I can tell it's March because this has been a rough week. Fortunately I've had some material to work with that has provided easy and simple blog posts.
Yup, I have another pack opening for you.
This comes courtesy of reader and friend of the blog, Rich. I've been parceling out his sends over the last few days and the most notable item he sent was this pack of 1980 Topps!
The '80 Topps set is a big deal for me. I opened a lot of it that year, more cards from one set than I had opened ever before. The 1980, 1989 and 2006 Topps sets are the trifecta of You're Opening Too Much Of This Stuff sets for me.
In '80, I was actively trying to complete the entire set for the first time. I still didn't have a job at this point so I don't know where I was getting the money to buy these packs. But, safe to say, I've seen many of the cards in this pack over and over.
The set has long been complete, so let's see if we can pull a Rickey! Or at least a couple of cards I can upgrade.
The pack is officially open, let's see what's inside!
#183 - Jim Anderson, Angels
Backup shortstop who carried the interesting "C-SS" position designation on his '84 Topps card. But right now he was an Angels player who I had never heard of -- and I think this card was double-printed too.
#145 - Darrell Evans, Giants
Underrated slugger who always played on the wrong team until he joined the Tigers at the end of a long career and finally won some accolades (it helped to be on a team that didn't suck).
#77 - Dave Stieb, Blue Jays
One of the top rookie cards in the set, at least among people who still remember Dave Stieb. Strangely nobody talks about him anymore. The most interesting thing about this card for me -- other than it being one of the best-looking rookie cards ever -- is I never saw Stieb this clean-shaven in any game I watched. I still don't believe that's really him there.
#369 - Jim Kern, Rangers
Cool shot, particularly for the time. Kern was coming off a great year. How's this for a stat line you never see anymore? 1979: 71 GP, 0 GS, 143 IP, 29 SV, 13 Wins, 136 SO, 1.57 ERA.
#264 - Bill Robinson, Pirates
Bill Robinson is delivering a steely eyed stare on half of his cards.
#124 - Dave Lemanczyk, Blue Jays
Meanwhile, Lemanczyk has the sad-eyed face on many of his cards.
#34 - Jeff Newman, A's
Oof. Light-hitting catcher from one of the worst teams of all-time. This pack is going south fast.
#585 - Al Hrabosky, Royals
I've always liked this card. Sure, it's a terrific mound shot, but it took Topps way too long to portray Hrabosky on the mound, which was his whole shtick. I still haven't seen a card of him at the back of the mound, doing his psych-out-the-batter routine.
#576 - Jim Dwyer, Red Sox
Getting boring again.
#59 - Eddy Putman
The most common of commons. Putnam is a One-Card Wonder and I believe this card was also double-printed. Certainly pulled his card a lot (I used to have all of the double-prints from 1978-80 memorized).
#129 - Craig Reynolds, Astros
I was pretty high on Craig Reynolds at this time, thought he'd be an All-Star for several years. But I'm about the only person who thought that and has this pack been searched?
#673 - Rangers Future Stars
I'm from the future to tell you nobody here became a star.
#307 - Rick Honeycutt, Mariners
The closest card to being a Dodger card in the pack (grasping at straws, I know). The Dodgers would acquire Honeycutt in a deadline deal and he was later the Dodgers' pitching coach.
#245 - Phil Niekro, Braves
Finally! A Hall of Famer! Although at this point in time he was known as that pitcher who keeps losing 20 games in a season.
#37 - Kiko Garcia, Orioles
My brother and I used to harass my youngest brother about the no-name Orioles, such as Kiko.
It's the last card in the pack, so there is the customary gum stain on the back.
That was not a great pack, pretty middling. Was it too much to ask for one card with a number ending in zero? I don't even know if I can find any upgrades (lot of off-center cards).
But I shouldn't quibble with opening a 42-year-old pack that many consider vintage now! (I don't).
It was actually pretty fun.
And didn't take a lot of thought.
Because March likes to rob all my thoughts.
Comments
That '80 set holds some memories for me, as they were the first cards I seriously collected. My neighbour managed the snack bar at K mart and they had a promotion where if you bought a frozen Coke you got a free 3-pack of '80 baseball. When the promotion ended, she had two boxes of the 3-packs left over. She brought them over to me one evening along with the promotional poster. I had that poster hanging on my bedroom door for several years, unfortunately, it's long gone. I still have all the cards, and one thing that stuck out was that I only got one duplicate out of nearly 100 packs. Rob Picciolo.
Fyi, Secret Base has been discussing Stieb lately - in a 4-part series
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/cooperstown-notebook-born-in-the-fifties/
I still consider it the dividing line between "vintage" and not. The 80's are sort of their own thing to me, because that's where I started, so those are the most memorable cards (at least until '84 when I stopped). But the end of the 80's led to the jun-- Overproduction Era, so they're not quite "classic" or "vintage". But I still like early 80's and would consider repeating set builds.