Best Baseball Card pix

Batman, I thought 1981 was the perfect storm of suck for baseball cards. I thought the boring-ass Topps design was another indication that the company didn't have to try to monopolize the market...at least until Fleer and Donruss came along and sucked out loud.

Though come to think of it, the 1988 Topps may be the worst-looking card ever, especially considering the competition. "Hey we've got four companies nipping at our heels, I have an idea, let's re-do the yawn-inducing 1986 design, except with less pizazz!"

 

Agree to disagree, BYH. I thought the '81 cards were great, just because they looked different than what had come before and nothing after really looked the same either. They're one of maybe five years I can still look at a card and identify the year on the spot. And they were one of the first years I had a ton of the cards for. Guess they just hold a warm spot in my heart.

 

You shut up! You suck!

Totally understand on certain cards/sets holding a warm spot in the ol' heart. I've always loved the '80 Topps b/c those were the first cards I ever "bought" (i.e. mom or dad gave me 50 cents to get a pack from the ice cream man). and the '86 Topps, the first real set I ever built, will always be special to me even though the design is just not very inspiring.

And along those lines: While I didn't like the '81 Topps--or '82 or '83 or '84 Topps--I can identify, in a split-second, the year the card was produced. That goes for any card from '80-'88. starts getting fuzzy around '89.

 

From my youth, I really like the 1978, 1981 (sorry BYH), 1982, 1985 and 1987 Topps cards. I probably like the '78 cards the best. Clean design, tasteful script for the teams, though Topps always fucked around and DIDN'T use team colors for those multi-colored designs.

But I probably have the most of these, the only time other than '87 I really came close to full set just by buying wax packs.



Nice bunt, dillhole. Now get your ass to bench so Ted Simmons can play. Except that one time at Fenway Park.

I didn't like the 1980 cards much (though I had a ton), 1984 or 1988. The 1986 cards, of which I have many, just sucked out loud.

 

As I said earlier, I always thought Topps was lazy. Two generations of collectors bought their cards out of habit. They didn't have to come up with a neat or interesting design to earn the interest of collectors, a la Fleer and Donruss and Score and Sportflics...well, OK, maybe not Sportflics, though I do have an entire 1987 set occupying dust at my parents' house.

In the '80s, I thought only the 1980 and 1985 Topps were particularly sharp. I loved the 1990 set though...and the decidedly modern design, in my mind, was no coincidence given how Score and Upper Deck were really raising the bar:

 

Tonight on Post Modern MTV ... Wade Boggs!

Topps was lazy in other ways. Based out of New York, there was always an inordinate amount of photos taken at Yankee and Shea Stadiums. Also Dodger Stadium and Candlestick Park for some reason.

It was always a find for me to see one of the other teams in their home whites, those photos usually taken at spring training.

Topps was the best marketing arm for MLB's practice jerseys in the mid-to-late 80s because they took so many spring training shots.

Then, of course, there was the poorly executed air-brushing of a team logo when a guy was traded late in the season. To wit ...



The afro only accentuates the suckitude of that airbrush job. Looks like a cap Babe Ruth shoved up inside a hooker to win a bet.

 

Gotta tell ya, BYH, we're at opposite ends for the 81 and 88 designs. I liked the 81s because of the design element of the cap, the way they tailored each one to the team (the Pirates in the pillbox design; the narrow yellow triangle on the Padres; the panels on the Blue Jays and Orioles caps).

Also the 88 set doesn't seem to get much love. I always liked that design because it gave each player the illusion of being on their own magazine cover, even if they were a scrub middle infielder who couldn't hit his weight.

The 86 set was also the first one I ever completed, but that design was not only uninspiring, it flat out sucked. It was a bad idea to make the top third of the card a black border because whenever it was miscut just a little you would notice right away.

 

Holy shit this is hilarious.



Unconfirmed Player Note: No matter how much he had hoped his status as a Bazooka Shining Star would increase his locker room cred, Paul Gibson was still voted by his teammates "most likely not to bag one groupie" before the 1989 season.
Player: Paul Gibson
Tags: 1989 Topps Bazooka, Detroit Tigers, glasses, bazooka shining star, never seen breasts, huge nerd

 

I can see the '88s looking like a magazine cover. But still...bleech. Just nothing inspiring, to me at least. I imagine I might also feel differently if the market wasn't flooded with 21,000,000,000 cards.

 

My mom, while flipping through my cards, came across this one and named my brother after him.

 

Interesting story about the '83 Topps: The stores my mom always went to never had the baseball cards for sale that year (Back then, I usually would pick up some when I went grocery shopping with mom). In late summer, I was out of town visiting friends and bought about six packs at the drug store, the only six packs I would buy that year. Among those cards I got in the haul were the Sandberg card pictured above, and the Tony Gwynn rookie. Still have them to this day.