88 Score Rookie & Traded Set

We're done

2009-03-13T13:30:00.003-04:00

Hey guess what? We're done with this set, and with this blog. The full 110-card set went by quickly, didn't it?

The good news is that I'm moving right along to my next set, the 1989 Topps Major League Debut set, and we're just getting started over at my new blog, Traded Sets.

See you on the other side!

#110T Orestes Destrade

2009-03-13T13:00:00.000-04:00

We complete this set not with a bang, but with a whimper. Destrade was a well-regarded rookie at this time but disappeared from the big leagues after 1988. Disappeared until 1993, that is, when he got a shot with the first-year Marlins and posted a 20-HR season. He fell off considerably in 1994 and that was truly it for him. Destrade had spent 3 of those intervening years (1990-1992) in Japan, where he hit 42, 39, and 41 HR while playing 130 or fewer games each year (the season in Japan is shorter than in MLB.)

I don't see any particularly interesting words on the back, so here are some anagrams for Orestes Destrade:

Retreaded tosses
Dread sore testes
Rotted deer asses

#109T Darrin Jackson

2009-03-13T12:00:00.000-04:00

It's a nice action shot of Jackson, but what I find truly interesting is the kneeling ball girl in the background. There's something you don't see every day on a baseball card.

Best phrase on the back is definitely "groin area."

#108T Melido Perez

2009-03-13T10:00:00.000-04:00

This is a great action shot of Perez, but what exactly is sitting in the stands on the right? It looks like a huge cartoon giraffe.

There are a few choice words on the back including "supple," "ironies," and "charming."

The

#107T John Costello

2009-03-13T08:00:00.001-04:00

Holy orgasm face! The one on the back ain't much better.

Best phrase on the back is clearly "gold-plated."

The

#106T Todd Burns

2009-03-12T16:00:00.000-04:00

Here's another great photo showing the back of a player, made OK by the headshot on the back of the card.

Best word on the back is clearly "Oral." You just have to go read the card back now, eh?

#105T Roberto Alomar

2009-03-12T13:00:00.001-04:00

Here's the first rubber bat we've seen in a while. On the front, we can also see a guy in a muscle shirt as well as a photographer.

On the back of the card, I feel fairly certain that the hat is airbrushed onto Alomar. It just doesn't look right, especially at the edge where his hair is under the brim of the cap.

Best word on the back is "smashing," used as an adjective and not a present participle.

I also note mention in the space of a couple of sentences of Sandy Alomar Sr., Sandy Alomar Jr., Nolan Ryan, and Tony Gwynn.

#104T Don August

2009-03-12T11:00:00.000-04:00

This isn't even close to August's rookie card, as he had on Olympic card in the 1985 Topps set. (See here.)

Speaking of the Olympics, the best word on the back is "thrill."

#103T Craig Biggio

2009-03-12T08:00:00.001-04:00

I love Craig Biggio. I mean, I love him as a player.

Pretty quietly, he put together a fantastic career. Start that he managed to stick with one franchise for 20 seasons. And check out these career milestones: 3,000 hits, 600 doubles, nearly 300 homers, and an OPS+ of 111.

In the photo on the front, it looks like Shea Stadium to me, but the Astros appear to be wearing home uniforms. Hmm. Biggio did play 3 games at Shea in 1988.

Check out the photo on the back, however. Look in the background. There's the back, ass, and legs of a young lady. Hmm. It seems fitting, then, that the best word on the back is "eye-popping."

#102T Walt Weiss

2009-03-11T16:00:00.000-04:00

Here's the other rookie of the year from 1988 although his photo on the back makes him look like he should have been your paperboy in 1988.

It says something about your game when the first thing they mention on the back is how good you are defensively and also that you were good enough for your team to trade the pretty sucky Alfredo Griffin.

I guess I'll call out "Pioneer" as the most interesting word on the back.

#101T Tim Belcher

2009-03-11T12:00:00.001-04:00

All I have to say is...wtf is going on with Belcher's eyes on the back of the card? Oh that, adn the fact that the front photo features a nice shot of his grip on the baseball.

I like that phrase--"swiftly amassed"--on the back.

#100T Chris Sabo

2009-03-11T08:00:00.000-04:00

Here's the last big card number in the set, even number 100, and they gave it to the 1988 Rookie of the Year, Chris Sabo. That's a fantastic photo on the front, with Sabo fielding a bunt (or swinging bunt.) And of course, a very nice closeup of his trademark glasses on the back.

Best word on the back is definitely "anything-to-win."

#99T Pat Borders

2009-03-10T16:00:00.000-04:00

Wow, this is another great photo, and the kind that works only with the headshot on the back. If there were just the photo on the front, I'd be ragging on Score for not showing Borders' face. But instead, we get a cool body action shot and can still see Pat's smile on the back. Sorta looks like his mom used that helmet as a guide for cutting his hair, though.

Most interesting words on the back are "two-run triple", given that Borders ended up with just 12 career triples over 17 seasons.

#98T Luis Alicea

2009-03-10T12:00:00.000-04:00

This card features slanted photos on both the front and the back. The one one the front is particularly cool. I like cards with shadows as long as the shadow doesn't overlap the player too much. Here, Alicea and his shadow aren't even touching! This guy is a coach for the Red Sox these days.

My favorite word on the back is "pivot."

#97T Al Leiter

2009-03-10T08:00:00.000-04:00

Leiter's got some nice flying gold chain action on the front of the card. On the back, there's an odd white spot in the orange border around his head shot. I wonder if that's a misprint on this particular card or if they were all like that.

The back of this card is one of the cheesiest in this set, and the oddest word is quite clearly "elan."

#96T Nelson Santovenia

2009-03-09T16:00:00.000-04:00

The back of the card would seem to contain an egregious error. It says that Santovenia and Rafael Palmeiro were the only Cuban-born players in the majors at the time. Right off the top of my head, I came up with Jose Canseco, who was born in Havana and was certainly in the majors in 1988. Checking out this list, we also see Orestes Destrade, who has a rookie card coming up in this set, as well as Tony Fossas and Barbaro Garbey.

Best word on the back is "smarts."

#95T Jay Buhner

2009-03-09T12:00:00.000-04:00

Nice yellow wristband that Bone is rocking. The photo on the back is odd--looks like everything around Buhner was blacked out for some reason.

Most interesting word on the back? I guess "bulldog", narrowly beating out "Community College."

#94T Jeff Pico

2009-03-09T08:00:00.000-04:00

Some serious chunks of dirt flying there! Nice!

Here is a list of shutouts in first career start, coming for the Cubs. The back of the card refers to only the first start in a career, not the first start for the Cubs, which is why they ignore Cardwell. That list goes back only to 1956.

Best word on the back? "Auspicious."

#93T Sil Campusano

2009-03-08T08:00:00.000-04:00

Usher on the front, sweet chain around his neck on the back. What more could you want?

There's a small oopsie on the back with the justification of the number "9" for his doubles in 1985.

I'll go with "wheels" as the most interesting word on the back. brought to you by Tom Henke.

#92T Don Gordon

2009-03-07T08:00:00.001-05:00

Gordon was a strange choice to include in this set. He wasn't a rookie, having pitched in the bigs in 1986 and 1987, as you can see on the back. I guess Score didn't give him a card in the regular 1988 set (unlike Topps, which did.) It's also strange that they tucked him in the back of this update set, along with true rookies all around him.

At least they used a nice photo.

All kinds of unusual words on the back, including "Commercial Education", "Retail Management", and "Gamecocks."

#91T Mike Schooler

2009-03-06T16:00:00.000-05:00

Not much to say about this card except for how sweaty he is on the back of the card.

For strangest word, I'm going with two uses of the word "Venezuelan" for a guy not born in that particular country.

#90T Todd Stottlemyre

2009-03-06T12:00:00.000-05:00

The orange color scheme distracts a bit from a great photo here. Lots of blue for the Blue Jays, ball captured mid-flight, and Stottlemyre's arm and fingers all extended. Nice stuff.

Best word on the back is either "sizzling" or "meteoric."

#89T Dave Gallagher

2009-03-06T08:00:00.000-05:00

Gallagher's bat looks about 4 feet long! It also looks like there might be a bit of a puff of dirt to the left, so maybe he just hit a grounder.

Who's in the background? If that's a White Sox player wearing a warmup jersey, then it's Greg Walker.

Weirdest word on the back is probably "gloveman."

#88T John Dopson

2009-03-05T16:00:00.000-05:00

And the honor of card #88 in 1988 goes to John Dopson, who appeared in the bigs in 1985 and yet gets a rookie card in 1988.

Anybody know who coached first base for the Cubs in 1988? That guy is probably in the background.

The best words on the back are the phrase "14-hit shutout." Here are the most hits allowed in a complete-game shutout.

Orioles photos

2009-03-05T14:12:00.001-05:00

In case you don't read Kevin's Orioles Card O the Day blog, you need to see his latest post with some simply incredible photos his aunt took in 1979.

#87T Bryan Harvey

2009-03-05T12:00:00.000-05:00

Here's yet another squinter. What the hell is up with this? The photographs in this set have been uniformly excellent until the last few cards.

Most surprising word on the back? Clearly "Furniture" although I liked "downtown" too.

#86T Rob Dibble

2009-03-05T08:00:00.002-05:00

Check out Dibble's arm fat rippling all over the place! Wow!

Best word on the back? "Sizzling." Why sizzle fat when you can Sizzlean?

(If you are over the age of 30 and don't find that commercial hilarious, then something's wrong with you.)

#85T Jack McDowell

2009-03-04T16:00:00.000-05:00

Flying gold chain on the front, squinty eyes on the back!

The word "equalled" is on the back, again an acceptable but rare variant of the word "equaled."

Sad to see the mention of the late Don Drysdale on the back. For perspective on how old these cards are, he's be gone for more than 15 years already and yet was quoted on this card.

#84A Pete Smith

2009-03-04T12:00:00.000-05:00

This is one of the more boring photos in this set, which is saying something because it ain't so bad. On the back, this is one of a number of upcoming cards where the player has squinty eyes.

Check out how interesting the text on the back of the card is. Smith was believed the head of "Atlanta's impressive young crop of pitching prospects," which at the time included Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, and Steve Avery.

How about the trade that is mentioned. Good for both teams? Really? Smith never won more than 7 games in a season for the Braves. Virgil was a decent catcher and league-average hitter. Bedrosian, meanwhile, won a Cy Young for the Phillies and was then traded for Terry Mulholland, Charlie Hayes, and Dennis Cook, 3 players that all did good things with the Phillies and were traded later for more talent. Thompson was a good player for the Phillies who eventually was on the 1993 NL champion team and is now their hitting coach.

Most unexpected word on the back is "star" since Smith was never one in the big leagues.

#83T Steve Ellsworth

2009-03-04T08:00:00.000-05:00

The last 4 cards have been 2 well known Cubs (Grace & Berryhill) and two unknown Red Sox pitchers named Steve (Curry and Ellsworth.) This Steve got himself into 8 games with the Red Sox in 1988, had a 6.75 ERA, and was never heard from again. Note that Ellsworth was close to his 28th birthday in these photos--pretty old for a rookie. This photo was taken in Fenway Park, so it must have been one of these four games.

The most interesting text on the back is "Business Administration." Also interesting is the implication by Score that getting his college degree was better than playing minor league baseball. I'm not saying that I agree or disagree, just that it's sort of odd that Score would choose to make a value judgement on that.

#82T Damon Berryhill

2009-03-03T16:00:00.000-05:00

This is a great example of the kind of action photo that Score could use due to the use of the headshot on the back. Hitting a baseball requires the batter's head to be down, watching the ball, and thus Berryhill's face is almost completely invisible. But that's OK since we can see it on the back of the card, and we get the awesome action shot of the ball about the be whacked.

Most unusual word on the back is the rather pedestrian "displaced."

#81T Steve Curry

2009-03-03T12:00:00.001-05:00

Here's another guy I never heard of. Curry made it into 3 games for the Red Sox in 1988, pitching to an 8.18 ERA, and then never appeared in the majors again. An unidentified White Sox player is in the background.

Checking out Curry's gamelogs, two of his 3 starts were against the White Sox, and one was in Chicago. So this photo was probably from that July 10th game at Comiskey. Hmm, maybe we can figure out which White Sock that is. Looks like a guy leading off second base, and he's pretty dark-skinned. Check out the box score from that game. Gary Redus got to second base in the first inning, but I think his skin was significantly lighter than that of the fellow in the photo. Greg Walker (white guy) got to 2B in the first inning, and then Daryl Boston got there. Boston (Daryl, that is) was #8 and I think that's who we are looking at.

In the second inning, Redus got to 2B again. In the third inning, no White Sock got there. In the fourth inning, Fred Manrique got there, but again I think his skin was much too light to be the guy in the photo. Redus got to second yet again that inning. I think 5th inning, a couple of White Sox got on, but nobody stopped at second before Curry was knocked out of the game.

So there you have it: Daryl Bsoton.

The oddest word on the back of the card is clearly "Manatee."

#80T Mark Grace

2009-03-03T08:00:00.000-05:00

Mark Grace is one of those guys who looked the same on his last baseball card as he did on his first baseball card. His body shape was the same and he aged very well. This is a nice photo, except for the poor batboy who is blocked by Grace's knee.

The card back is pretty interesting to read. Richie Zisk thought that Grace had 25-HR power, but he never topped 17 HR in any season.

Best words on the back? The phrases "good head" and "best looking." Heh.

Interesting to see 3 other players mentioned on the back too: Zisk, Chris Gwynn, and Keith Hernandez.

Grace had a great career but will never make the Hall of Fame.

#79T Don Heinkel

2009-03-02T16:00:00.000-05:00

Heinkel is another guy of whom I've never heard. He did get back to the bigs in 1989, but pitched just 7 games before departing for good. He spent a lot more time in the minors than most of the other rookies we've seen in this set, so he gets less copy on his card.

Still, we did get a mention of "Biology" on the back.

#78T Jack Armstrong

2009-03-02T12:00:00.000-05:00

Ladies and gentlemen, your 1990 NL All-Star starting pitcher!

The photo on the back looks like a mannequin.

The most interesting word on the back is clearly "odyssey" but I'll give a shout out also to "heady" and "eye-popping."

#77T Oswald Peraza

2009-03-02T08:00:00.000-05:00

Wow, look how far bent Peraza's wrist is! I mean the one on his glove hand, of course.

Peraza is one of the few guys in this set I've never heard of. He had only 19 games in the big leagues, all in 1988.

Instead of selecting just one odd word, let me point out two odd phrases on the back: "loads of stuff" and "enough said." Enough said.

#76T Mike Macfarlane

2009-03-01T08:00:00.000-05:00

There's another umpire clearly visible in the background, although I have no idea who it is.

Most unusual word on the back is "faze" of course.

#75T Joey Meyer

2009-02-28T08:00:00.000-05:00

Meyer has been captured here in all his meatball glory, looking quite hefty as he lunges for the pitch. I guess Meyer was given card #75 because he had a bunch of success in the majors in 1988, at least producing a fair number of runs in a little over half a season. Meyer got only 53 more games in the majors after that, though.

The quote on the back, from an anonymous teammate, has GOT to be a dig at Meyer, suggesting that he couldn't play defense.

By the way, I once saw a Denver Zephyrs game at Mile High Stadium and saw the star marking the massive home run mentioned on the back of the card.

Best word on the back? "Monstrous."

#74T Greg Briley

2009-02-27T16:00:00.000-05:00

I wonder if Briley swung and missed, or if he fouled the ball upwards. Those are some seriously big eyeglasses, and if you don't believe me, just look at the photo on the back. As style for eyeglasses has gotten smaller and smaller, I wonder if players would really play with them today, since the smaller lenses yield a small field of (non-blurry) vision.

These days, I can't think of anybody who still wears eyeglasses, although I'm sure there must be at least a pitcher or two.

Pornographic Greg Briley

Best word on the back is clearly "Pee Wee." OK, I guess that's two words.

#73T Cecil Espy

2009-02-27T12:00:00.000-05:00

This card is an example of why I do this blog.

Take a look at the photo above. See anything particularly interesting? No?

There's something pretty damn cool on this card, and you'll want to click on the image above to see the fine detail. It's the reflection on Espy's helmet. Look carefully and you can see the foul line, the stands, as well as his own bat reflected there. You can even see clouds!

I bet you just spent 30 seconds studying a photo that you otherwise might have spent half a second glancing at.

Most unusual word on the back? "18th."

#72T Darryl Hamilton

2009-02-27T08:00:00.000-05:00

A bunch of interesting things on this card. Firstly, I love the bunting photo. Secondly, I love being able to see the bottoms of his sneakers. Thirdly, I love the shadow on the ground. Fourthly, I love the photo on the back, itself for 4 reasons: A) Hamilton's playful smile B) The 1960's Batman tilting of the photo C) the fact that both beer and cigarettes ads are visible and D) the strange object flying through the air on the top left. It is a flag? A bird? Who knows?

Let's go with "dazzling" as the best word.

Hamilton had a pretty nice career, although he was strictly a singles hitter, finishing with a career batting average of .291 but an OPS+ of just 95. In 1996, he batted .293 but had an OPS+ of only 81. That's incredible.

#71T Jeff Montgomery

2009-02-26T16:00:00.000-05:00

Here's Royals all-time saves leader Jeff Montgomery.

I did a little research, and behind him is, I think, Al Bumbry, who was the Red Sox' first base coach during 1988 (and other years.)

On the back, while "totalled" is an acceptable variant of the word "totaled", it's much less common. I'll go with that as the most unusual word, narrowly beating out "Freshman", "Computer", and "Science."

#70T Brady Anderson

2009-02-26T12:00:00.000-05:00

The copy on the back of the card nicely sums up the trade that sent Anderson to the Orioles, one of a few prospects the Red Sox traded during this period that went on to have notably major league careers (the others being Curt Schilling, actually traded with Anderson in this deal, and Jeff Bagwell, traded away for another Andersen--this one with an 'e' and a first name of Larry.)

Most interesting word on the back? "Steroids."

Ha! Just kidding! Made you look!

Most unusual word? I guess "seasoning," although that's not such a rare word.

#69T Tommy Gregg

2009-02-26T08:00:00.000-05:00

Again it's kind of weird how the copy on the back of the card talks about him homering in the big leagues in 1988 and yet there are no 1988 stats on the card. I guess they started working on these cards before the season was over and couldn't include 1988 performance.

Most unusual word on the back? I'm going with "punt."

#68T Ricky Jordan

2009-02-25T16:00:00.000-05:00

This photo was probably taken at the same game as Bob Dernier's since they're both at Wrigley.

For Phillies fans, this was a great card to have in 1988 as Jordan ripped onto the scene that year (but unfortunately never became a decent full-time player despite a career OPS+ of 103.) Oddly, Jordan's full real name is Paul Scott Jordan.

I was tempted to choose "slick", "fluke", or "heroics" as the odd word here, but in the end, I went with "Maine", a word I think you see less often on a baseball card than those other three.

#67T Ray Hayward

2009-02-25T12:00:00.001-05:00

Starting with this card, the rest of the set is all rookie cards. (I guess the previous card, Jeff Bittiger, was also a rookie card.) You'll notice that from here on out, just about all the players have very few stat lines and therefore tons of text.

For the rest of this set, one thing I'm going to do for each post is pick the strangest, most interesting and/or most unusual word on the back of the card. In Hayward's case, it's most definitely "finance."

The front of this card features an awesome photo, with ball in mid-flight.

#66T Jeff Bittiger

2009-02-25T08:00:00.000-05:00

Oh man, I hope that's not his orgasm face.

The back of the card talks all about his minor league performance, but they failed to mention how he had more walks than strikeouts on 1983. Wow.

#65T Larry Parrish

2009-02-24T16:00:00.000-05:00

I wrote a whole thing about 3-HR games and Larry Parrish right here.

It's also interesting that in his last season, Parrish had 7 HR and 26 RBI for both the Rangers and the Red Sox (same totals for each team.)

#64T Jesse Orosco

2009-02-24T12:00:00.001-05:00

There's an interesting stat on the back about extra-inning grand slams.

Here is the list of such slammers in 2008, of which there were 6. No pitcher gave up more than 1, although Toronto was involved in half of them, giving up 2 and hitting 1.

In 1987, there were just 3, including the pair by Orosco and one off Joel Davis.

#63T Floyd Bannister

2009-02-24T08:00:00.000-05:00

Holy crap! Another card featuring Kevin Seitzer in the background! (see also: Glenn Hubbard.) This guy has one of the best smiles in the history of baseball.

#62T Mike Jackson

2009-02-23T16:00:00.000-05:00

Jackson is one of my more favorite players and I think is pretty underrated. His 1998 seasons was, in particular, one for the ages. He even got an MVP vote that year.

The game mentioned on the back is right here, and that's a pretty cheap save, pitching 3 mop-up innings in a blowout win.

#61T Jerry Reuss

2009-02-23T12:00:00.000-05:00

I just thought I'd point out some anagrams using text from the back of the card.

"heady veteran" = "averted hyena"

"pitches with finesse" = "step in whitish feces"

"won eighteen games" = "eminent sewage hog"

#60T Richard Dotson

2009-02-23T08:00:00.000-05:00

Another uniform number mismatch.

And who is that in the background? Clearly it's someone standing in front of the 408 marker in center field at the (now old) Yankee Stadium. It's damned difficult to know for sure, but it looks like the guy has darker skin. That makes it most likely Claudell Washington, who played about 60% of the Yankees games in CF in 1988. But it might be Gary Ward (wrong body type I think) or Roberto Kelly. Even Rickey Henderson played 22 innings in CF for the Yankees that year. Two of his 3 games appearing in CF were road games, though, so it's pretty unlikely!

#59T Mike Smithson

2009-02-22T08:00:00.000-05:00

Wow. more Batman photography, with the slanted camera angle. And you gotta love the gold chain flying wildly!

#58T Glenn Hubbard

2009-02-21T08:00:00.000-05:00

This is simply an awesome photo. Here are the top 3 reasons why:

1) It's a superb action shot, with every inch of Hubbard's body off the ground.

2) It captures the nice A's logo in the background, which is great for an A's card.

3) It features one of the top rookies of the time, Kevin Seitzer, as a bonus!

#57T Ernest Riles

2009-02-20T16:00:00.000-05:00

Score chose to call Riles "Ernest" like on most of his other cards, instead of "Earnie" like Topps did in 1988.

That's likely deceased Giants SS Jose Uribe in the background.

#56T Dan Pasqua

2009-02-20T12:00:00.000-05:00

Here is yet another guy with a mismatched uniform number between what our eyes tell us and what the back of the card wants us to believe. Oops.

I'm also surprised to see the word "delightful" on the back of any baseball card.

#55T Don Baylor

2009-02-20T08:00:00.000-05:00

Wow, here's another great photo! Baylor (number 12 in the photo but number 18 on the back) appears about to mash the ball, totally unfazed by the Angels batboy in the background playing fiddlesticks. On the back, they captured a headshot of Baylor right before he got smashed in the back of his head with a bat.

#54T Rafael Santana

2009-02-19T16:00:00.000-05:00

We've got a 1960's Batman card here, with a crazy camera tilt angle for no reason at all. I wonder if the camera was tilted or if they just tilted the photo on the card.

Also, for some odd reason, the photo on the front looks a lot like Mel Hall to me, even though I know it's Santana.

"Lengthy minor league apprenticeship" indeed!

#53T Mike Davis

2009-02-19T12:00:00.000-05:00

Any card of Mike Davis wearing a Dodgers uniform is a good one, as I talked about back here.

Looks like Padres in the background in the dugout.

#52T Mark Salas

2009-02-19T08:00:00.000-05:00

This is a nice photo of a traditional way of wearing the uniform, with nice coloring stirrup socks and all. It's also another example of a good use of two photos, with Salas' face being almost completely obscured on the front, but nice and visible on the back.

#51T Mike Young

2009-02-18T16:00:00.000-05:00

There he is, number 19, Michael Young...just like it says on the back, number 43, Michael Young. Seriously...what's up with that?

And what the hell is up with the copy on the back? Why would he be returning to the Orioles in 1988? The card is a TRADED card showing that he's ALREADY BEEN TRADED to the Phillies. WTF???

#50T Dave Parker

2009-02-18T12:00:00.000-05:00

Here's our second straight Athletics card, and the photos were probably taken at the same game since they are both at Comiskey. I wonder if that's Carlton Fisk's glove coming in from the left.

The back of this card contains one of the most egregious errors I've ever seen. He did NOT top 30 HR or 100 RBI in 1987, and the back of the card is totally wrong in its description of his performance in 1987.

At least the part about his 6 RBIs in two July games is correct. Here is the list of all four of Parker's 6-RBI games.

Parker looks like an absolute beast on this card, just like most of his others.

#49T Dave Henderson

2009-02-18T08:00:00.000-05:00

Two really cool things about this card. Henderson was photographed, unusually, in a check swing where we can see the ball (passing his back leg.) Plus, who's that on deck? Jose Canseco, just about the most popular player in baseball when this set came out after the 1988 season.

#48T Heny Cotto

2009-02-17T16:00:00.000-05:00

Man, that is some serious squinting on the back of the card! He's spotting raccoons left and right!

I already mentioned this on an earlier Henry Cotto card, but it still amazes me. He was traded once with Jeff Darwin for Dave Magadan. Then, several months later, Darwin and Magadan were swapped back for each other but Cotto wasn't part of that second trade.

#47T Steve Shields

2009-02-17T12:00:00.000-05:00

Shields has just about the most invisible mustache I've ever seen. You need to look pretty closely at both photos to see it.

Can anybody figure out what either of the ads visible on the back is for?

Don't confuse this guy with current major leaguer (and relief ace) Scot Shields.

#46T Steve Balboni

2009-02-17T08:00:00.000-05:00

The beauty of having two photos on a single baseball card is the yin and the yang of it all. An action shot, then a posed head shot. It's a great combo. Here we have two extremes. On the front, we have one of the strongest guys in the pre-steroids era of baseball looking like he's about to totally pulverize a baseball. I don't know if that ball is going to hit the sweet spot or not, but it's a great photo. Now flip over to the back. Balboni looks like such a sweet little puppy!!

As an aside, I noticed that on the front, Balboni's helmet has his number on the bill. That was also true on the last card (Dernier) but not the one before that (Kittle.) Did some teams put numbers on the bill and some not?

#45T Bob Dernier

2009-02-16T16:00:00.001-05:00

Nice photo of Dernier here batting at Wrigely. It's pretty clear that his jersey number is 22. You can see the first 2 on the front of his jersey, and the second 2 on the back. Even in the photo on the back, you can see the 22 on the bill of his helmet. Makes tons of sense, then that Score put his jersey number as 20, huh?

#44T Ron Kittle

2009-02-16T12:00:00.000-05:00

So, exactly how many shirts is Kittle wearing? Inside his uniform top, he appears to be wearing something like a gray tank top over a gray t-shirt. Wha..???

Interesting that Kittle's 35 homers were within 2 of the then-record for AL rookies. These days, that record is 49 HR.

#43T Herm Winningham

2009-02-16T08:00:00.000-05:00

Wow, you can see 8 letters on the back of Winningham's jersey and still can't see his entire name. The card back notes that Winningham was hitting .352 at the end of May in the minors in 1984. He finished that year at .281, meaning that he must have hit around .230 for the rest of the season.

#42T Willie Upshaw

2009-02-15T08:00:00.001-05:00

Still more background comments, as here we see about two-thirds of the Indians second-baseman for 1988, Julio Franco (one of my favorite players.)

The copy on the back is a bit odd....Upshaw walked a decent amount, but I wouldn't go so far as to say he had "an eye for walks." He never finished in the top 10 in walks in any season, and he finished 59th (out of 153) in walks for players with 4500 to 5000 career plate appearances.

#41T Joe Orsulak

2009-02-14T08:00:00.000-05:00

More background fun on this card. In the background, there's a guy on the left who I'm pretty sure is masturbating. The guy directly behind Orsulak doesn't appear to be wearing shorts at all. I had no idea that Joe was so stimulating.

On the back of the card, everything seems normal until you notice that baseball in the upper left. I can't tell if that's an actual baseball, or a picture of a baseball that's part of the ad in the background. Does anybody know?

#40T John Candelaria

2009-02-13T16:00:00.000-05:00

The photo on the back of the card is one of the least flattering I have ever seen. The Candy Man's hair is a total mess and he's covered in sweat. And, let's face it, he isn't the best-looking guy to start with. Nice, too, that there is a Bud Light add just to his right.

#39T Calvin Schiraldi

2009-02-13T12:00:00.000-05:00

OK, folks. I've you've been reading my blogs, you know that I love seeing interesting things in the backgrounds of card photo.

I give you the MOTHER OF ALL CARD BACKGROUNDS.

Behind Schiraldi, we have Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg playing second base. This is the third card I know of that features Sandberg in the background. (The others are here and here although I'm sure there must be more such cards.)

As if that's not enough, behind Sandberg is Andre Dawson (very likely future HOFer)!! That's two fantastic Cubs on a card behind one big dud.

#38T Gary Pettis

2009-02-13T08:00:00.000-05:00

Oh laugh! "He even appeared on the verge of becoming a consistent hitter..." What the hell are they talking about? Pettis was a consistent hitter. Consistently awful.

Interesting that they list his position as CF and not just OF. Most baseball cards do not make the distinction.

#37T Alfredo Griffin

2009-02-12T16:00:00.000-05:00

Griffin has those same flaps on his sneakers like Bob Welch.

Check out just how bad Griffin was here.

#36T Bill Buckner

2009-02-12T12:00:00.000-05:00

Buckner adds class and punch wherever he plays? I find that commentary to be a sort of dig at Buckner, pointing out that he's moved from team to team quite a bit. That's kid of stupid given that in 1988 he joined only his 4th team in 20 seasons.

#35T Jay Howell

2009-02-12T08:00:00.000-05:00

Howell's 1984 makes the top 10 for fewest innings to reach 109 strikeouts by a middle reliever (s defined as pitchers with no more than 10 starts or 10 saves.)

#34T Phil Bradley

2009-02-11T16:00:00.000-05:00

I love the helmet-over-cap action. You almost never see that anymore these days. I think Juan Pierre does it.

Here is the list of all players to hit .300, 20 HR, and have 20 SB in a season. The back of the card notes that Bradley did it in 1985. It still happens only 2-3 times per season, surprisingly. Of course, now it's the 20 SB that's hardest to get.

#33T Ron Hassey

2009-02-11T12:00:00.001-05:00

So this is the fourth catcher card in a row. I think I'm sensing a trend. Only, peeking ahead, it doesn't hold up after this card.

Hassey has just about the longest face in baseball. Check out that photo on the back!

There is an error on the back of the card. Who can be first to spot it?

John from Johngy's Beat has this story about Hassey:

"The Cubs traded for Rick Sutcliffe, George Frazier and Ron Hassey on June 13, 1984. I am not sure when the trade was announced, but I was at the game on June 14 and a lot of people still did not know the trade happened.

We were sitting along the 3rd base line (Cubs dugout side) well before game time. My friend looked over and saw Ron Hassey come out of the dugout. We all yelled his name. I don't think he even had a jersey with a name on it (more like a windbreaker). Everyone around us looked at us like we were crazy (some had never even heard of Hassey, let alone know he was now a Cub).
Hassey looked over with a big smile and gave us an enthusiastic wave.
Later he came into the game and went 0-2. The people around us asked if we knew him. We said we didn't...we just knew baseball enough to recognize him."

#32T Rick Dempsey

2009-02-11T08:00:00.000-05:00

Again, the back of the card says Dempsey is #24, but the front of the card tells us that's bullshit.

I just noticed that Dempsey did not have an 88 Topps Card or 88 Topps Traded card. I wonder why. He played in 60 games in 1987 and was a long-time veteran. That was an odd decision.

So here's a stat for you: for catchers with at least 5000 career PAs, Dempsey had the 2nd-fewest RBI. Can you guess who was first? Probably not.

Third catcher card in a row!

#31T Mickey Tettleton

2009-02-10T16:00:00.000-05:00

Here's another team that actually looks halfway decent with the bright orange borders.

Check out that photo on the back. "What the fuck are you lookin' at?"

That's two catchers in a row.

#30T Mackey Sasser

2009-02-10T12:00:00.000-05:00

Here it finally is...the first actual rookie card in the Rookie & Traded set. That's right...the first 29 guys were all veterans (although Kurt Stillwell was a pretty young guy at the time.)

Anyway, it's rarely a good thing to see the bottom of a guy's shoe on his baseball card. I'm willing to bet Sasser's hitting coach wasn't too thrilled with the photo.

Sasser was all over the place in 1987, in both the big leagues and minor leagues with both the Giants, Pirates, and their affiliates. And his rookie card shows him on the Mets. Go Figure.

New format

2009-02-10T08:30:00.000-05:00

Since we've seen just about all of these players in the 1988 Topps Traded set, I'm streamlining these posts a bit to focus on the cards themselves. We'll get back to having stats and such when we move onto the set next (which, incidentally, is going to be the 1989/1990 Topps MLB Debut set.)

#29T Dickie Thon

2009-02-10T08:00:00.000-05:00

CARD

For the second card in a row, we see a player about to NOT get a base hit. Looks to me like that ball is going to be popped up and backwards. Pretty cool photo, though.

Weird thing about the card back is that it mentions what Thon did in 1988. I guess I don't totally understand why both this set and the 1988 Topps Traded don't have 1988 season statistics on them. I suppose the issue is that they came out sometime before the season was over, mainly to reflect off-season movement in 1987 or new rookies in 1988.

STAT

Tuna had 9 total bases 3 different times in his career, all team victories.

CAREER

Thon's career is pretty well-known, and if you don't know, just read the back of the card below. He had a very good year with the Phillies in 1989 and then petered out for good after that.

#28T Chili Davis

2009-02-09T16:00:00.000-05:00

CARD

Another rubber bat, and this time it's a swing and a miss. Look carefully and you can see the baseball right behind Chili's ass. This is a Comiskey Park photo, of course.

STAT

Twelve players finished their careers with between 340 and 360 homers, including Johnny Mize, Yogi Berra, Ellis Burks, Dick Allen, George Foster, and Ron Santo. Oh, and Chili Davis.

Well, one caveat, Luis Gonzalez is still active and could move out of this group.

CAREER

Chili Davis is waaaay underrated in my book. He played for 18 seasons and finished with an OPS+ of 120. He did that without ever topping 150 and was never below 108 after his second full season. This guy reminds me of Harold Baines--very solid year after year, just without eye-popping HR and RBI numbers. But he was consistent and reliable, and won 3 World Series titles.

Add your content

2009-02-09T13:04:00.002-05:00

If you have stories you'd like to share about players coming up in this set, email me at 88topps at gmail dot com with your story, as well as a link to your blog if you have one.

The checklist for the rest of this set is here.

I'm not looking for recaps of what we all already know about a player, but perhaps an interesting story you have about something that happened with that player, or his baseball cards, etc. If I like your story, I'll post it as part of that player's card page.

#27T Jose Rijo

2009-02-09T12:00:00.000-05:00

CARD

I love the shot of beautiful Riverfront Stadium in the background. That's as good as it got.

Good call by Score on the back of the card, predicting that he would become a top starter, which he did.

STAT

Because it was so impressive and so easy to forget, I'm copying my Cool Stat from Rijo's 88 Topps card:

Cool stat: From 1988 to 1993 (6 seasons), Rijo leads the way in seasons with at least 111 IP and an ERA no higher than 2.84. In fact, he did that all 6 of those years and nobody else did it more than 3 times. Whew!

CAREER

Rijo is another great "what if" case for a starting pitcher. By the time he got his walk rate down in 1988, he managed to make 30 starts only 3 times in his career. I'm glad that he finished in the top 50 for career K/9 and also that he pitched so well in the 1990 World Series.

#26T Dan Petry

2009-02-09T08:00:00.001-05:00

CARD

The copy on the back of Petry's card is a great example of Score's superior efforts in this area. Read it and you feel like you actually know something about the guy's career.

STAT

From 1981 to 1985:

Petry had the 6th-most innings pitched.

Andhe had the 4th-most wins.

Among guys with 900 IP, he had the 7th-best ERA+.

CAREER

Petry is one of those guys that had a 2-phase career. Up through 1985, he was one of the top starters in baseball, logging lots of innings and lots of wins. Although he benefited a little from playing on strong Tigers teams, his neutralized stats are pretty close to his actual stats. But from 1986 on, likely due mainly to injuries, he wasn't the same guy and he was finished by age 32.

#25T Graig Nettles

2009-02-08T08:00:00.000-05:00

CARD

Anybody familiar with Nettles will cringe when they see this card. It's weird enough to see him in a Padres or Braves uniform, but seeing him in an Expos jersey is just ridiculous. I'm not sure why Montreal brought him there for 1988 after he showed very little in 1986 or 1987, and was 43 years old.

Nettles has some awesome rubber bat action in this photo.

I wonder why they out his position as "IF" and not just "1B, 3B" seeing as the last time he played an IF position other than those 2 was 1 game at shortstop in 1980.

STAT

That last season for Nettles is one of the more recent years where a guy appeared in at least 80 games but had no more than 93 AB. Pitchers are excluded from that search, of course.

CAREER

It's really tough to understand Nettles' career. On the one hand, he seems somewhat overrated for being on some of the great Yankees teams as well as a Padres team that went to the World Series. He had only one year with 100 RBI and 2 years with 30 HR. So it's sort of easy to write him off as someone who benefited from being in the right place at the right time (sort of like Scott Brosius.) But then look at the 10 players he's most similar to in his career:

That's 3 HOFers and 2 other guys (Santo and Murphy) whom many believe belong in the HOF.

#24T Rick Horton

2009-02-07T08:00:00.000-05:00

CARD

I just love photos that capture the baseball coming right at you.

I note, too, that Score went for "Rick" here instead of "Ricky", as Topps did here and here in 1988.

STAT

Horton walked Keith Hernandez more than anybody else (and walked a lot of Mets in general.) He struck out Darryl Strawberry more than anybody else (and struck out a lot of Mets in general.) I'm sure that has to do with the fact that he pitched 103 innings against the Mets and 560 innings against 24 other teams, an average of 23.1 per team.

CAREER

I guess the most interesting thing I can find about Horton's career are the players he was traded with or for. He was in a trade with Lance Johnson and Jose DeLeon, two guys who had much better careers than Horton did. And Horton was the guy the Dodgers traded for when they gave up on super-prospect Shawn Hillegas.

#23T Larry McWilliams

2009-02-06T16:00:00.000-05:00

CARD

Holy frickin' mustache! Especially on the back!

STAT

In 1983, McWilliams threw 4 shutouts but won only 15 games overall. Turns out, that used to be pretty common. From 1956 to 1992, it happened 185 times, an average of 5 times per season. After 1992, though, it's happened only 3 times in 16 seasons.

CAREER

McWilliams had a remarkably up-and-down career, only once posting an ERA+ within 10 points of average (i.e. between 90 and 110.) He was either great or terrible, and I suspect that injuries had a lot to do with that. When healthy, he posted some great seasons.

#22T Pat Tabler

2009-02-06T12:00:00.001-05:00

CARD

Nice shot of Tabler here. An action shot with visible jersey number is O.K. in my book. Plus there's the bonus mullet on the back.

STAT

Indeed Tabler drove in a lot of runs. Check out this list of most RBI by guys since 1980 with fewer than 50 career HR. He's way up on that list, but notice how many fewer games and PAs he had than most other folks on there.

CAREER

Tabler was known as Mr. Bases Loaded for good reason. In 109 career PAs with the bases loaded, he had 108 RBI despite homering only twice. He batted .489 with 43 hits in 88 ABs.

I picked two guys at random for comparison:

Reggie Jackson, 235 PAs, 187 RBI, .296 BA (60-for-203), 11 grand slams

Don Mattingly, 163 PAs, 127 RBI, .292 BA (38-for-130), 6 grand slams

Unfortunately for Tabler, his performance with the bases loaded is pretty much all you can say about the guy's career.

#21T Rick Cerone

2009-02-06T08:00:00.000-05:00

CARD

Well there are two insanely crazy things about the photo on this card:

1) We have an up-the-nose photo of a player! Are you kidding me???

2) We have a photo featuring a catcher going after a popup, and someone on the card is discarding their face mask, and it's NOT the catcher! It's the umpire!

STAT

From 1981 to 1991, Cerone was by far the part-time-iest player in the big leagues, registering far more seasons with 200 to 300 AB than anybody else.

CAREER

Cerone is one of those guys whose impact went far beyond his stats. Offensively, he was not very good. True, in his only season with 500 AB, he had a very nice 107 OPS+, but he didn't hit well enough in any other season to warrant so much playing time. He also had a number of years with an OPS+ below 65 (ouch.) But he stayed in the big leagues for a long time, a sure sign that he was of value to his teams. After his playing career, among numerous other things, he founded the Newark Bears, a prominent independent team.

#20T Lee Smith

2009-02-05T12:00:00.001-05:00

CARD

I wonder how many card backs feature a quote from Cubs catcher Jody Davis? This one does. I also can't help be reminded of what a terrible trade this was for the Cubs.

STAT

From 1991 to 1993, Smith was the top closer in baseball.

CAREER

Smith has a bunch of years left on his HOF eligibility but got only 44.5% of the vote in 2009. Voters still don't know how to handle closers, and I'm still shocked that Bruce Sutter got in. Smith's numbers compare very favorable with Sutters, and frankly I think he strongly deserves to be in the HOF. He was one of the best closers ever and was dominant for a number of years. I think he has only about a 30% chance of getting in, though.

#19T Don Slaught

2009-02-05T11:03:00.001-05:00

CARD

Holy cow...there is a lot of cool stuff going on with this card!!

Firstly, we have red, white, and blue bunting in the background, suggesting that this photo was taken on a special day. Perhaps Opening Day, or Independence Day?

Secondly, we have Slaught's back pocket going inside-out on his swing.

Thirdly, we can see most of the on-deck hitter. Who is that likely to be? Let's see if we can figure this out. Check out the Yankee batting orders for 1988. Slaught was in 87 games for the Yankees, comprised of 39 batting 8th, 27 batting 7th, 16 batting 6th, and 5 batting 5th. The guy hitting after Slaught appears to have somewhat darker skin and is likely either black or a darker-skinned Latino player. Looking through the lineups, possibilities include Gary Ward, Luis Aguayo, Willie Randolph, and Rafael Santana.

I'm going with Randolph. Know why? Because the Yankees are wearing road greys, and on the 4th of July, they played in Texas, with Slaught batting 7th and Randolph batting 8th. So there ya go.

Fourthly, check out the photo on the back. Thanks to help from Kevin, we've determined that's Mike Morgan back there. Pretty rare to see another player on a headshot photo like that.

STAT

Since 1901, only 31 catchers have amassed 4500 PAs and managed an OPS+ of at least 104. Of course, Sluggo is one of them, and his career BA puts him in the top half of that bunch.

CAREER

Slaught had the misfortune of being in the wrong places at the wrong times in a lot of his career. He left KC right before they got good. He was in Texas when they were (still) no good. He passed through the Yankees organization during one of their rare wasteland periods. Then he landed with Pittsburgh, who won their division 3 straight years but couldn't get out of the playoffs.

One of the things I remember about those Pirates taems is that they didn't sell out their home playoff games. I'm frankly surprised that Pittsburgh still has a baseball team, considering that fans didn't care about the team then, and they've been horrible ever since.

#18T Dan Quisenberry

2009-02-05T08:00:00.000-05:00

CARD

Two interesting things about this card:

1) This is the first card we've seen so far in this set that does not have a counterpart in the 1988 Topps Traded set. I'm not sure why Topps chose to ignore that Quisenberry changed teams in 1988. It happened midseason in 1988, so maybe they figured it was old news by the time they issued the traded set. Still, it's odd, given that he was still considered a star player at this time.

2) What an awesome photo!! If you look just at his right arm, it almost seems to have been Photoshopped backwards, but of course that's how he looked when he delivered the ball.

STAT

Quisenberry's 1985 total of 76 games finished is the 5th-highest total since 1901. It's interesting that many of the guys high on this list were closers. That sort of model isn't used much today, in the sense that closers are usually in games for saves, so their games finished totals rarely go above 60. Even Francisco Rodriguez, who saved 62 games in 2008, finished "only" 69 games.

CAREER

Quisenberry had a very good career, although he started in the majors pretty late at age 26. Thus, by the time he lost his effectiveness at age 37, he amassed only 10 really good years in the bigs. Thus, he was never seriously considered for the HOF and will never get in.

Quisenberry is the first deceased player we've seen so far in this set.

#17T Ray Knight

2009-02-04T16:00:00.000-05:00

CARD

More words you probably never expected to read on the back of a baseball card: "Then the fun began."

STAT

Knight didn't hit more than 2 of his 84 career homers against anybody, except for 4 off of Steve Carlton. Knight's numbers against Carlton were excellent, something that not too many people can say. Of course, Lefty also struck him out 17 times in 87 AB, a pretty nice clip.

CAREER

All you need to know about Knight at this point in his career is that the card back talks entirely about 1986 despite being issued in 1988. Not much to say about 1987 or anything thereafter.

#16T Vance Law

2009-02-04T12:00:00.000-05:00

CARD

This set has a lot of rubber-looking bats, including Law's. Any photographer know why? I'm assuming that it has to do with the speed of the film, and therefore how long the shutter needed to be left open in order to get the right amount of light. Topps' photos of the time didn't look like this--bats in motion were always crisp.

Notice too that the ball is passing right along the bottom edge of the photo. Looks like it's going to be a swing-and-a-miss for Vance.

STAT

What I wrote above got me curious to see how much Vance struck out. Here are all the players since 1901 with 600 to 610 career strikeouts. The list includes two active players. Law's total of 4298 PAs is pretty much in the middle in terms of career PAs to achieve such a a strikeout total. It's tough to say much more than that since this list would really needed to be corrected for average strikeout rates across different eras to make sense. But you can compare Law just to his contemporaries on the list: Boone, Doran, Kemp, Brookens, and Bernazard to see that his strikeout totals weren't particularly noteworthy.

CAREER

Law actually pitched in 7 games, probably among the leaders in the last 40 years for guy who really were not pitchers at all. One guy, Bill Almon, faced him twice, in two different games!

I don't have much else to say about Law's career...

#15T Bob Welch

2009-02-04T08:00:00.001-05:00

CARD

Check out those sneakers Welch is wearing. I don't know what that style is called, but it's certainly dated to that era, with that extraneous flap of material coming out. I don't think that's just the tongue, pulled out.

More great copy on the back of this card, including mention of Welch's K of Reggie Jackson in the World Series.

STAT

I was shocked that Welch could rank as high as 6th in IP and G for the Dodgers, until I checked and realized my interpretation of the fact was wrong. He was 6th for LOS ANGELES only, not for the Dodgers franchise as a whole.

You can see the Dodgers all-time leaders here, and note that the leaders for G and IP all pitched pretty much before (or at the same time) Welch was with the team.

CAREER

Welch will be long-remembered for two things: that strikeout of Reggie Jackson, and winning 27 games in 1990. He also played in 4 World Series, winning just once. He missed out on the 1989 World Series due to injury when his team won it all.