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previous incarnations the 1987 future stars received cards of their own rather than sharing them with a few other hopefuls also rather than highlighting prospects from every major league team topps chose to predict stardom for just six players in this set you would think that meant featuring only can t miss prospects but a 1987 topps future stars card was probably the career highlight of first basemen pat dodson and tim pyznarski dave magadan and b j surhoff had fine careers rafael palmeiro was a dirty cheat but there was one genuine star in the bunch and he got what would become an iconic card of the era managers skippers once again play the role of keepers of the team checklist unless you wanted to know their height and weight with questionable accuracy whether they were a lefty or righty as players where and when they were born or where they currently lived you were pretty much out of luck if you didn t know any better sparky anderson might be in his first year as a manager and pat corrales might have eight world championships under his belt you really had no way of knowing from these cards ostensibly featuring the men in question team leaders if you like cards featuring lots of people who you may or may not recognize standing around on a baseball field inside of faded borders that make it all look like a half forgotten memory these cards are for you the oft repeated topps design looks even more pointless when placed inside of 87 s wooden borders there was at least one card from this subset with a welcome and easily recognizable face though in a strange uniform record breakers cards 1 7 as is often the case when topps chose record breakers over season highlights you get a few important records and a few that are really stretching the boundaries of what can be considered interesting naturally we get another new single season saves record dave righetti 46 with the bonus of a new rookie record todd worrell 36 the most impressive record has to be the 20 strikeout game by roger clemens but there s no doubt about my favorite considering that we have an all time dodger legend breaking an old guy record turn back the clock cards 311 315 year two of the turn back the clock project these look really nice with the wood borders and the selection of topps cards displayed is top notch this is probably the best looking group from the five year run that began in 86 and of course i was happy that the twentieth anniversary of the last triple crown at the time meant an opportunity for a new old card of yaz all stars cards 595 616 the all star cards are among the best looking in this classy set the decision to employ the league logos and to do so without using the circle that surrounds the team logos on the rest of the cards really makes these stand out unfortunately topps continued to use the backs of these cards to awkwardly present statistical league leaders but it s hard to hold that against cards that look this good at 8 33 pm 15 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest wednesday july 24 2013 1987 topps part ii the cards first impressions i basically looked the other way i mean i was a teenager and this was the 80s my bedroom was painted blue with red and yellow accents the world was full of day glow and neon and cool geometrical shapes and amazing new home computers and here comes topps with a set of baseball cards framed with simulated wood grain paneling what were they thinking i still bought them but it was more out of habit than excitement 26 years later whatever the rest of the world thought of these in 1987 today there seems to be a general consensus that this is one of the classic topps sets although my opinion of the these cards has certainly moved in a positive direction over the years i m still not prepared to go that far the design certainly benefits from the march of time which has taken it out of the context of the 1980s it never really belonged there the 80s were not a time for the timeless it was all about the here and now then one way to tell that this design is timeless is to look at cards of the white sox the pale hose tended to look great on the more 80s centric designs of the era in their crazy horizontal striped number on the pants softball uniforms the even yeared sets from 82 through 88 look like they might have been designed specifically with south siders in mind they look so good but when you put one of those unis inside of 87s wood grain border it becomes painfully obvious how time locked that look really is the classic uniforms tended to look best with this design the orioles pirates giants and tigers look especially nice in their wooden frames but one team with shall we say more modern sensibilities may have actually looked the best that s because uniforms of the oakland a s work really nicely in this context the garish green transformed into something more reminiscent of a pine forest in all this is a fairly unobtrusive utilitarian set of cards there are few spectacular photos but a lot of good ones and not many bad ones the set is a real gamer you get the usual mix of action and posed shots with a few exceptions there s a real sameness to the actions shots lots of conservative choices befitting the conservative design there is also a large population of close up portraits among the posed shots which look particularly good within the wood frame speaking of chili there are nine other players in this set who share his name alvin eric glenn jody joel mark mike ron and storm wonder if that s a record of some kind probably not since nearly all of these guys hung around for several years i never realized how davis filled the 80s were it s hard to find much fault with the basic design as long as you re cool with the whole wood thing the circle with the team logo is a good size and in a good location the name plate provides some team color coordination and the font used is reasonable the location of the topps logo is excellent the angles of the borders are interesting without drastically intruding on the space left for the photo but there is one huge problem in my opinion for the first time since the psychedelic tombstones of 1972 the player s position is not displayed on the front of the card this was to become way too common in the coming years and i hold it against this set that it began that trend on a positive note the backs of the cards were among the most legible of the decade although i m not sure the blue and yellow really does much to create a unified theme with the wood grain on the front the additional information topps provided was some of the most interesting as they chose to share personal information about the players when there s room they also give you some historical on this date highlight featuring an unrelated player punctuated by the topps card number for that player in the year of the event discussed in retrospect the 1987 topps design is a conservatively classic 25th anniversary nod to their last wood themed set from 1962 it may not have been a trendy choice for its time but it holds up as a fine representative of the timeless topps tradition at 11 59 pm 3 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest wednesday july 17 2013 1987 topps part i context the summer of 1987 was to be the last opportunity of my childhood to listen to vin scully on a regular basis naturally that s because my childhood was coming to an end but also because though i didn t know it at the time my family was to move away from hermosa beach just as the next summer was getting started listening to vin has been such a big part of my life that i ve often said and even more often thought that his loss when it someday comes will hurt me as much as losing a member of my own family and i know there are millions of people out there who feel the same way fortunately thanks to modern technology mlb extra innings and gameday audio and vin s legendary longevity i again get to hear him regularly even after three decades have passed of course even the lifetime i ve spent enjoying his presence in my life only covers half of the story of his sixty four years calling dodger games i get goose bumps every time i tune in and hear it s time for dodger baseball the sound of vin s voice brings me back to a very different time in my life i hear vin s voice coming from the clock radio on my grandfather s night stand i ve quietly entered his bedroom while he sleeps early in preparation for work at 4 00 am and i m lying on the far side of his bed listening through his snoring enjoying the dodger game he fell asleep listening to i hear vin s voice coming from the portable transistor radio we normally keep in the bathroom i ve taken it down the street where i m throwing a tennis ball against a brick wall pretending that i m pitching or fielding infield grounders along with the players i hear vin s voice in the headphines of my walkman i m riding my bike on the strand along the beach either past king harbor toward palos verdes or past mahnattan beach up toward marina del rey hopefully i haven t been so engrossed in the action that i turned around too late to make it home before the game ends here s how much vin s presence has become a part of me over the years when i look at this rather unremarkable dodgers leaders card 431 featuring pitching coach ron perranoski leading a conference on the mound it s the sound of vin s voice that fills the emptiness inspired by the card s fuzzy lack of purpose scully explains that perranoski is discussing whether to pitch to the left handed hitting ken oberkfell with the tying run on second and two outs or walk him and go after the righty rafael ramirez then vin tells us to be sure to come out to the ballpark friday night when the blew crew returns to dodger stadium it will be a battle of left handers as rick honeycutt will go up against dave dravecky in the first of a three game weekend set with the padres maybe he s also using this break in the action to extol the virtues of farmer john beef franks it doesn t really matter what he s saying the voice of vin scully is magic to my ears and will always be magic to my soul at 5 49 am 1 comment email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest thursday july 11 2013 1986 topps part iv ranking favorites oddball s of the set a couple of all time greats among the managerial ranks are featured in the traded set hall of famer dick williams gets his last shot with the seattle mariners and longtime minor league manager jim leyland gets his first with the pittsburgh pirates unfortunately neither is represented with much dignity here i expect to see a giant pineapple in the kelp over williams shoulder as the airbrush job makes it look like he was just hired to manage in bikini bottom meanwhile leyland is forced to run his team with a giant aviary perched on his head you would expect to see a small bird take flight if he were to lift his cap casey stengel style most aesthetically pleasing there are are ton of great shots in this set of pitchers in motion but what really stands out is the number of excellent cards featuring catchers at work behind the plate among others tony pena charlie moore and glenn brummer are all featured with top notch action shots it s hard to choose the best but you can t go wrong with randy hunt and his amazing flying cap 218 or bo diaz tagging out tommy herr 639 as great as those are and as much as i hate to admit it this jeff leonard card 490 is simply baaaaaad ass he s a giant and a loudmouth hot dog but can you beat that black bat helmet eye black and stache matching up with the card s black border then the orange of the giants logo the doughnut the stripes on the bat and the orange tint to the fans in the stands matching up with the card s accent color add in that i m about to step into the batter s box with bad intentions glare and grudgingly i ve gotta admit it s one giant of a card favorite non dodgers card s this set is all about the aesthetics and no team s cards look nicer than those of the yankees it s a colorful set but it s the stark black and white of the card design and of the classic pinstripes that make the yanks cards really stand out ken griffey has a nice portrait shot the niekro brothers phil and joe look good as teammates for the first time in over a decade eddie whitson may have had a tortured tenure in pinstripes but he has a fabulous 86 topps card frankly they all look great but my favorites are the real bronx bombers of the set dave winfield 70 and don mattingly 180 both shown doing what they did best among a great many other things on the diamond favorite dodgers card s fernando valenzuela may have had his finest season in 1985 and his 86 topps cards do that justice in an echo of the historic start to his rookie season in 1981 fernando set a big league mark for consecutive scoreless innings to begin a season in the most interesting card of the bunch they turn back the clock to highlight that rookie year the thing about this card which makes it my favorite of the set is that the card depicted on the front is not the card that came out in the traded set in 1981 you can view 1981 topps part iv to see that card it s remarkably similar the only difference being that fernando faces the camera squarely on this card while he stands sideways on the original why topps did this is a mystery to me but for what it s worth i think it s kinda neat one final thought 1986 topps may have unofficially been the pete rose set but charlie hustle wasn t the only ancient first baseman playing for the cincinnati reds to get some topps love in 86 hall of famer tony perez who hit 328 at the age of 43 in a loose platoon with rose gets two great pieces of cardboard of his own his base card 85 is one of the nicest in the set featuring a changing of the guard moment with young eric davis and any record breaker card that begins oldest player to is automatically among my favorites the big picture this boils down to a race with 1984 for second place in the 1986 set s favor a beautiful card design the nifty pete rose special tribute the introduction of the five year turn back the clock plan and an incredible crop of rookies in the traded set working against 86 managers as checklists all stars as league leaders the introduction of the ghostly and ghastly team leaders card design bland subset designs in general and a tendency toward blotchy printing issues the devil s in the details and as great as the base cards look those details push 1986 topps into the 3 spot with seven sets reviewed after 1984 and ahead of 1981 at 9 53 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest friday july 5 2013 1986 topps part iii t traded harbingers of darkness this set is the complete opposite of the previous year s traded set in 85 the biggest rookies were vince coleman ozzie guillen and teddy higuera in addition to bonds 11t and canseco 20t the 1986 ...