Beaten at my own game

  

I like to think that I do quite a bit of baseball card research on this blog that not a lot of other bloggers or collectors do.

 

It's kind of my thing -- I like the research, I like finding out and I can spend weeks/months on a project without getting bored. In fact, I like that research a lot of times can be leisurely. No deadlines, just announce it when you're done.

 

But once in awhile, that can come back to bite me.

 

Last month, the SABR Baseball Cards bluesky account wondered who had appeared the most in Topps' Traded sets in the 1980s.

 

I immediately took that as marching orders to find out who had the most cards in 1980s Traded sets. I have done something like this many times for the blog, especially back in the old Twitter days.

 

Well, unbeknownst to me, someone else was doing the same thing. And he finished his research before me and published it almost 20 days before I did. He got the whole thing done in nine days! I was beaten to the story! I was beaten at my own game!

 

Well, no need to rush it out now, I took my time finishing it and now it's done -- the players with the most cards in 1980s Traded sets.

 

Just to show you that I did my own work and am not copying the SABR Cards post's research (because the results are basically the same), here is how I did my research (Jason used a spreadsheet).

 

I used a color-coded legend, because of course I did. This is based on the colors of the Traded boxes for each year, which you saw at the top of the post.

 

I could do this because I now own all of the boxes, thanks to Steffan (Golden Eagles555) sending me the green 1983 Traded box, which was the last one I needed.

 

The colors I used aren't exactly like the boxes but I had to make them a little different to distinguish the players in the list. Like so:

 

I used the baseballcardpedia Traded lists and then went to work color-coding and counting. It took awhile. A spreadsheet probably would be faster ... and not as fun.

 

My results are slightly different than the SABR post just because I stuck to the 1980s Traded sets, which was the original question on the SABR bluesky post. Jason goes into the 1972, 1974 and 1976 Traded sets, which I don't consider the same thing -- those were cards that were included in the set (1972) or as an insert in regular packs (1974 and 1976). They were not stand-alone, order-through-the-mail sets like the ones from the 1980s.

 

The other difference with my post is ... I have the images for all the players with the most cards! Because I have all the 1980s Traded cards!! And the boxes!!!

 

So ...

 

There are nine players with four cards in the 1980 Traded sets, which is the most. Here they are:

 

 

Bill Almon (1981, 1983, 1985, 1987)

 

The player mentioned originally in the SABR Cards bluesky post.

 

 

Bill Campbell (1982, 1984, 1985, 1986)

 

I remember when the Red Sox signed Bill Campbell as a free agent in 1977 and, yes, that was the beginnings of free agency, but it seemed at the time that the Red Sox had their top reliever for a number of years. Not even close.

 

 

Rick Cerone (1985, 1986, 1987, 1988)

 

Cerone appeared in four consecutive Traded sets, on the move every year near the end of his career.

 

 

Dave Collins (1981, 1983, 1985, 1986)

 

1981 Traded is one of the rare Topps cards in which Collins is not wearing glasses (1979 and 1983 are two others).

 

 

Jim Essian (1981, 1982, 1983, 1984)

 

Essian was the first member of the Four Tradeds Club, getting it done with the first four sets of the '80s.

 

 

Larry Milbourne (1981, 1982, 1983, 1984)

 

Milbourne followed quickly with the same pattern. He's just later in the alphabet.

 

 

Gene Nelson (1981, 1982, 1985, 1987)

 

The four-timers did a pretty good job of avoiding the drastic airbrush, despite all the team-switching. Nelson's 1987 card is one of the few artist-rendering stand-outs.

 

 

Luis Salazar (1985, 1987, 1988, 1989)

 

Salazar is the lone four-timer to be featured with the same team, the Padres in 1987 and 1989.

 

 

 Alex Trevino (1982, 1984, 1985, 1986)

 

That 1984 card is quite faded, 1984 seems to do that a lot.

 

Those are the nine. As you could expect, most of these guys are role players or relief pitchers, they're the ones that switch teams at that frequency.

 

I honestly didn't expect for Bill Almon to have that much company. But there are plenty of players who just missed out on the four-card club by one card. There are 50 players with three cards in the 1980s Traded sets.

 

Here they are:

 

Don Baylor

Steve Bedrosian

Juan Beniquez

Tony Bernarzard

Phil Bradley

Ray Burris

Jeff Burroughs

Enos Cabell

Bill Caudill

Jack Clark

Terry Francona

Rich Gale

Ken Griffey Sr.

Mel Hall

Ron Hassey

Steve Henderson

Cliff Johnson

Ruppert Jones

Steve Kemp

Terry Kennedy

Ron Kittle

Ray Knight

Wayne Krenchicki

Mike LaCoss

Dave LaPoint

Rick Leach

Sixto Lezcano

Jerry Martin

Andy McGaffigan

Sid Monge

Jose Morales

Keith Moreland

Joe Morgan

Mike Morgan

Al Oliver

Jorge Orta

Rob Picciolo

Gary Redus

Mark Salas

Tom Seaver

Bob Shirley

Lonnie Smith

Lary Sorensen

Jim Sundberg

Dickie Thon

Manny Trillo

Mike Vail

Ed Vande Berg

Gary Ward

Frank Williams

 

And there you are. If you saw the SABR Cards post first, sorry about the repeat. Late again, I guess. But hopefully I added some interest with the card pictures.

 

I have other research posts on tap, though they'll roll out at my usual casual pace. If this card researching thing becomes the next big thing, I'm in trouble.