I might watch

 

 

You may have heard that there is a new documentary out on artist Dick Perez, who is well-known for drawing the Diamond King cards for Donruss through the 1980s and 1990s.

 

I've seen the trailer for the movie and I might watch the whole documentary, but it's not appointment-viewing for me. "Diamond Kings" are a big part of childhood for collectors of a certain age and SABR has been hyping the project, but I've never been interested in the Diamond Kings.

 

I wrote about this once before, 13 years ago now, and my thoughts are still the same mostly. As a short recap, I first viewed Diamond Kings in 1982 as a 16-year-old when I bought packs of Donruss. I was instantly puzzled by seeing drawings on baseball cards, which had always been photos since I started collecting. I didn't like it, I didn't like the cards. They didn't seem like a full card to me.

 

I've come around a little since then, mostly by appreciating the first two editions of Diamond Kings, which were in 1982 and 1983. But the others don't interest me enough to collect them unless I'm trying to complete a whole set.

 

There's no questioning though that DKs became part of baseball card lore over the years, appearing year after year to kick off Donruss' sets. Inspired a bit by a mention of the Expos' Diamond Kings (and the lack of a Tim Wallach) over on the Tim Wallach blog, I decided to look at the Dodgers player featured each year of Diamond Kings.

 

In the documentary teaser, Dick Perez, who is the Baseball Hall of Fame's official artist, said the plan at the beginning was to feature the best player from each team with the sets. So let's see how well they did with the Dodgers.

 

 

1982: Steve Garvey
1981 Best Player: Fernando Valenzuela

 

Fernando Valenzuela was a nationwide sensation in 1981 and the Dodgers' best player. Steve Garvey, it could be argued, wasn't even the Dodgers' best position player that year they won the World Series. But he was the established star, so he was the first Dodger Diamond King.

 

 

1983: Fernando Valenzuela
1982 Best Player: Pedro Guerrero

 

No sophomore slump for Fernando in 1982, but the Dodgers' best player in 1982 was Pedro Guerrero.

 

 

1984: Pedro Guerrero

1983 Best Player: Pedro Guerrero

 

Got the right guy for the 1984 set, although seems like the Diamond Kings were a year behind at this point. This is the first Diamond Kings set with borders and like I mentioned in the previous DK post, I think these cards worked better with no borders. Border illustrations take away from the illustration itself.

 

 

1985: Mike Marshall

1984 Best Player: Alejandro Pena

 

Donruss focused on Marshall's team-high 21 home runs in 1984 but that's nothing to shout about. Starting pitcher Alejandro Pena led the league in ERA and threw four shutouts.

 

 

1986: Orel Hershiser
1985 Best Player: Pedro Guerrero had the best season of his career in 1985 but I can see not wanting to repeat subjects. Hershiser was also the talk of the team, going 19-3 and finishing third in the Cy voting.

 

 

1987: Steve Sax

1986 Best Player: Steve Sax batted .332 in more than 600 at-bats, finishing behind only Tim Raines in the NL batting race. It was between either him or 20-game winner Valenzuela and since Fernando already appeared, Sax is the wise choice. I don't know about that action inset drawing though.

 

 

1988 Bob Welch

1987 Best Player: Bob Welch. Only Guerrero could match him as far as the rest of the team.

 

 

1989: Kirk Gibson

1988 Best Player: Kirk Gibson.

 

No doubt that Kirk Gibson was the best of the Dodgers in '88, he and Hershiser got an otherwise average team a World Series title. This is around when I sense a dip in quality with the Diamond King art, or maybe it's those bizarre lightning bolts in the background.

 

 

1990: Willie Randolph

1989 Best Player: First, that's not a great Randolph depiction. Yes, it's much better than anything I could do, but I write for a living. Second, Willie Randolph being the Dodgers' best player sums up the disappointment of the 1989 season for L.A., which finished fourth. Orel Hershiser was still the Dodgers best guy but you saw him in 1986.

 

 

1991: Ramon Martinez

1990 Best Player: Probably Eddie Murray, but Ramon Martinez had a hell of a season and won 20 games.

 

This is my least favorite Dodger Diamond King by far. It looks shoddy in comparison to the early '80s DKs. I don't dislike Perez's artwork, I'm more confused about its appeal. But if every DK card looked like this, I'd sound like this.

 

 

1992: Brett Butler

1991 Best Player: Brett Butler is an easy pick. I'm not crazy about this card either.

 

This is the year that Diamond Kings met the 1990s. Instead of leading off the set as they had done for a decade, they were now an insert and that would continue through the rest of the '90s. I do not like Diamond Kings nearly enough to want to chase an insert.

 

 

1993: Eric Karros and Orel Hershiser

1992 Best Player: Terrible season. The Dodgers' best player in '92 was probably Brett Butler again. Hershiser lost more games than he won for the first time (but then again, every Dodger pitcher did that year). Neither of these illustrations look great.

 

The Dodgers and Brewers got two Diamond Kings this year, as I think separate ones were made for the Rookies of the Year. Karros won the NL award and Pat Listach won the AL award in '92.

 

 

1994: Mike Piazza

1993 Best Player: Mike Piazza. The Dodgers were on their second run of Rookies of the Year and Piazza was a no-brainer pick for this years version.

 

 

1995: Raul Mondesi

1994 Best Player: Best player was Piazza or Butler, but Mondesi won the Rookie of the Year so here you go.

 

This is where I am stopping. After this point, Donruss made Diamond Kings even more exclusive by numbering them. I still don't have the Dodgers from most of these years and like I said, they don't look good enough for me to care to look for them.

 

So I guess the documentary is in the same boat as the cards for me. Yeah if the card drops in my lap, I'll take it. Yeah, if I'm not doing anything, I'll watch it. It is about baseball after all.

 

But I don't know what all the fuss is about.