Joy of a team set, chapter 27 (40 years ago, for the 3rd time)

 

I've been listening to a lot of pop music from 1984 lately. Forty years ago, you know.

I know I've said this before but every time I think about the number of people who didn't experience epic years like 1983 and 1984, I know why they're still searching for joy in their lives. I am so happy I was around for years like that.

We all know -- those of us who were around then -- that in '84, pop music wasn't trash. Some of it was, of course, but not all of it, like how it's been for just about the last 20 years or more (referring only to Billboard charts pop music/most streamed songs on Spotify, etc. I listen to plenty of current music that is tremendous).

When I hear 1984 pop songs like The Warrior, Round and Round, Lights Out, Rock You Like a Hurricane, Purple Rain, Dance Hall Days, Sister Christian, White Horse, The Politics of Dancing, Runner, What's Love Got to Do With It, 10-9-8, Jump, Cruel Summer, We're Not Gonna Take It and on and on, it takes me to a happy time, one of the best years of my life and I cannot believe that was 40 years ago. (There's a better post from me on this topic, by the way).

I wasn't collecting cards much that year. I bought the entire 1984 Topps set from a college friend, the first time I had ever done such a thing. My few trips to the local drug store -- the place I had made almost weekly trips to for cards for the previous five years -- were for a handful of packs of Donruss and Fleer.

Forty years later, I love those 1984 sets. I think it's the best across-the-board year for cards in the '80s. My favorite of the favorites is Fleer. I've written about that. And like a good blogger, I've featured many of the famous cards from that set, the Jay Johnstone umbrella shot, the Glenn Hubbard snake shot, the Roy Lee Jackson National Anthem shot. All of them.

So what else can I write about that wonderful set from 40 years ago?

Taking those interesting cards in the set as my inspiration, I flipped through the binder pages to determine which team had the most "interesting" cards, in the way that the Hubbard snake shot was interesting, though no card is the Hubbard snake card, obviously.

I gave a point to each interesting card. And the winner would be featured in the Joy of a Team Set series, which is happening now.

The winner is the Phillies. I counted six, actually seven if you include a Super Star Special. Adding the SSS cards to the team set, there are 28 cards in the set. That's not handy for showing in a binder page nine at a time, as is the Joy of a Team Set tradition. So instead of putting them in a binder page, I arranged them as neatly as I could by hand on the counter.

 

This is the third time I've gone 40 years back in time for Joy of a Team Set. It won't be the last.

Here is the 1984 Fleer Phillies team:

Favorite card, runners-up: 5. Bo Diaz, 4. Bob Dernier, 3. Tony Perez, 2. Ozzie Virgil

Team's claim to fame: The 1984 cards are featuring the 1983 team, which reached the World Series before getting shut down by the Orioles in one of the dullest World Series of my young life. The 1984 Phillies were a .500 team and on their way to being irrelevant for the rest of the decade, except for a brief burst in 1986.

Famous error cards: None.

Top rookies: 1984 was one of the first real big year for rookie collectors, though 1983 was notable, too. The Phillies had three in Kevin Gross, Charles Hudson and Juan Samuel. Hudson was a big deal in 1983 but Samuel would turn out to be the best of the bunch.

 

Notable absences: As far as guys who played for the Phillies in 1983, the only real notable miss is relief pitcher Porfi Altamirano, who pitched in 31 games for Philadelphia (he'd be traded to the Cubs in late March 1984 but that had to be after Fleer went to print). Topps was the only set that featured him.

Former/future Dodgers: Ivan DeJesus, Kevin Gross, Len Matuszek, Juan Samuel.

 

Condition issues: I thought I could skip this with an '80s set but I'm discovering a couple of the backs have staining problems. Will it be enough to upgrade? I doubt it.

Notable about the backs: This is an old team. Six players have career stats so long that there's no room for Fleer's "Did You Know" blurbs. Those guys are Pete Rose, Ron Reed, Joe Morgan, Tug McGraw, Tony Perez and Steve Carlton. Fleer may have been able to squeeze in a fact at the bottom of Garry Maddox's card but it didn't, so make that seven.

And speaking of which -- my favorite card in the set is ...

...

...

...

The "Wheez Kids"!

I'm maybe cheating with a Super Star Special but no one's going to report me.

So, in a few months, 1984 will no longer be 40 years old and there will only be the back half of the '80s left for such anniversaries. I'll be so old that I'll start celebrating 50th anniversaries (get ready for a big one next year).

But, hey, I got to grow up in the '70s and '80s, so I'm not sad. Not at all.