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.

Random Cards from Random Repacks

A long while back, the spring to be exact, I opened a whole bunch of 100-card repacks from the local Walgreens. I had every intent to share the findings in posts of their own, but now it's three months later and pictures of these cards have been haunting me ever since. So, instead of doing individual posts, here's some of the best from four random repacks.

Here's a 1983 O-Pee-Chee of Phil Niekro. I never really had an appreciation for O-Pee-Chee until I started reading card blogs. Now, whenever I get an OPC card, it instantly goes into the collection.

Paul Konerko is well know for being the first baseman for the White Sox for what seemed like forever but did you know he had a very brief stint with the Reds in 1998? Yep, the Dodgers sent him and Dennys Reyes to the Reds for Jeff Shaw on Independence Day 1998 and he appeared in 26 games as an outfielder and a corner utility man. After the season, the Reds sent him to the White Sox for Mike Cameron and the rest is history. I love cards like this that recognize a player having a brief stint with a team, especially ones that no one barely remembers them being with.

Oh, also, did I mention this is the Gold Medallion Edition of Fleer Ultra? That's pretty cool. 

Yay! 1981 Donruss! I always liked the design on these cards with the colored frame around the photo and the yellow team name on the lower right. The photos are also something else I enjoy on them. I definitely think between them and the debut issue of Fleer the same year, Donruss is the better overall product.

Here's a nice Warren Spahn card that was a cover card on one of the repacks. Also, bonus points on this for it showing him as a member of the Milwaukee Braves.

This isn't weird at all. I always think this is a Rockies card because the mascot takes up more of the card than the featured player but it's an Astros card of Brad Ausmus. You wouldn't know it though just by looking at it.

I'll take an Andrew Benintendi 2017 Topps card out of a repack, yes please! While this is just the regular version and not a variation, it really doesn't matter to me. While Benintendi isn't someone I've put on my player collection list, I don't mind adding a card of his here and there.

Some glossy Topps cards from the 80s. I love that Willie McCovey card with him in the old school Giants uniform and the fact that it says "captain" as his position.

Cards of Hall of Famers, mostly junk wax but the real standout here is the 1999 Topps Wade Boggs, the final year of Boggs' career. His sunset card would come the next season in the 2000 Topps set

It seems like every repack nowadays has a plethora of 2012 Topps, which is a set I really enjoy. I've mentioned previously, packs of 2012 Topps were the first packs I bought when I got back into collecting. The first two, Jim Thome and Manny Ramirez are interesting as the Thome card is a sunset card (meaning his final card issued during his career) and Ramirez is a zero-year card (meaning a card issued of a player featuring him on a team with which he never played). Darvish and Cespedes were two of the bigger rookie names that season and both came out of the same pack. Finally, the the Ichiro card has a fantastic picture on it. 

Finally, a pretty trippy card of Javy Lopez, known primarily for being the Braves catcher during the dominant run of the 90s. I'd had no clue he played with the Orioles but looks like he played out the last few seasons of his career there. I don't think I've ever seen a Donruss Zenith card before but in person it's pretty neat.

In regards to repacks, I think I might be done with them for the short term, unless I decided to go for the 50-card, 4-pack variety at Target. I will say that I really enjoyed throwing the best cards from multiple repacks together instead of reviewing the repacks one by one and talking about filler cards.

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.