Random Cards from 1981

I finally did it. 

The vast majority of the cards I kept from the mega-haul back in the spring time are now sorted and organized. In the picture above you'll see the fruits of my sorting effort. The far right row is all 80s, middle right row is 90s, left middle is 1986 Topps and miscellaneous, and the far left row is cards I opened recently that need to be filed. The baggie is cards for the third grade class my friend teaches.

I've shared bits and pieces over the past few months but since now everything is organized, I can easily go by year. I'll start with 1981.

First, we have some 1981 Donruss. It being 1981 Donruss, it's full of strange and weird stuff, including some cards with photos done by Keith Olbermann. There is also fun stuff to be had. I'll admit, I was a little sad when I realized these were the only 1981 Donruss cards to be had but still, 81 Donruss is 81 Donruss. Between the two of these, it's really hard to pick a favorite but if I was forced to choose, it'd be the Dave Chalk card. Two reasons ... 1) the background is old Comiskey Park and I have a soft spot for old stadiums of yore, and 2) ... look closely above his hat. It looks to me like there might be an arrest in progress.

The rest of the 1981 cards come of the Topps variety. I'll freely admit that when someone mentions 1981 Topps, I have to think for a second or two on what the design is (same with 1981 Fleer). That being said, I really do like the design of the card with the hat on the bottom left. I also like how Topps but the little baseball on the right that clearly says "Topps" in all caps.

Regardless, this first batch has quite the cast of characters. Clint Hurdle is currently the Pirates manager and probably the most notable name from this group. The curious one to me here is Win Remmerswaal. First off, Win ... that's just a perfect name for a pitcher. I looked him up on Baseball Reference, looks like he only appeared in 22 games for the BoSox between 1979-80. His most notable claim to fame though is pitching 4.1 innings for Pawtucket in the 33-inning game from April 1981.

Three pretty notable names in this next batch. Mike Hargrove managed the Indians during the 90s glory years and by far had is most success there. Winning two AL pennants and five straight first place finishes from 1995-1999. I always forget about Bert Blyleven's stint with the Pirates in the late 70s and early 80s. To me, he just looks weird in yellow and black. And then, there's the namesake of the "Mendoza line", one Mario Mendoza himself.

Our last quintet features one member of the Indians with possibly either an afro or really curly hair, that being Jack Brohamer. This would be considered a sunset card of Brohamer as his last year in the bigs was 1980, which was split between Boston and Cleveland. Paul Splittorff was a Royals stalwart from 1970-1984 and was inducted into the Royals Hall of Fame. Closing out this fearsome five some is another player who spent his whole career with one team, that being Steve Rogers. 

That 1981 Expos team was something else, with Steve Rogers, Bill "Spaceman" Lee, and Bill Gullickson anchoring the rotation and a fearsome starting eight with Andre Dawson, Tim Raines, Gary Carter, and Tim Wallach among others. With the strike cutting out the middle part of the season and the the "split-season" playoff format, the Expos finished third in the first half and first in the second half. However, they ended up losing out on the NLCS to the Phillies in what was their best shot to get to the World Series in their early years.

That's all for 1981. In the year of Ronald Reagan, the Major League Baseball strike (read Jeff Katz's book if you want to know all about it), the formation of Metallica, and the final fight of Muhammad Ali, I'd say there were some pretty fun cards to go along with it.

The Yard Sale Cards: Vintage & Early 80s

Finally, after much sorting, organizing, picture taking, and organizing said pictures, it's time to reveal some of the contents of my gigantic yard sale find from a few weeks ago. I decided to start with baseball and work from there and what better way to start than with some vintage!

One of my favorite sets from the 70s is the 1973 version. I always liked the white borders, the player silhouette, and the clean look at the bottom. I was pleasantly surprised when I found not one, but two 1973 cards in the miscellaneous boxes. The Reds in 1973 finished 1st in the NL West with a 99-63 record but were upset in five games by the Yogi Berra led Mets who won a rather weak NL East division that season with an 82-79 record. 

Here's something I definitely wasn't expecting to find, that being this 1968 Ron Santo. At first, I thought maybe it was a reprint, but nope it's the real thing. Aside from the 1967 set, I can't think of a set in the 60s that I don't actively like. In terms of favorites from that decade though, this particular set is right up there with 69, 62, and 63. 

I keep having this thought that I'm going to start collecting team cards, just because they're so unique. Now, I'm talking cards that actually have team photos on them, like this one, not any old team card. The Braves didn't exactly blow the doors off anything in 1977 with a 61-101 record, including one game where Ted Turner managed them.

Here are a couple random 1976 cards that showed themselves amongst the sorting. I'm not familiar with either of these players but a quick search on Baseball Reference shows them nearing the tail end of their respective careers in the late 70s. By the early 80s, both guys would be gone from the majors.

There were a few early 80s cards included as well and I figured I'd throw them in with this batch as well so they really don't get lost in the shuffle. 1981 Topps I think really gets overlooked as it's sandwiched between two really fun sets in 1980 and 1982, plus the rookie class isn't loaded with hall of famers but has some notable "fan favorite" type players. Doug Bair, pictured here, was not one of them.

Speaking of rookies, the "rookie set" if you will of Donruss was 1981. Sure it's not the best looking set ever but it's a set I really enjoy and have considered putting together a time or two. I love the variety of the players in this lot with notable players from Cecil Cooper, Mario Soto, and Pete Vukovich to people like Joe Charboneru, who won the AL Rookie of the Year in 1980 and then flamed out.

There's the first batch of stuff from the yard sale. It'll be a slow process putting some of these together as there is a ton of stuff to write about.

Mystery Boxes From a Mystery Yard Sale

A few weeks ago, my step-mom dropped by for a few minutes on her way to some sort of wine tasting deal and dropped off the mountain of card boxes seen above. She said she was at a yard sale a while back and purchased these from some withered old man for the paltry sum of three dollars. After about a half hour or so, she headed off to her event and I did a quick peek through the boxes. It was too late at night to pull everything out and go through them so I left them on the kitchen table for the next day. The next afternoon, I started digging through the boxes. Yes, there was junk wax but not as much as I thought. Then, I did what any rational human being would do when presented with three well worn boxes of cards ... I sorted them!

As you can clearly see, there were cards from all different years and sets included. There was a lot more variety than I though there would be as I was expecting boxes filled with 1990 Donruss and 1989 Topps. Yeah, there was a lot of 1989 Topps, but it didn't phase me at all. After I sorted, I pulled the dupes and loaded some into the trade box and the rest went into the donation bag for Goodwill. After that, I went back through, pulled out the highlights and put the rest into my sorting box to await their turn to be put into pages and loaded into a binder (that reminds me, I need more binders).

Despite the influx of Donruss and Fleer in 1981, I still dig cards from the early 80s. There was a good amount of 1981 Fleer in the boxes so I scanned in some of the highlights. I about flipped when I saw the Jerry Koosman and Ron Cey cards, although I think the Cey might be a duplicate. There's just something about the Koosman card though, mainly because I'd forgotten he was still kicking around in the early 80s and there's also that awesome power blue Twins roadie.

1981 Topps is one of those sets where if you were to ask me what it looked like, it'd take me a while to try to remember it and at that point, I'd have to Google it. I feel it's often a forgotten set, overshadowed by the shiny new Fleer and Donruss sets (well, maybe not shiny on Donruss' part but definitely new). There were mostly commons from the set I found but a few minor stars from the time such as Randy Jones, Dave Cash, and Rick Sutcliffe.

A batch of cards from both 1982 Fleer and 1982 Topps. There weren't a lot of major "star" cards in these early 80s batches but still, there were minor stars, fan favorites, and some really fun photography.

Base set cards weren't the only thing in the boxes, there were some curiosities and randomness as well. Take these two 1984 O-Pee-Chee cards for example. Of all the O-Pee-Chee cards, somehow someway these wound up in a box in a dirty garage in southwest Ohio. As I was sorting through the cards initially, I hit a stack of 1984 Topps. I thought to myself "wouldn't it be something if there were some OPC cards in here?" Lo and behold the next cards were O-Pee-Chee. It's as if the cardboard gods were listening. (PS: Never mind the funky lines, my scanner decided it wanted to mess with me).

My curiosity was peaked with these cards as well. I've never seen cards from the 87 and 88 Topps sets that had the "now with ..." printing on them. I've only ever seen that with O-Pee-Chee cards. After doing a quick search on the Trading Card DB, it turns out that these are just standard old base cards, nothing special. However, to me they're pretty unique.

There were also a bunch of the glossy All-Stars and Rookie sets from the mid-80s. The Clemens All-Star card reminds me of something you might see from the early 70s with the palm trees and cars in the background.

Not to be outdone, Score joined the fun on the All-Star cards as well. The Mike Schmidt card looks like someone trimmed a side off of it with some scissors at some point.

One box was nothing but 87 and 88 Topps. I know everyone is probably sick of 87 Topps by now but these are a few of my favorites, especially the Jose Rijo A's card and the Langston M's card.

Some late 80's randomness including a Royce Clayton minor league card and a Tom Glavine RC.

Now a few of my favorites to wrap up the 80s, first this Randy Johnson 1989 Topps RC.

Some cards for the Eckersley collection.

And my favorite from the 80s cards .... Reggie as an Oriole!!!!

Ok, it's going to be hard for the 90s cards to top that. But that's to be continued on Thursday afternoon ...