A Not-So-Arbitrary Arbitrary Collection - 1980s

Moving into the 1980s now, having featured the 1950s, the 1960s, and the 1970s over the past month. These card designs were very familiar to me in my childhood collecting days. I wondered if there were any patterns for this cards, but there really weren't. It's been covered by other bloggers in the past, but cards ending in "0" or "5" were traditionally saved for stars. It was fortuitous, then, that 1983 featured Ryne Sandberg on card #83 - the only Hall of Fame player shown so far.

Do you have a favorite design from the 1980s? You can see that 1982 was the year that Topps started to regularly use their new lettering design. 81 and 82 still feature cartoons, though I have always been partial to the team logo on the back of the 1984 set. The 1980s left a little less room for fun facts, instead listing a single highlight (or 2) from the player's career. I didn't know that Mark Salas had a brother that pitched in the minors, or that Mike Marshall was nicknamed "Big Foot." Thanks Topps!

1994 Topps Traded Set

Rickey Henderson was back with the Oakland A's again in 1994, fresh off a World Series championship with the Toronto Blue Jays. When the Topps Traded set was printed, the season was in full swing, but Topps did not know that it would end just a month later.  No World Series winner, no Wild Card playoff (it was the first year with the 6 division alignment), and several players had promising seasons cut short.

The 1994 Traded Set was not a big rookie class, but it did yield a few interesting draft picks, and an overseas sensation, Chan Ho Park from Korea.

Long before the major card manufacturers started using an "official" Rookie Card logo, there was this much more understated text underneath the Topps logo on the back of the card.

Included in the set was a Topps Finest preview set- with 3 MVP candidates from each league and a rookie of the year candidate. The backs had the 1994 stats for each player through July 10th (awkward!). Frank Thomas ran away with the award in the AL, he was hitting nearly .400 for the season at the All-Star Break (he finished at .353), and rattled off 101 RBI, scored 106 runs, drew 109 walks, and hit 38 homers in just 113 games. The NL MVP was missing, but Matt Williams would have been a solid bet. He was the NL leader in homers (43), won a Gold Glove and a Silver Slugger.  Maddux wasn't really in the running for MVP, but he was the NL Cy Young Winner.

There were more Hall of Famers in the set, including a 2 card retrospective for the definitely permanently retired Ryne Sandberg.

2019 Inductee Lee Smith joined the Baltimore Orioles, and Pedro Martinez headed north to join the Expos. The team would finish with the best record in baseball, but were unable to prove their mettle in the post season due to the strike.

Twins! Walbeck and Stevens came over from the Cubs in the Willie Banks deal, and Stevens would ultimately become the team's closer. Alex Cole joined the team as a free agent as Kirby Puckett moved to Right Field. The one homegrown product? Utility infielder Jeff Reboulet!

Hall of famers were not the only ones making moves, some familiar faces also found new digs (or, in the case of Bip Roberts, returned to old ones). Ron Gant is modeling the awesome 1869 Red Stockings patch the Reds wore all season long. The rest of the MLB teams had "125th Anniversary" patches, and the Pirates wore patches for hosting the All-Star game.

A handful more transactions, including Will Clark leaving San Francisco, Bo Jackson heading out West, and Omar Vizquel serving as the final piece of the puzzle to jump start a mini Cleveland Dynasty in the mid to late 90s.

Put Me in, Coach- I'm Ready to Trade

A Coach named Tom sent me this autograph by a Coach named Tom, who signed it for another Tom (from Angels in Order) through the mail. The first Coach Tom is the blogger of Waiting 'Til Next Year who sent along a big stack of cards of all sizes this weekend.

This is a 1971 Topps Super of the Super-talented Tony Oliva, I had the 1970 version, but this 1971 model is new to me!

I bombarded Tom with a stack of Rey Sanchezes (Gesundheit), and he retorted with a Trio of Smalleys.

There was a big stack from my various vintage and junk wax wantlists, covering cards throughout the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Scioscia is my favorite from this grouping.

Even a card from the 1960s sneaks in there! Great stuff hitting all the arbitrary mile markers.

Modern Twins as well including a pair of Pucketts from 89 Donruss mini sets.

And hey, look at this! Big time vintage with 1954 Topps.

I didn't know Harvey Haddix's nickname was "kitten"! That's awesome.

This is probably my favorite Bowman's Best design - the team color scheme turned out very well.

I checked, Tom, I didn't have this Vargas card! I'm was really pumped, because I've probably passed up buying this parallel more than once for fear I already had it. But I only found dual patches, quad patches, dual bat pieces, and auto versions of this card in my collection. Is Vogelbach in this set as well? My condolences either way!

Last but definitely not least, Tom gifted me this Sandberg rookie, a key need on my junk wax wantlist. This is a really nice gesture considering Tom has one of the more extensive Sandberg PCs.

                                                         RYNO CANNOT BE CAGED!

Thanks so much Tom, awesome cards.