA) at the tail end of the campaign. Resuming his climb up the organizational ladder in 1985 with Pittsfield (AA), Abrego continued to harness his stuff as he managed a 6-6 record with a 2.45 ERA and a WHIP of 1.222. He struggled in his second stint with Iowa (0-5, 7.92) but managed to receive a callup to the big leagues in September 1985. Cubs’ skipper Jim Frey summoned Abrego from the ‘pen on September 4, 1985 to commence the fifth inning against the Astros after removing southpaw Ray Fontenot for pinch-hitter Billy Hatcher in the previous frame. Chicago led 4-3 after Hatcher singled to drive in a run and Shawon Dunston scored on a wild pitch. Abrego retired the side in order and Ryne Sandberg padded the Cubs’ lead with a two-run blast to deep center field off Mike Scott. In his second inning of work, Abrego got into trouble immediately when he issued consecutive walks to Glenn Davis and Phil Garner. One out later, Jerry Mumphrey doubled to drive in a pair of runs. Ron Meredith entered the contest and promptly gave up the lead when Tim Tolman hammered a three-run shot into the bleachers, leaving Abrego with a 20.25 ERA. Frey inserted Abrego into the starting rotation on September 11, 1985 as the visiting Cubs squared off against the Pirates. The contest remained scoreless into the fifth inning. Tony Pena led off with a double and advanced to third on a base hit off the bat of Denny Gonzalez. Abrego induced Sammy Khalifa to rap into a 4-3 double play but Pena scored easily. The Cubbies tied the game at 1-1 when Bob Dernier snuck home while Ryne Sandberg was caught in a rundown between first and second. Abrego was pulled from the contest after allowing a single to Joe Orsulak followed by an R.J. Reynolds’ sacrifice bunt and an intentional walk to Johnny Ray. Reliever Ron Meredith got Jason Thompson to hit into a 4-6-3 double play and picked up the victory when Leon Durham belted a tie-breaking solo shot off Jose DeLeon in the seventh. After a mediocre outing against Montreal, Abrego fashioned his best effort as a big leaguer against Philadelphia on September 21, 1985. He went 6 innings and yielded 4 hits and 2 runs while striking out 5 Phillies to lower his ERA to 4.86. The Cubs rallied for 8 runs in the top of the fifth off Kevin Gross and two relievers en route to a 9-2 win with Abrego earning his lone victory in the Majors. He was tagged with the loss in his next start against the Mets and took a no-decision in his final start at home versus Pittsburgh. Abrego allowed 16 hits and 8 runs through 7 ⅓ innings in those outings as his ERA ballooned to 6.38. Back in Iowa (AAA) to begin the ‘86 season, Abrego compiled a 7.89 ERA along with a WHIP of 1.876 before walking away from professional baseball upon the conclusion of the 1987 campaign.

Rich Surhoff (#42) – Philadelphia picked Surhoff in the twentieth round of the January 1982 Amateur Draft. The older brother of B.J. Surhoff reported to Spartanburg (A) where he thrived in a relief role, posting an ERA of 2.55 along with 6 saves in 21 appearances. He split the following season between Peninsula (A) and Reading (AA), notching 8 wins and 10 saves to complement an ERA of 2.83 in 114 ⅓ innings. Surhoff returned to Reading in ‘84 and flummoxed opposing batters while registering 7 victories, 15 saves and a 3.09 ERA. The Phillies rewarded the righty with a call to the Majors in September 1985 following his successful campaign with the triple-A Portland Beavers in which he won 7 games, saved 16 and furnished a 3.17 ERA in 70 games. Surhoff earned a victory in relief of Steve “Lefty” Carlton in his big league debut against the Padres on September 8, 1985. The contest was tied at 5-5 in the fifth inning with runners on first and second. Surhoff retired Carmelo Martinez on a pop-up to second base but allowed the go-ahead run to score on a base hit off the bat of Kurt Bevacqua. He whiffed Bruce Bochy to end the frame and the Phils regained the lead when Luis Aguayo belted a two-run homer off San Diego reliever Ed Wojna. In his second outing with Philadelphia, Surhoff entered the game in relief of Shane Rawley with runners on the corners and two outs in the top of the sixth inning. Expos’ center fielder Mitch Webster stole second and then Vance Law delivered an infield hit to third base. Fred Manrique scored and Webster attempted to streak home but first baseman Mike Schmidt alertly fired the ball to the plate and Daulton applied the tag for the final out. Phillies’ GM Bill Giles dealt Surhoff to the Rangers on the following day (September 13, 1985) for Dave Stewart. He made his Texas’ debut in Anaheim one night later and notched a two-inning save against the Halos. The Rangers scored twice in the top of the eighth against Jim Slaton and Doug Corbett to take a 6-4 lead. Surhoff whiffed the first batter he faced (Doug DeCinces) and retired the side in order. Al Holland allowed a pair of inherited runners to score on a Pete O’Brien single in the ninth as Texas increased the advantage to 8-4. Gary Pettis laced a one-out triple off Surhoff in the bottom of the ninth and jogged home on a Juan Beniquez two-base knock. Rod Carew drew a base on balls to bring the tying run to the plate but Surhoff recovered to induce successive groundouts by Daryl Sconiers and Brian Downing to close out the contest. Facing the Twins on September 24, 1985, the right-hander pitched two scoreless frames and yielded a lone safety off the bat of Gary Gaetti. Three days later at the Kingdome, Mike Mason and Frank Wills squared off in a pitcher’s duel. Mason exited the game with runners on first and second, one out in the eighth and the Rangers trailing 2-0. Surhoff promptly gave up an RBI single to Jim Presley and a three-run bomb to Dave Henderson. Jose Guzman pitched into the ninth inning with a 4-1 lead against the A’s on October 1, 1985. Jose Canseco and Dave Collins supplied back-to-back singles to commence the inning so Rangers’ manager Bobby Valentine summoned Surhoff. He struck out Mike Davis and Dusty Baker and then gave up a base hit to Alfredo Griffin. Tony Phillips hit a harmless fly ball to right field for the final out as Surhoff tallied his second career save as a big leaguer. Surhoff took the loss in his last MLB game on October 6, 1985 at home against California. Entering the match with a 4-3 advantage in the top of the eighth, he permitted consecutive singles to Rob Wilfong and Devon White. He buckled down, striking out Sconiers and retiring Jack Howell on a fly ball to right field. Angels’ designated hitter Rufino Linares walloped a three-run dinger to put the Halos on top for an eventual 6-5 victory. The outing bloated his ERA and WHIP to 6.75 and 1.821 respectively. Surhoff spent the next four seasons toiling in the minors for the Rangers, Cubs, Phillies and Indians prior to hanging up his spikes after the ‘89 season.

Dave Leeper (#461) – Not to be confused with lefty reliever Dave Leiper – this Leeper played the outfield and merited a first round selection (23rd pick overall) by the Royals in the June 1981 Amateur Draft. The University of Southern California graduate reported to the Jacksonville Suns (AA) for his pro debut where he hit .269 in 67 games. He returned to the Sunshine State and spent the entire 1982 campaign with the Suns, batting at a .293 clip and swiping 24 bases in 27 attempts. Leeper compiled a .281 BA and established career-highs in doubles (29), RBI (83) and runs (74) while competing for Jacksonville and Omaha (AAA) in ‘83. In the subsequent season Leeper set personal marks with 11 triples and 16 wallops to warrant a cup of coffee with Kansas City in September 1984. The parent club was battling for the Western Division title so playing time was scarce as the rookie only made it into four games. Dick Howser sent Leeper up to the dish to face Mike Smithson with two outs in the ninth inning with the Royals trailing the Twins 7-3 on September 10, 1984. The left-handed hitting Leeper popped the ball up towards third and Gary Gaetti settled under it to make the catch. Eight days later, he entered a contest as a pinch-runner for Jorge Orta in the ninth inning and notched his first run as a big leaguer when the next batter, Buddy Biancalana, swatted a big-fly in a 10-0 rout of the Angels. Leeper went hitless in five at-bats over the final two contests of the regular season after the Royals clinched the division, leaving him 0-for-6 as a Major Leaguer heading into the ‘85 campaign. Unable to crack the Opening Day roster, Leeper returned to Omaha and fared well against American Association hurlers to earn a pair of callups – one in mid-season with the other coming in early August. His hitless streak reached 20 at-bats before breaking through with a single against “The Terminator,” Blue Jays’ closer Tom Henke, on August 18, 1985. As the Royals were in the process of claiming another division title, Leeper’s opportunities were few and far between. During the week of August 19th, he managed to drive in 4 baserunners despite logging only one hit in nine at-bats. Batting seventh and playing right field against the Rangers on August 26, 1985, Leeper strolled to the plate with the bases loaded in the third inning to face Jeff Russell. The match was knotted at 2-2 when Leeper stroked a two-run single for the go-ahead RBI’s in an eventual 9-2 victory. Leading off in the final regular season game and the last MLB contest of his career, Leeper supplied a single to load the bases against Chris Codiroli and the Royals tallied twice in the inning. Behind 9-3 in the eighth, Leeper’s final MLB at-bat ended in a ground ball back to the pitcher, Steve Mura. Reduced to part-time status in Triple-A over the next 3 seasons, Leeper produced a .262 BA with 27 two-base knocks. He concluded his journey in the professional baseball ranks during the Summer of ‘88.

Steve Engel (#510) – A southpaw chosen in the fifth round of the June 1983 Amateur Draft by the Cubbies, Engel commenced his career with 11 starts for Geneva of the New York-Penn League. He prevailed in 7 of 9 decisions while furnishing a 3.63 ERA, a 1.139 WHIP and 9.6 SO/9. Pitching for Lodi (A) in ‘84 he won 11 games and posted a 2.68 ERA through 27 starts. The portsider produced a 3.60 ERA between stops at Pittsfield (AA) and Iowa (AAA), prompting the Cubs to recall him at the end of July ‘85. Manager Jim Frey penciled Engel in as his starting pitcher against the division-leading Cardinals on July 30, 1985. St. Louis tallied 3 in the first frame on a Willie McGee solo homer and successive bases-loaded walks to Ozzie Smith and Tom Nieto. The Runnin’ Redbirds pressed the pedal to the metal in the second as the eventual 1985 NL Rookie of the Year Vince Coleman coaxed a walk and advanced to second on a McGee single. The pair executed a double-steal and Coleman scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Jack Clark. Engel breezed through the third inning but yielded a double to opposing hurler Kurt Kepshire leading off the fourth. Coleman aka “Vincent Van Go” tripled to plate Kepshire and Frey summoned Warren Brusstar from the ‘pen. McGee rapped a two-base hit to drive Coleman home and close the line on Engel’s first start: 3 IP, 6 H, 5 BB, 6 ER. Engel returned to the rotation on August 15 and started 7 games for the Cubs over the next month, notching his lone MLB victory in a complete game against Houston on August 26. The score was knotted at 2-2 entering the sixth frame when Chicago loaded the bases on a couple of singles and an error by third-sacker Phil Garner. Jody Davis delivered the go-ahead run on a sacrifice fly to center field and Shawon Dunston extended the lead to 4-2 on a single. Bob Knepper remained in the game as Engel strolled to the dish with runners on first and third. Bam! – three run homer for the young hurler and second hit of the day. Through 8 big league starting assignments, Engel posted an ERA of 5.79 so Frey relegated him to the bullpen for the final three weeks of the ‘85 campaign. He coughed up a two-run blast to Sal Butera in a 17-15 loss to the Expos in his first relief outing on September 24. Two days later he delivered a scoreless frame against the Mets and in his final appearance versus the Pirates on October 3, he put up 3 goose eggs to register the save in a 13-5 victory to lower his Major League ERA to 5.57. Chicago GM Dallas Green dealt Engel to the Astros in July 1986 as the “player to be named later” in a transaction initiated the previous winter which sent Cubs outfield prospect Billy Hatcher to Houston for veteran center fielder Jerry Mumphrey. He bounced between starting and relief work while toiling for the Triple-A Iowa Cubs and Tucson Toros and the results were miserable: a record of 6-11 with an ERA of 6.89 and an unsightly WHIP of 1.840. Engel appeared in only 4 games (3 starts) for the Springfield Cardinals (A) in ‘87 and then twirled for three professional teams in ‘88 including 9 relief outings with the Mexico City Tigers. He issued 14 walks in 7 ⅔ innings to put the pin in his prospect balloon.

Tom Runnells (#569) – Middle infielder Runnells persevered through 8 minor league campaigns before making his Major League debut. Signed as an amateur free agent by San Francisco in June 1977, Runnells reported to Great Falls (Rookie) and proceeded to bat .290 in his first taste of pro ball. During his sophomore season with the Fresno Giants (A), he attained career-highs with 163 base hits, 32 stolen bases and 83 runs scored. Runnells played all over the diamond and earned a promotion to Phoenix (AAA) in 1980 where he compiled a .282 BA over the next 3+ seasons. He elected to become a free agent after spending six campaigns in the Giants organization without a call to the big leagues and inked a deal with the Reds in October 1983. Runnells clubbed 6 long balls as the second-sacker for the Wichita Lugnuts (AA) in ‘84, tying his career total through his first 7 seasons. The following year in his age-30 campaign, Runnells compiled a .290 BA and slugged a career-high .403 with the Denver Zephyrs to finally merit a promotion to the big leagues. He debuted as a pinch-hitter against Fernando Valenzuela in the seventh inning of a contest on August 10, 1985 with the Reds trailing the Dodgers, 2-1, and was retired on a pop-up to shortstop Mariano Duncan. Player/manager Pete Rose inserted Runnells into the starting lineup the next day as the second baseman, batting second. After grounding out to third base twice, Runnells registered his first MLB safety against Los Angeles’ starting pitcher Jerry Reuss in the seventh frame. Reuss yielded consecutive hits to Gary Redus and Runnells with one out in the ninth but he induced Dave “Cobra” Parker to ground into a fielder’s choice and whiffed Buddy Bell to preserve a 4-0 shutout. A combined 0-for-8 in the next two games versus the Padres convinced Rose to return Runnells to the bench for the foreseeable future and the utility infielder appeared as a pinch-hitter or defensive replacement 11 times through early September, going hitless in five at-bats. The Reds faced the Cubs on September 8, 1985 and Rose either tied or surpassed Ty Cobb for most career hits (due to an accounting error in the historical records). Runnells rapped his first base knock in nearly a month when he batted for the pitcher in the sixth inning of the match, which was suspended by darkness after 9 innings (Wrigley Field did not have lights installed yet). Two weeks later, Ted Power yielded a pair of unearned runs to Atlanta after third baseman Wade Rowdon committed errors on consecutive plays in the top of the eleventh inning. Runnells batted for Power in the bottom of the frame and ripped a double against Atlanta reliever Rick Camp for his first extra-base hit in the big leagues. He advanced to third on a fly ball to center off the bat of Ron Oester but got stranded there when Nick Esasky whiffed for the final out. Runnells delivered two safeties in nine October at-bats to finish the season with a .200 BA (7-for-35) with 3 runs scored. Starting the ‘86 back in the minors, Runnells received another cup of coffee when he spent nearly a month in the Majors from mid-May to early June. His lone knock in 11 at-bats and final hit as a big leaguer occurred on May 24, 1986 against Pittsburgh left-hander Pat Clements. Entering in the seventh inning as a defensive replacement for the second baseman (Oester), Runnells laced a double leading off the top of the ninth. In his final MLB plate appearance, the utilityman rapped into a double play with Giants’ reliever Juan Berenguer on the mound. The final verdict on Runnells in the Majors – 8-for-46 (.174 BA) in 40 games. Defensively he did not commit any errors while spending the majority of his innings at shortstop. He posted a .228 BA with Denver (AAA) in ‘86 to close out his professional career. Runnells managed the Expos to a record of 68-81 (.456 WPCT) from 1991 to 1992.

Carlos Ponce (#595) – Signed by the Brewers as an amateur free agent from Puerto Rico in January 1980, Ponce immediately impressed his new employers when he produced a .347 BA and slugged .552 in 69 contests with the Butte Copper Kings (Rookie). Playing first base almost exclusively as a minor leaguer, he clubbed 15 long balls and swiped 23 bags in 29 attempts as a sophomore with the Burlington Bees (A) and then drilled 31 doubles along with 13 triples for the Stockton Ports (A) in ‘82. Ponce busted out in ‘83 with the El Paso Diablos (AA), pacing the circuit with 50 two-baggers and finishing third with a .348 BA while slugging .591 with 21 blasts, 111 RBI and 16 steals. He toiled in Vancouver (AAA) for two years waiting for an opportunity with the Brew Crew and managed to hit .320 in his second season as a member of the Canadians. Milwaukee finally called him up to the Majors in the middle of August 1985. Batting against ace reliever Willie Hernandez as a pinch-hitter in his first MLB action, Ponce flew out to right field with two outs in the ninth inning as the Brewers lost, 4-3, on August 14, 1985. He took an 0-for-4 in the next two games before scratching out a pair of singles against Gene Nelson and Dan Spillner in a 12-5 drubbing by the White Sox. Ponce pummeled his lone MLB long ball off southpaw Britt Burns the following afternoon. Trailing the Tribe 10-2 after five frames on August 23, 1985, Milwaukee manager George Bamberger inserted Ponce as a defensive replacement for first baseman Cecil Cooper and he responded with a two-run double off reliever Vern Ruhle to raise his BA to .250. The skipper rewarded him with 5 starting assignments over the next week but Ponce scuffled at the dish with only one safety in 18 at-bats, dropping his average nearly 100 points to .158. He sat for the next ten days before starting in left field against the eventual World Series champions on September 8, 1985, delivering two hits and a walk in a 13-11 loss to the Royals. Ponce saw action only twice in the next two and a half weeks before Bamberger penciled him into the lineup against Baltimore left-hander Mike Flanagan. Playing first base and batting fifth, he rapped a two-base knock in four trips to the plate as Jaime Cocanower shut out the Orioles, 3-0. Right below the “Mendoza Line” with two weeks remaining in the season, Ponce laced one base hit in his final 15 at-bats, a single against Yankees’ ace Ron Guidry in a 3-0 defeat on October 3, 1985. He concluded his rookie year with 10 hits in 62 at-bats (.161 BA), one home run and 5 RBI. Ponce continued his baseball career overseas, spending the next half-decade with the Yokohama Taiyo Whales of the Japan Central League. He flourished at the dish, compiling a .299 BA and slugging .562 from 1986 to 1989 as he supplied 30 doubles, 30 dingers and 97 ribbies per year.

Did You Know?

Donruss included interesting facts about some of the players on the bottom section of the card backs.

“Oil Can” Boyd (#50) – “Picked up his unusual nickname in college where beer was called ‘oil’.”

Pete Rose (#62) – “Loves his Wheaties.”

Dwight Gooden (#75) – “NL Cy Young winner last year.. Joined Herb Score as only 2 pitchers in history to achieve 200 strikeouts in each of 1st 2 major league seasons.”

Pat Tabler (#129) – “Has phenomenal 22 for 35 (.659) career average in bases-loaded situations with 54 RBI.”

Tim Raines (#177) – “Is first player in major league history to steal 70 or more bases 5 straight seasons.”

Vince Coleman (#181) – “Stole 7 bases in 1 game at Johnson City in ‘82.”

Marty Barrett (#294) – “A slick practitioner of the ‘hidden ball’ trick, he pulled it off twice last year vs. Angels.”

Dale Berra (#295) – “Set major lg. record by reaching 1B via catcher’s interference 7 times in ‘83.”

Joel Skinner (#330) – “White Sox took him over 2,000 other players as the first selection ever in the free agent compensation pool.”

Jackie Gutierrez (#335) – “His father competed for Colombia in 1936 Berlin Olympics as a javelin thrower.”

Tom Browning (#384) – “Became 1st major league rookie to win 20 game ssince ‘54 last season.”

Davey Lopes (#388) – “Became the oldest man in history to eclipse 40 stolen bases in a season last year.”

Len Matuszek (#494) – “Made baseball history 6/1/84 when, vs. Cubs, became only 8th player ever to play entire major league game at 1B without making a putout.”

Phil Niekro (#580) – “Oldest pitcher in history to win 15 games in a season.”

Ray Knight (#597) – “Is married to pro golf star Nancy Lopez.”

Mookie Wilson (#604) – “Nicknamed ‘Mookie’ by his grandmother.”

Errors

The 1986 Donruss set does not contain any significant error variations.

Rookie Cards

In addition to the aforementioned Jose Canseco “Rated Rookie” card, Toronto teammates Cecil Fielder and Fred McGriff made their cardboard debuts in the ‘86 Donruss set along with Vince Coleman, Kal Daniels, Darren Daulton, Lenny Dykstra, Andrés Galarraga, Ozzie Guillen and Paul O’Neill.

Price Guide (Then and Now)

The “Beckett Baseball Card Monthly Price Guide” (November 1986 edition) lists the 1986 Donruss Baseball complete set for $30. Jose Canseco (#39, $7), Dwight Gooden (#75, $2.50) and Vince Coleman (#181, $2.50) held the highest individual values at the conclusion of the ‘86 season. Jose Canseco’s rookie card (#39, graded PSA 8) currently sells in the $25-$35 price range while Barry Bonds (1986 Donruss The Rookies #11, graded PSA 8) fetches anywhere from $10 to $25.

Please add a comment below if you would like to share any memories from collecting the 1986 Donruss baseball card set or your experiences with card collecting in general!

Articles in the Series

https://www.beckett.com/search/?term=1986+donruss&year_start=1986

References and Resources

Beckett, Dr. James, Rich Klein and Grant Sandground. Beckett Almanac of Baseball Cards and Collectibles. Dallas, TX: Beckett Publications, 1997. Print.

Beckett.com (requires subscription to view prices):

https://www.tcdb.com/ViewSet.cfm/sid/105/1986-Donruss

Trading Card Database – Photo Gallery

About the Authors

Derek Bain is a New Jersey native with a passion for baseball, statistics, computers and video games who enjoys spending quality time with his family.

Derek’s Books

“Hardball Architects – Volume 1 (American League Teams)”, published in July 2020, is available in paperback and digital (Kindle) format at Amazon.com.

“Hardball Architects – Volume 2 (National League Teams)”, published in April 2022, is available in paperback and digital (Kindle) format at Amazon.com.

The 1985 Fleer Baseball Card Set

Derek Bain — Sun, 11 Apr 2021 14:06:53 +0000

Derek’s (Re)collections

I remember having great expectations for the 1985 Fleer baseball cards after their previous effort garnered my attention and fed my obsessive need for order. Not only did Fleer offer quality photography and a legible table of player statistics, the set checklist was sorted by team and alphabetically by the player’s last names! I sifted through my cards slowly, placing each card into the appropriate slot in the container that I purchased specifically for this purpose. Partitioned into equal-sized sections for each team, I memorized the positions of each franchise within my card carrier based on the team nicknames from A to Z, which I can still recite with ease to this day: Angels, Astros, Athletics, Blue Jays, Braves, Brewers, Cardinals, Cubs, Dodgers, Expos, Giants, Indians, Mariners, Mets, Orioles, Padres, Phillies, Pirates, Rangers, Reds, Red Sox, Royals, Tigers, Twins, White Sox, Yankees. The Fleer wax packs aided further in this pursuit with the inclusion of team logo stickers which adorned my card carrier along with the covers of my baseball card albums. I absorbed all the information in the Beckett price guides that were now arriving in my mailbox on a monthly basis. With Rod Carew’s pursuit of 3000 hits during the ‘85 campaign, I began a quest to collect all of his cards (ultimately falling a bit short).

Corby Corner

Like I stated in the Donruss article, 1985 was a great year for baseball and the cards themselves. In fact, Fleer was now being looked at as on par with Topps as one of the leaders of the industry. Fleer always did a solid job with keeping their cards simple but aesthetically pleasing. The cardboard they used allowed for less damage than both Topps and Donruss. I began to buy more Fleer cards as I felt they were undervalued at the time but I would be rewarded later.

That brings me to my biggest buy since I got into the game. With a $20 bill in pocket, I went down to the local card store. Having seen a young pitcher named Roger Clemens strike out 20 batters in his last game, my game plan was to buy as many rookie cards of this young fireballer as I could. When all was said and done, I had about a dozen mostly Fleer and Topps. Crazy to think they were going for only $1.25-1.50 a piece at that time. I still have most of them in a safe, but as the market imploded and the steroid scandal engulfed Roger, the value of those cards have reverted closer to the original price than any visions of dollar signs my 12-year-old mind conjured up that afternoon in ‘86.

Features

The standard Fleer baseball card set from 1981-1990 consisted of 660 cards. Maintaining the ordering scheme established in the ‘81 set, the checklist is organized by teams based on their position in the standings from the previous season. The method facilitates set building and organization for collectors of the Fleer brand as opposed to the haphazard order of competitors’ products. Team logo stickers accompanied each wax pack. The bulk of the set features individual player cards numbered 1 through 625. A pair of “In Action” cards for Cal Ripken Jr. (#626) and Mike Schmidt (#627) include 4 photographs in a 2×2 orientation depicting the various stages of their swing path. “Giving the Signs” (#628) utilizes 3 horizontal shots of Tigers’ skipper Sparky Anderson relaying a sequence of messages to his coaches or perhaps he’s simply adjusting his cap. The next 6 cards highlight two or more ballplayers along with captions such as “A.L. Pitcher’s Nightmare” (Rickey Henderson and Dave Winfield, #629), “N.L. Pitcher’s Nightmare” (Mike Schmidt and Ryne Sandberg, #630) and “N.L. Rookie Phenoms” (Dwight Gooden and Juan Samuel, #634). Continuing in a tradition started with the 1983 Fleer set, the next subset omits the border from the left or right side of the card allowing the collector to place the two cards side-by-side to form a larger picture. “Toronto’s Big Guns” (Willie Upshaw, #635 and Lloyd Moseby, #636) and “Holland Tunnel” (Al Holland, #637 and Lee Tunnell, #638) get the dual-card treatment in ‘85. Career milestones for Reggie Jackson (500 home runs) and Pete Rose (4,000 hits), a “Father/Son” card of Cal Ripken Sr. and Cal Ripken Jr., a Cubs team photo and a “Perfect Game and 2 no-hitters” (Mike Witt, David Palmer and Jack Morris) round out the 18-card subset. Twenty “Major League Prospects” containing two rookies apiece run from card #644 through #653 highlighted by the cardboard debuts of Danny Tartabull and Glenn Davis. The final seven cards are checklists.

Fleer followed up their smashing success Update set but it failed to live up to the hype of its predecessor due to a relatively weak rookie class. Star Stickers made their annual appearance and a 44-card boxed set entitled “Limited Edition” debuted in the first season of a 3 year run. The Update set lists for $20 in the 1997 edition of the Beckett Almanac of Baseball Cards and Collectibles. A complete set (126) of the Star Stickers was valued at $50 while the boxed set of Limited Edition cards held minimal interest in the hobby community with a $6 price tag.

Every card is printed with a silver border and the photo is surrounded by another border in the team’s dominant color scheme. The team logo is situated in the upper left corner with the player’s name and primary position denoted in white lettering across the top of the inner border. The backs of the cards are very similar to previous Fleer efforts with the exception of a red background in the top section where the card number, player’s name, team and position are listed. The “Did You Know?” section and biographical information are printed in white text on a black background towards the lower third of each card. The mid-section delivers seasonal statistics and career totals in black text over columns shaded in light red or white.

1985 Fleer Update

1985 Fleer Star Stickers

1985 Fleer Limited Edition

One-and-Dones

All of the players in the 1985 Fleer set appeared on at least one other regular-issue baseball card.

Did You Know?

Fleer included interesting facts about some of the players on the bottom section of the card backs.

Ryne Sandberg (#65) – “In 1983, he became the first player in NL history to win a Gold Glove in his first season at a new position.”

Kent Hrbek (#281) – “Broke into Majors in unique fashion by belting 12th inning home run to win a game in Yankee Stadium, Aug. 24, 1981.”

Mike Witt (#316) – “Pitched 13th perfect game in Major League history on final day of ‘84 season, beating Texas 1-0.”

Len Barker (#318) – “Pitched 3-0 perfect game victory against Toronto Blue Jays, May 15, 1981.”

Fernando Valenzuela (#387) – “Became the first rookie to capture the Rookie of the Year Award and the Cy Young Award in the same season.”

Andre Dawson (#394) – ‘Enjoys deep-sea fishing.”

Carney Lansford (#429) – “Direct descendant of Sir Francis Drake, the 16th century British admiral.”

Jim Beattie (#484) – “Nicknamed ‘Zelmo’.”

Brad Wellman (#623) – “Earned $1,000 in August, 1983 by responding to a clubhouse dare and shaving his head.”

Errors

The 1985 Fleer set does not contain any significant error variations.

Rookie Cards

Kirby Puckett, Roger Clemens, Dwight Gooden, Orel Hershiser, Eric Davis, Bret Saberhagen, Danny Tartabull and Glenn Davis highlight the roster of players making their cardboard debuts in the ’85 Fleer set.

Price Guide (Then and Now)

The “Beckett Baseball Card Monthly Price Guide” (November 1985 edition) lists the 1985 Fleer Baseball complete set for $16.50. Dwight Gooden (#82, $3.50) was the lone individual card to fetch more than one dollar. Kirby Puckett’s rookie card (#286, graded PSA 8) currently sells in the $25-$50 range.

Please add a comment below if you would like to share any memories from collecting the 1985 Fleer baseball card set or your experiences with card collecting in general!

Articles in the Series

https://www.beckett.com/search/?term=1985+fleer&year_start=1985

References and Resources

Beckett, Dr. James, Rich Klein and Grant Sandground. Beckett Almanac of Baseball Cards and Collectibles. Dallas, TX: Beckett Publications, 1997. Print.

Beckett.com (requires subscription to view prices):

https://www.tcdb.com/ViewSet.cfm/sid/101/1985-Fleer

Trading Card Database – Photo Gallery

About the Authors

Derek Bain is a New Jersey native with a passion for baseball, statistics, computers and video games who enjoys spending quality time with his family.

Derek’s Books

“Hardball Architects – Volume 1 (American League Teams)”, published in July 2020, is available in paperback and digital (Kindle) format at Amazon.com.

“Hardball Architects – Volume 2 (National League Teams)”, published in April 2022, is available in paperback and digital (Kindle) format at Amazon.com.

The 1985 Donruss Baseball Card Set

Derek Bain — Mon, 15 Mar 2021 17:37:09 +0000

Derek’s (Re)collections

The calendar turned to 1985 and I was knee-deep in my baseball card collection. I subscribed to the Beckett Baseball Monthly Price Guide and purchased several binders with sleeves to display nine cards per page along with hard plastic holders and cardboard boxes to keep my collection in pristine condition. My friends and I visited the local card shop several times a week, anticipating the arrival of the ‘85 cards. The “Rookie Card Craze” was in full effect and living in the vicinity of New York, everyone was eager to get their hands on the first regular-series “Doc” Gooden cards. By mid-season it was clear that “Dr. K” was dominating the National League and the value of his cardboard likeness skyrocketed accordingly. Swept up in the moment but short on funds, I started to backfill my collection with individual pre-1984 cards. Any remaining funds that I could scrape together went towards wax pack purchases.

Corby Corner

So here it is, what I personally believe to be the best year of baseball card collecting, from the cards themselves, to the players that graced those beautiful prints. 1985 was also the year I went 100% full tilt into playing baseball, watching it and collecting cards. Life revolved around the sport, and the outcome of each California Angels game could swing my mood in a flash. My parents can vouch for that.

The 1985 Donruss set was now their second in a row that could be argued for the best overall in their competition with Topps and Fleer. This year’s Donruss set was also the first factory set I ever purchased. I was especially intrigued by the “Rated Rookies” feature added on to certain first year players that Donruss had deemed worthy, though if memory serves correctly, not too many of them saw success in the majors. They missed on some big names in there; Hershiser, Puckett, and Clemens come to mind…more on Roger when we get to 1985 Topps!

Favorite Cards

Tom: Roger Clemens (#273) – I bought about 20 of his rookie cards; loved the Donruss card the most.

Derek: Dennis Eckersley (#442) – This one captures the “Eck” motion perfectly.

Features

The standard Donruss baseball card set from 1982-1989 consisted of 660 cards. Continuing a tradition rooted in their sophomore effort, the 1985 Donruss set commences with a subset of 26 Diamond Kings rendered by artist Dick Perez (#1-26). Ryne Sandberg (#1), Don Mattingly (#7), Cal Ripken Jr. (#14) and Tony Gwynn (#25) achieved “DK” status in ‘85 and the popular series lasted 15 seasons. Danny Tartabull, Shawon Dunston and Billy Hatcher made their cardboard debuts among the 20 Rated Rookies (#27-46). Yankees teammates Don Mattingly and Dave Winfield’s battle for the batting crown is chronicled in card # 651, “Two for the Title”. Card # 635 shows a completed version of the Lou Gehrig puzzle (3 pieces of the puzzle are inserted into each wax pack).

A black border is accentuated with a series of 5 red stripes towards the bottom of each card with the Donruss logo and the year in the top left corner. The player’s name and primary position are printed in uppercase below the action or portrait photo. Similar to their previous year’s effort, the photography in the 1985 Donruss set is top-notch. The flip side lists the card number inside a baseball and details the ballplayer’s biographical information across the upper section. The center encompasses yearly statistics from the past five seasons (if applicable) and career totals while the bottom section summarizes career highlights along with contractual status and an account of how the player was acquired by his current club. Black text is printed over a yellow background with the exception of the player statistics in the center which employs a white background for contrast.

The Action All-Stars set returned for the third consecutive season featuring 60 cards in a larger-than-standard format (3 ½” by 5”). A headshot along with an in-action photo of each player also distinguishes this set from the standard ‘85 issue. The Donruss Highlights subset (56 cards) debuted in 1985 along with HOF Sluggers (8 cards) and Super DK’s (28 cards). The Highlights series ran for three years (85-87) chronicling the players and pitchers of the month for each league along with in-season highlights from the ‘85 campaign. Available through a mail-in offer from 1985 to 1991, the Super Diamond Kings measured 4 15/16” x 6 ¾” and mimicked the Diamond Kings subset from the standard-issue set. The subset values according to the 1997 edition of the Beckett Almanac of Baseball Cards and Collectibles are as follows: Action All-Stars $6, Highlights $15, HOF Sluggers $7, Super DK’s $15.

1985 Donruss Highlights

1985 Donruss HOF Sluggers

1985 Donruss Action All-Stars

1985 Donruss Super Diamond Kings

One-and-Dones

The players listed below made their lone appearance on a regular-issue baseball card in the 1985 Donruss set.

Tony Brewer (#31) – The corner outfielder reached the Majors with the Dodgers in August 1984 after signing with the club as an amateur free agent 5 years earlier. Ascending through the system, Brewer garnered a promotion after posting a .357 BA and slugging .588 in his second campaign with the Albuquerque Dukes (AAA). Brewer played in 24 MLB contests primarily as a pinch-hitter. Manager Tommy LaSorda penciled him into the starting lineup on August 24, 1984 after seven hitless at-bats off the bench since the first of the month. Opposing Al Holland in the eighth inning, Brewer rapped a two-base hit to knock in Dave Anderson with the tying run to notch his first MLB hit. Facing the Giants on the final day of the season (September 30, 1984), Brewer belted his lone big-league homer in the seventh frame off right-hander Mark Calvert. In a touch of irony, neither player appeared in the Majors after that date. Returning to the Dukes in ‘85, Brewer slumped to a .265 BA with 10 dingers and inked a deal in 1986 to play overseas with the Nippon Ham Fighters in the Japan Pacific League. Through 4 years in the Land of the Rising Sun, Brewer averaged .307 with 25 four-baggers and a .521 SLG. Brewer’s brother Mike also received a cup of coffee when he earned a call-up in June 1986 with Kansas City where he registered 12 games and 18 at-bats.

Charlie Mitchell (#40) – A fourth-round selection in the January 1982 Amateur Draft, Mitchell rapidly ascended through the Boston farm system and merited a call-up in August 1984 after notching 10 wins and 15 saves along with a 2.11 ERA for Pawtucket (AAA). Pete O’Brien greeted him with a deep fly ball into the seats at Arlington Stadium in his first MLB outing on August 9, 1984. Mitchell fared better in a September 14, 1984 match at Yankee Stadium, hurling 3 scoreless frames against the Bronx Bombers. The right-hander pitched in 12 games (all in relief) over a 2 year period (1984-85) for the Red Sox yielding an ERA of 4.00. In his final big league appearance on September 10, 1985, Mitchell relieved Bruce Kison with the Sox trailing 7-1 and allowed a single by Cal Ripken, Jr. before escaping further damage when he induced Eddie Murray to hit a grounder back to the box. Dealt to Minnesota in exchange for outfielder Mike Stenhouse in December 1985, he toiled primarily in a relief role for the Toledo Mud Hens (AAA), Glens Falls Tigers (AA) and Nashville Sounds (AAA) through the ‘91 campaign but never returned to the big leagues. Following a 4 year hiatus from professional baseball, Mitchell crafted a 1.57 ERA with a WHIP of 0.942 during a pair of independent-ball seasons with the Columbia Mules. His brother John started 37 games for the Mets and Orioles in parts of 5 seasons from 1986 to 1990 where he compiled a record of 9-14 with a 4.35 ERA.

Russ Stephans (#42) – Taken by the Royals in the third round of the June 1980 Amateur Draft (Secondary Phase), Stephans compiled a .266 BA over 7 minor league campaigns. He spent his final four seasons (1983-86) with the Omaha Royals (AAA) and established personal-bests when he slashed .290/.388/.452 with 21 two-baggers and 9 jacks in 1984. Stephans left pro ball after his offensive output slipped to .202 in 84 at-bats in ‘86.

Doug Loman (#46) – Milwaukee chose Loman with the second pick in the January 1978 Amateur Draft (Regular Phase). He averaged .265 with 22 doubles and 12 stolen bases through 6 minor league seasons (1978-1983). Loman finally mastered Triple-A on his fourth attempt, generating career-highs in batting average (.324), doubles (34), RBI (102), runs (79) and slugging percentage (.527) to warrant a call-up to the Majors in September 1984. Slotted into the lineup in a full-time role as the left fielder, Loman delivered a .276 BA and coaxed 15 walks to register a .402 OBP. In his first big-league game (September 3, 1984) he drilled a double off Dennis “Oil Can” Boyd in the fourth inning and singled two innings later to knock in a run. The lefty-hitting Loman launched a pair of solo shots off Roy Lee Jackson and Jimmy Key to vault the Brewers to an 8-5 victory over the Blue Jays on September 23, 1984. Rewarded with a start in center field on Opening Day in 1985, Loman played sporadically and logged a .212 BA prior to being demoted in mid-May. He legged out a triple against Ron Romanick in the bottom of the fourth inning of an eventual 5-4 loss to the Angels on May 10, 1985 for his final big league hit. Back in Vancouver (AAA), Loman compiled a .294 BA with 23 doubles and 10 dingers. Released by the Brewers in September 1985, he signed with the Yokohama Taiyo Whales (Japan Central League) in 1986 where he supplied a .291 BA with 26 two-baggers, 14 jacks and 75 ribbies during his last season in pro ball.

Scottie Earl (#491) – A September call-up during the Tigers’ dominant 1984 campaign, Earl got into 14 contests for the eventual World Champions in his age-23 season but never appeared in a Major League game again. A fourteenth-round pick by Detroit in the June 1981 Amateur Draft, the second-sacker ascended one level at a time during his minor league apprenticeship. Swiping 33 bags and tallying 88 runs annually over a 5 year stretch (1982-86), Earl’s on-base skills merited a promotion to the Motor City. He entered 4 games as a pinch-runner or defensive replacement before receiving his first start on September 19, 1984. Playing at home against Milwaukee and batting leadoff, Earl laced a triple off Tom Candiotti in his second at-bat to drive in Doug Baker and increase Detroit’s advantage to 3-1. The three-bagger turned out to be his lone extra-base hit and RBI in the Major Leagues. Earl stroked a single off Ron Guidry in a match on September 29, 1984 to snap an 0-for-19 skid. With the Tigers ahead 11-1 in the ninth frame, he rapped a base knock off Clay Christiansen for his final big-league hit. In the last regular season contest, Earl substituted for Tom Brookens in the fifth inning and went hitless in two at-bats. Facing reliever Mike Armstrong in the top of the eighth, he hit a harmless pop fly to Yankees’ second baseman Rex Hudler to drop his batting average to .114 (4-for-35). Earl soldiered on as a middle infielder for the Tigers’ Triple-A affiliates over the next 3 campaigns but failed to hit above .250. After putting up similar numbers for the Nashville Sounds (AAA) in the Reds’ farm system during the ‘88 season, Earl split time between the Toledo Mud Hens (AAA) and the Columbus Clippers (AAA) in 1989 before calling it quits.

Ralph Citarella (#504) – The Cardinals’ first pick in the Secondary Phase of the June 1979 Amateur Draft, Citarella crafted a 4.06 ERA along with a 1.241 WHIP across 21 big-league appearances (19 in relief). In 1980 during his first full season with the Gastonia Cardinals (A) he fashioned an ERA of 1.64 with a WHIP of 1.079 while racking up 11 victories and 8 saves. Spending nearly the entire ‘81 campaign with the Arkansas Travelers (AA), Citarella (8-9, 3.82) divided his outings evenly between starting and relief assignments. He prevailed in 15 of 21 decisions with the Louisville Redbirds (AAA) in ‘82 despite an ERA of 4.88 and a WHIP north of 1.5. Pitching in a variety of roles while repeating Triple-A in 1983, Citarella received a call to the Majors with the expansion of rosters in September even though his results were nearly identical to his output from the previous campaign. Making his debut for St. Louis, the fourth hurler in a 6-0 loss to Pittsburgh on September 13, 1983, Citarella retired 5 of the 6 batters he faced, yielding a one-out double to Johnny Ray in the seventh inning. Eleven days later in relief of Dave LaPoint, the right-hander twirled 5 scoreless innings and permitted a lone safety against the Phillies. Through 6 relief appearances spanning 11 innings, he allowed only 8 hits and a couple of earned runs (1.64 ERA). Citarella commenced the following season in Triple-A again, where he racked up 9 victories in 11 decisions along with a 3.91 ERA in 16 games (14 starts). The Cardinals called upon him in mid-June and after a one-inning relief stint in his first outing, he was slated to start against the Cubs at Wrigley Field on June 23, 1984 in a matchup that became known as the “Sandberg Game”. Staked to a 7-1 lead highlighted by a Willie McGee 3-run triple off Steve Trout, Citarella left the contest with a 9-3 advantage in the bottom of the sixth. He watched his potential first MLB win evaporate into the Windy City breeze as his replacement, Neil Allen, yielded a walk and three successive hits as the Cubbies closed the gap to 9-8. Ryne Sandberg provided the fireworks for the hometown faithful with a leadoff homer in the bottom of the ninth off Bruce Sutter. St. Louis stormed back with 2 runs in the top of the tenth to assume an 11-9 lead. “Ryno” delivered another blow with a two-out, two-run blast off Sutter in the home half of the tenth to knot the score at 11-all. Leon “Bull” Durham ignited the winning rally when he coaxed a walk to start the eleventh inning, swiped second and advanced to third on a Darrell Porter throwing error. Jeff Lahti relieved Dave Rucker and issued intentional passes to Keith Moreland and Jody Davis. Dave Owen stepped to the dish with the bases juiced and laced a single to right to drive in Durham for a 12-11 comeback victory. Four days later Citarella pitched well but suffered a loss in a start against the Expos by a 4-2 margin. Caveats for small sample size aside, Citarella thrived again out of the bullpen (11 IP, 0.82 ERA) while struggling to a 6.35 ERA in a pair of starting assignments. Philadelphia purchased his contract in January 1985 and he languished in Triple-A for the next 3 campaigns while fashioning a composite ERA of 4.67 for Portland, Tacoma, Louisville and Hawaii. His perseverance was rewarded with a 5-game stint with the White Sox in the summer of ‘87. Citarella yielded runs in each of his first 4 outings including a trio of gopher balls to Ruppert Jones, Devon White and Wally Joyner in a 13-3 rout by the Angels on June 28, 1987. On the bubble and possessing an ERA of 11.57 following a deep drive into the left field seats by Joe Carter on July 3, Citarella responded with 4 scoreless innings one week later. Trailing the Yankees 9-4 in the bottom of the fifth, he scattered 3 hits and a walk to hold the Bronx Bombers at bay. The Pale Hose lost the game but Citarella whiffed the final big-league batter that he faced, Dave Winfield, in the bottom of the eighth. In 1988 he pitched in 8 games for the Brewers’ Double-A affiliate, the El Paso Diablos, and spent some time with the independent Fresno Suns (A) where he notched 7 saves with a 1.80 ERA before hanging up his spikes.

Vic Rodriguez (#535) – Baltimore inked Rodriguez to a contract as a 15-year-old amateur free agent in February 1977. Through five minor league campaigns as a teenager, Rodriguez batted at a .305 clip. He drilled 23 doubles in the upper minors during the ‘82 season but posted his lowest BA, OBP and SLG as a professional. A full season at Charlotte (AA) in 1983 restored his confidence as Rodriguez produced a .298 BA with 26 two-baggers along with career-bests in home runs (14), RBI (77) and runs scored (80). In his eighth year as a minor leaguer but still only 22 years old, Rodriguez performed slightly better during his second stint with Rochester (AAA) and the Orioles responded by calling him up to the big leagues in September 1984. Manager Joe Altobelli deployed him as a pinch-runner on three occasions before inserting him as a defensive replacement at second base for Rich Dauer in the fifth inning of a blowout on September 18, 1984. The Orioles trailed the Yankees 8-0 and Rodriguez whiffed in his first at-bat against southpaw Ray Fontenot. In the top of the ninth he delivered a base hit off right-hander Clay Christiansen. Two days later, Rodriguez was penciled into the starting lineup for the first time, batting ninth and playing second base at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Nipper retired Rodriguez twice in the early frames but struggled mightily as the O’s tallied 8 runs in the first four frames. He joined the party with a base knock off Sox reliever Jim Dorsey in the fifth and then rocked a pair of doubles, notched his first big-league RBI and scored twice later in the contest against Mike G. Brown. Rodriguez registered two hits including a double off Oil Can Boyd in the final game of the year to finish with a .412 BA (7-for-17). Traded to the Padres in February 1985 for Fritzie Connally, Rodriguez rapped 31 doubles and batted .312 at Las Vegas. He spent the remainder of the Eighties playing Triple-A ball with the Louisville Redbirds (AAA) and the Portland Beavers (AAA) with the exception of 6 games in July 1989 with the Twins. In the midst of compiling a .314 BA with 34 two-base hits in the Pacific Northwest, Rodriguez merited a call-up to Minnesota. Manager Tom Kelly slotted him into the lineup on July 21, 1989 while granting a day off to third baseman Gary Gaetti. Rodriguez lined a single to left in the opening frame off portsider Teddy Higuera and finished the day with one hit in four trips to the dish. One week later in the second game of a doubleheader in Detroit, Rodriguez delivered a pair of knocks including a double off Tigers’ reliever Ramon Pena. He scored the go-ahead run on a Kirby Puckett base hit as the Twins triumphed 7-3. Two days later he entered a contest as a defensive replacement and faced Pena again in the top of the ninth with Minnesota ahead 9-3. With one out and Tim Laudner on first base, Rodriguez stepped to the plate unaware that this would be his final at-bat in the Majors. He promptly ripped a line drive to deep left sending Launder to third and came around to score later in the inning on a two-base hit by Doug Baker. Rodriguez finished the ‘89 campaign with a .455 BA (5-for-11) for the Twins and his MLB career stat line read as follows: .429 BA (12-for-26) with 5 doubles and 6 runs scored. Missing most of the 1990 season and recording only 41 plate appearances at Portland, he played in 83 games in ‘91 for the same ball club and contributed a .304 BA. Rodriguez spent four more years in Triple-A including a stint with Olmecas de Tabasco (Mexican League) in ‘92 before riding off into the sunset after the 1995 campaign to cap a 19-year career as a professional ballplayer.

Did You Know?

Donruss included interesting facts about some of the players on the bottom section of the card backs.

Reggie Jackson (#57) – “‘Mr. October’ owns .357 avg. for 5 World Series including 3 HR in final game of ‘77 Classic with Yankees vs. Dodgers.”

Kent Hrbek (#70) – “Hit 12th inning HR to beat Yankees at Yankee Stadium in first major league game 8/24/81.”

Joel Youngblood (#79) – “Became 1st player in big league history to get hits with 2 different teams (Mets and Expos) on the same day 8/4/82.”

Mike Witt (#108) – “Hurled a perfect game final day of ‘84 season vs. Rangers, only 12th player in history to accomplish the feat.”

Tim Stoddard (#144) – “Signed originally by White Sox out of North Carolina St., where he was a member of the Wolfpack’s ‘74 NCAA basketball championship team.”

Sammy Stewart (#148) – “Set a major league record for most consecutive strikeouts (7) in 1st major league game 9/1/78.”

Tito Landrum (#168) – “Has worked as a male model in off-season.”

Dwight Gooden (#190) – “Broke Herb Score’s major league record for most strikeouts by a rookie last year, a mark that had stood since 1955.”

Bryn Smith (#203) – “Is a 3-handicap golfer.”

Len Matuszek (#259) – “Made baseball history 6/1 last year when, vs. Cubs, he became only 8th player ever to play an entire game at 1B without making a putout.”

Willie Wilson (#297) – “Became only 2nd player in major league history to achieve 100 hits from each side of the plate in ‘80.”

David Green (#303) – “Was a track star as a youngster in his native Nicaragua.”

Errors

There are several significant “error” cards in the 1985 Donruss baseball set. Left-hander Floyd Bannister makes an appearance on Tom Seaver’s card (#424). The corrected version presently sells in the $10 range. Terry Pendleton’s rookie card (#534) inexplicably listed his first name as Jeff. The amended version retains higher value due to the shorter production run. Several uncorrected error cards depicted the wrong player photo on the front of the card:

George Frazier’s photo on Ernie Camacho’s card (#129)

Frank Wills’ photo on Danny Jackson’s card (#374)

Mike G. Brown’s photo on Al Nipper’s card (#614)

Rookie Cards

Kirby Puckett, Roger Clemens, Dwight Gooden, Terry Pendleton, Orel Hershiser, Eric Davis, Bret Saberhagen and Danny Tartabull highlight the list of players making their cardboard debuts in the ’85 Donruss set.

Price Guide (Then and Now)

The “Beckett Baseball Card Monthly Price Guide” (November 1985 edition) lists the 1985 Donruss Baseball complete set for $24. Individual cards listing for at least one dollar included Dwight Gooden (# 190, $4.50), the corrected version of Tom Seaver (# 424B, $4) and Terry Pendleton’s (# 534B, $2) cards, along with the Dwight Gooden card on the underside of the wax boxes (# PC1, $3). The Puckett card (graded PSA 8) currently sells in the $20-$30 range.

Please add a comment below if you would like to share any memories from collecting the 1985 Donruss baseball card set or your experiences with card collecting in general!

Articles in the Series

https://www.beckett.com/search/?term=1985+donruss&year_start=1985

References and Resources

Beckett, Dr. James, Rich Klein and Grant Sandground. Beckett Almanac of Baseball Cards and Collectibles. Dallas, TX: Beckett Publications, 1997. Print.

Beckett.com (requires subscription to view prices):

https://www.tcdb.com/Gallery.cfm/sid/100/1985-Donruss

Trading Card Database – Photo Gallery

About the Authors

Derek Bain is a New Jersey native with a passion for baseball, statistics, computers and video games who enjoys spending quality time with his family.

Derek’s Books

“Hardball Architects – Volume 1 (American League Teams)”, published in July 2020, is available in paperback and digital (Kindle) format at Amazon.com.

“Hardball Architects – Volume 2 (National League Teams)”, published in April 2022, is available in paperback and digital (Kindle) format at Amazon.com.

The 1984 Donruss Baseball Card Set

Derek Bain — Sat, 06 Feb 2021 01:48:28 +0000

Derek’s (Re)collections

As a young baseball card collector in 1984, I didn’t have a clue about the potential value of my purchases. I simply bought wax packs from the local shops and jumped head-first into my new hobby. I soon learned that the “Big 3” companies consisted of Topps, Fleer and Donruss. Only later did I discover that Topps held a monopoly over the card industry for nearly a quarter of a century. My initial focus was on the 1984 Topps and Fleer series as I found that the Donruss packs were a bit more difficult to come by. The Donruss wax packs contained 15 cards along with 3 puzzle pieces (the assembled puzzle depicted Dodgers great Duke Snider) to differentiate from the Topps (stick of gum) and Fleer (logo sticker) inserts.

I’d just started to appreciate the game of baseball and the cards brought me closer to the game. The photography was excellent but the numbers on the back of each card really captured my imagination. I needed to find out the meaning behind those numbers along with all of the acronyms! I purchased a carrying case and sorted my cards by team. Eventually, I learned about the value (or potential value) of certain cards and placed them in albums with protective pages, or hard plastic cases. I collected baseball cards extensively from 1984 to 1991 and purchased older packs (1981-83) whenever I earned some extra cash.

Corby Corner

I became interested in baseball cards at the same time I fell in love with the game itself. At the age of 10 life revolved around playing baseball, cards, and the fortunes of the California Angels. I would sit in front of the TV at 3 am to try and catch a West Coast score on the maritime channel scroll at the bottom. This same obsession, of course, trickled into card collecting. 1984 was the first year I started collecting and it couldn’t have been a better year to start.

The market had different companies such as Donruss, Fleer and Topps, yet it was innocent, unsaturated with the levels seen in the early nineties. For me, THE card in 1984 Donruss was the Don Mattingly rookie. Growing up watching the Yankees on WPIX you had to root for the guy. He hit for average, homers, knocked in runs and played a stellar first base. That card, to me, was the ultimate prize and happily, I can tell you that I still own that card, tucked in a safe and never to be sold.

Favorite Cards

Tom: Rod Carew (#352) – He was my favorite player and I love the smile!

Derek: Tony Gwynn (#324) – Just one example of the excellent, up-close photography that permeates the ’84 Donruss set. Great player, great pic!

Features

The standard Donruss baseball card set from 1981-1990 consisted of 660 cards, numbered 1 through 658. Two “Living Legends” cards are denoted as “A” and “B” – Gaylord Perry and Rollie Fingers are depicted on the “A” card while Carl Yastrzemski and Johnny Bench are featured on “B”. Twenty-six “Diamond Kings” lead off the set highlighting one star player per team, followed by twenty minor league prospects termed “Rated Rookies”. Card # 648 displays the outcome of a completed Duke Snider puzzle. The “San Diego Chicken” makes an appearance (card # 651) and seven checklists round out the set. Standard player cards (47-647, 650-651) are not organized by teams or any particular method that I can discern. The front of each card includes a full-color photo with a white border. The bottom section includes the player name and primary position in yellow text against a solid color background. The Donruss logo with an “’84” is situated in the bottom right corner. The player’s current team is listed above their name in yellow text against a backdrop of 4 slightly curved lines. The back of the cards are comprised of black text with player biographical information set along the top and bottom sections over green backgrounds. The lower segment includes contract status, how the player was acquired, and career highlights. The central portion conveys MLB statistics from the past 5 seasons against a white setting.

Donruss also produced “Action All-Stars”, the second edition of a 3 ½” by 5” card series. The set contained a 63-piece Ted Williams puzzle along with 60 player cards such as George Brett, Nolan Ryan, Cal Ripken Jr. and Ryne Sandberg. Donruss delivered a new series using comparable size card stock entitled “Champions”. Dick Perez of Perez-Steele Galleries supplied artwork for the subset of Grand Champions: Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Ted Williams, Rogers Hornsby, Ty Cobb, Cy Young, Walter Johnson, Frank Robinson, Mickey Mantle and Carl Hubbell. The remaining (current) players utilized standard photography on the card fronts.

1984 Donruss Action All-Stars

Oddballs and Oddities

It’s a case of mistaken identity as a photograph of Indians’ southpaw Neal Heaton was inadvertently assigned to Richard Barnes’ (#608) lone MLB card.

incorrect photo on card front – depicts Neal Heaton instead of Richard Barnes

actual photo of Richard Barnes

The “Runnin’ Reds” card (#625) actually depicts four speedsters who play for the “Redbirds”, not the Reds: David Green, Willie McGee, Lonnie Smith and Ozzie Smith.

One-and-Dones

The players listed below made their lone appearance on a regular-issue baseball card in the 1984 Donruss set.

Mike Fuentes (#40) – Selected in the second round of the June 1981 Amateur Draft by the Expos, the slugging outfielder pummeled the opposition during his first full season (1982) when he tallied 37 long balls, 115 RBI and 104 runs scored as a member of the Memphis Chicks (AA). Fuentes proceeded to slash .299/.414/.565 with 30 big-flies for the Wichita Aeros (AAA) to merit a September call-up in 1983. The presence of Tim Raines and Andre Dawson aided in limiting his opportunities to 9 Major League plate appearances in 1983-84. Batting for Bill Gullickson in the fifth inning of a match against the Mets on September 10, 1983, Fuentes rapped a single to left field for his first MLB hit against Tom Gorman. He tallied his first run when Raines crushed a round-tripper to deep left field. Fuentes played 3 more seasons in the minor leagues before leaving pro ball after the ’87 campaign.

Chris W. Smith (#46) – Originally a member of the Rangers’ farm system as an eleventh round pick in the June 1978 Amateur Draft, Smith was traded with LaRue Washington to Montreal in return for Rusty Staub prior to the start of the 1980 season. He made his MLB debut in May 1981 and recorded nine hitless at-bats for the Expos over the next two campaigns. Flipped to the Giants for Jim Wohlford in February 1983, Smith logged his first MLB hit off Bruce Berenyi in a match on June 29, 1983. He was optioned to the minors after logging 2 hits in 13 at-bats but he went on a tear upon being recalled two months later. Slashing .370/.435/.574 over the final month of the ’83 campaign as the Giants’ primary first baseman, Smith launched his only big-league blast at Riverfront Stadium on September 29, 1983 off Ben Hayes. Apparently his September triumph along with a .379/.445/.610 slash line with Phoenix (AAA) earlier in the year failed to impress the San Francisco front office as Smith was released one month later. He latched on with the Yakult Swallows (Japan Central League) but hit only .202 in 68 games over the 1985 and 1986 seasons before departing from professional baseball.

Gorman Heimueller (#131) – A lefty reliever in the Giants’ farm system for 3+ campaigns before earning his release at the close of Spring Training in 1981, Heimueller accepted a similar assignment across the bay with the Athletics. Prevailing in 9 out of 13 decisions while fashioning an ERA of 2.33 at West Haven (AA) in ’81, the southpaw slumped in the subsequent season (8-10, 5.36) before rebounding with a record of 8-4 with a 3.54 ERA at Tacoma (AAA) to merit a recall in July 1983. Heimueller pitched well in his first outing for Oakland, a 3-1 loss at Baltimore in which he yielded 3 earned runs in 7 1/3 innings. With a similar effort on August 5, he notched his first big-league win, 3-2 at Minnesota. In 14 starts down the stretch along with a pair of relief outings, Heimueller compiled an ERA of 4.41 with a 1.458 WHIP. Six relief appearances in June 1984 with a composite 6.14 ERA punched his ticket back to the minors. Inking a minor league deal with the Twins after the ’84 campaign, Heimueller logged 14 saves with a 2.88 ERA with Orlando (AA) but ultimately walked away from pro ball after furnishing a 6.15 ERA for the Toledo Mud Hens (AAA) one year later.

Rich Behenna (#346) – Atlanta’s fourth round pick in the June 1978 Amateur Draft, Behenna edged closer to a big-league promotion when he recorded 13 victories in successive seasons (1981-82) for the Durham Bulls (A) and Savannah Braves (AA). The right-hander pitched five scoreless frames against Cincinnati to earn his first MLB victory on April 12, 1983 and held a 3-0 record with a 1.66 ERA after defeating Montreal and Houston in early May. Six weeks later Behenna was demoted to Richmond (AAA) where he racked up 61 walks against only 50 strikeouts. Sent to the Indians in September 1983 as the “player to be named later” in the Len Barker deal, Behenna somehow managed to make 12 appearances (11 starts) for Cleveland from 1983 to 1985 despite compiling an 0-7 record with a 7.12 ERA!

Richard Barnes (#608) – As mentioned in the “Oddballs and Oddities” section, Barnes is not depicted on his only standard-issue Major League baseball card (that’s a photo of Indians’ left-hander Neal Heaton). Drafted by the White Sox in the second round of the June 1977 Amateur Draft, the southpaw jumped from the Gulf Coast White Sox (Rookie) to the Knoxville Sox (AA) as a 17-year-old after triumphing in 8 of 9 decisions while posting an ERA of 1.60. He fashioned a 3.11 ERA at Double-A in ’78 but labored to a composite 4.92 ERA over the next 3+ campaigns at Iowa and Edmonton (AAA). Nevertheless Barnes received a promotion to the Pale Hose in July 1982 where he was promptly throttled by Harvey’s Wallbangers, recording only 5 outs and allowing 6 ER in his MLB debut. He recovered in his next start against Toronto one week later, giving up 3 unearned runs in 6 2/3 innings. The White Sox were poised to rampage through the American League Western Division in 1983 so Barnes honed his craft at their new AAA affiliate, the Denver Bears, where he supplied a record of 11-6 with a 4.17 ERA. Barnes was traded to the Tribe in late August 1983 in exchange for fleet-footed outfielder Miguel Dilone. Relieving for Rick Sutcliffe in the third inning on September 10, 1983, Barnes twirled 6 1/3 innings and yielded only one run to pick up his first and only MLB victory against the Red Sox. Bouts of wildness for the Maine Guides (AAA) contributed to a poor ratio although the portsider finished up on a high note when he compiled an ERA of 3.16 along with a 1.270 WHIP for the Tucson Toros and Iowa Cubs (AAA) before calling it a career after the ’85 season.

Did You Know?

Donruss card backs featured a Career Highlights section which contributed several interesting tidbits in addition to the standard references regarding awards along with the player’s Minor and Major League exploits.

Tom Foley (#81) – “Was an ambidextrous athlete in high school, playing as a righthanded SS in baseball and a lefthanded QB in football.”

Don Hill (#96) – “Switch hitter who also can throw with either arm.”

Curt Wilkerson (#99) – “Is a substitute teacher in the off-season.”

Tom Brennan (#102) – “Nicknamed ‘The Gray Flamingo’ because of his unorthodox hesitation delivery.”

Mike Boddicker (#123) – “Works in a grain elevator in his native Norway, Iowa during the off-season.”

Pete Ladd (#124) – “Nicknamed ‘Big Foot’ for his size 15 shoes.”

Kevin Hickey (#135) – “Was signed by Sox right off the sandlots of Chicago where he gained local fame as a softball pitcher.”

Tim Flannery (#202) – “Plays guitar professionally in the off-season.”

Pascual Perez (#507) – “Achieved a measure of dubious fame in ‘82 when he got lost driving to the Braves’ ballpark and ran out of gas.”

Errors

In total, 14 uncorrected error cards were identified in the Beckett Almanac of Baseball Cards and Collectibles while the entire subset of Diamond Kings along with the Rated Rookie cards for Ron Darling and Mike Stenhouse exist in both error and corrected form.

Rookie Cards

Don Mattingly, Darryl Strawberry, Joe Carter, Tony Phillips, Andy Van Slyke, Kevin McReynolds and Tony Fernandez highlight the list of players making their cardboard debuts in the ’84 Donruss set.

Price Guide (Then and Now)

In the inaugural volume of the “Beckett Baseball Card Monthly Price Guide” (November 1984), the 1984 Donruss Baseball complete set listed for $22. Individual cards listing for at least one dollar included Don Mattingly (# 248, $2), Darryl Strawberry (# 68, $1.75), Kevin McReynolds (# 34, $1.50), Ron Darling (#30B, $1.25) and Mike Stenhouse (#29B, $1). The Don Mattingly card currently sells in the $35-40 range (grade 8).

Please add a comment below if you would like to share any memories from collecting the 1984 Donruss baseball card set or your experiences with card collecting in general!

Articles in the Series

References and Resources

Beckett, Dr. James, Rich Klein and Grant Sandground. Beckett Almanac of Baseball Cards and Collectibles. Dallas, TX: Beckett Publications, 1997. Print.

Beckett.com (requires subscription to view prices):
https://www.beckett.com/search/?term=1984+donruss&year_start=1984