G.O.A.T, the '80s: epilogue

 

I love putting together little countdown shows. It's a lot of work, especially if you want to be complete about it. But they're pretty popular, which is great because I like my writing to be as entertaining as it can be. It's good to know that readers like what I like.

The Greatest 100 Cards of the 1980s Countdown was not as easy to compile as the earlier Greatest 100 Cards of the '70s list. Many more cards in the decade meant many more cards to sift through, many of which I didn't own. Somewhere around looking through every 1986 Fleer card I asked myself, "what the hell am I doing?"

But it turned out pretty well I think. There are a lot of cards that I listed as potential candidates that never made it. And because there are so many card from the '80s, you could easily assemble a list of "The Best Cards Of The '80s That Idiot Night Owl Forgot To Include."

As I mentioned a few times on the countdown, I only included rookie cards in the countdown if I could justify it in some way beyond the pure "rookieness" of the card. It had to have some greater, lasting impact than "this card was so HUGE in (fill in the year)." Rookie cards like the Griffey Jr., Henderson and Mattingly made it onto the list. Rookies like Clemens, Puckett and Eric Davis did not.

Those were the tough decisions I had to make. Really, if the '70s countdown was 100 cards, the '80s countdown should have been at least 200 to receive equal treatment. But there was no way I was going to expand it to that.

I don't feel bad that cards like the Clemens didn't make the countdown. One bonus of this countdown is that it got me to take some of the cards, like the Clemens and the '82 Ripken Traded and the '83 Sandberg, and remove them from their stuffy screw-down cases where they've lived for too many years and either transfer them to a simple top loader or back into the binder with the other cards in the set. So, thanks to the countdown, the Clemens -- which has always been miscut and never deserved the high-rent district living quarters -- is where he belongs.

No, my "this card should've been in the countdown" regret is reserved for lesser-known cards that I should have recognized.

Here is an example that I pulled out just yesterday:

This is one of the greatest League Leaders cards of all-time. It was legendary before I even discovered its legend. It took people who didn't grow up in the Mustache Era to noticed how representative it is of that time.

The magnificence continues onto the back, too.

This was how close Topps was to squeezing two more players onto the front of the card. If Luzinski and Thomas had hit only one more home run.

All of this was a result of the players strike of 1981 shortening the season. Some of the uniqueness of this card has been lessened by the even shorter and stranger 2020 season. Here is the NL Home Run Leaders card that shows that:

Those are paltry home run totals but there are no ties at the top as Ozuna and Tatis Jr. managed to avoid a seven-player photo logjam on the front of this card.

Anyway, I got a little sidetracked there.

Like I did with the end of the Greatest '70s countdown, I compiled a few lists breaking down the '80s countdown.

SET THAT APPEARED MOST OFTEN

1. 1983 Topps - 14

2. 1980 Topps - 10

3. 1981 Topps - 9

4. 1988 Topps - 7

5. 1985 Topps - 6

6. 1989 Upper Deck - 5

7. 1983 Fleer - 4

7. 1982 Fleer - 4

Obviously, there's a bit of a Topps bias there because for much of the decade I collected more Topps than anything else. But also, the other companies active in the '80s were just starting out and as nostalgic as those sets can be, you can tell that they weren't quite as professional as what Topps produced. Sure, that's part of the charm of Fleer or Donruss, but in general, I tried to focus on photo greatness and Topps had more of that.

 

Here are the major sets that did not appear on the countdown:

 

1983 Donruss, 1985 Fleer, 1986 Donruss, 1987 Fleer, 1987 Donruss, 1988 Donruss, 1989 Score.

 

I could've missed something from one of those sets because in general I didn't collect much of the above. But it's difficult for me to believe that anything from, say, '88 Donruss was worth reaching the final 100.

 

 

 

POSITION THAT APPEARED THE MOST

 

1. Outfield - 34.5

2. Pitcher - 22

3. First base - 12

4. Catcher - 6

 

There were five managers in the countdown, which underlines my argument for returning managers to the Topps base set. That was the same amount as second base and third base.

 

For comparison, the pitcher position finished first in the '70s countdown.

TEAM THAT APPEARED THE MOST

1. A's - 8.5

2. Red Sox - 7.5

3. Orioles - 7

4. Angels - 6

4. Dodgers - 6

4. Yankees - 6

7. Expos - 5.5

7. Mets - 5.5

9. Cubs - 5

9. Pirates - 5

The Yankees finished first in the '70s countdown but the A's were second. The '70s and '80s were really the glory days for A's cards.

Just about every team that existed in the '80s was represented in the countdown. I didn't go through it team-by-team but the one that I noticed that didn't appear was the Indians. I probably should have squeezed one of the Joe Charboneau cards on there.

 

PLAYER THAT APPEARED THE MOST

Carl Yastrzemski appeared a whopping five times, although I gave him credit for only 4.5 because he shared one with Lou Brock.

I didn't expect Yaz to be the king of the '80s, since he was through playing by 1984. But I did know he had a lot of great cards late in his career.

1. Carl Yastrzemski - 4.5

2. Andre Dawson - 3

3. Reggie Jackson - 3

4. Eddie Murray - 3

5. Kent Tekulve - 3

Reggie was tied for the most in the '70s and a solid presence again in the '80s. A number of players showed up twice.

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That officially completes the '80s countdown. I'll link it on the sidebar with the '70s countdown as soon as I can get Blogger to play nice with me.

I still think this will probably be my last decade countdown. I'm most fond of the '70s and '80s and I don't see myself getting interested enough to cover a countdown for a decade in which I was barely living (the '60s) or for one where I simply don't appreciate the cards enough (the '90s).

The easiest one for me to do would be for 2010-19 but we just finished that decade. So, until I get bored enough to bury myself in a decade's worth of cards from the last 30 years, or somehow manage to acquaint myself enough with the '50s that I can do that decade justice, you'll just have to be happy with any other non-decade countdown I roust up.

There will be something out there I can count down. Because it's guaranteed good content and one of the few things that I know interests both me and people reading it.

Thanks for riding along.