1981 Donruss Top Whatever...
A few weeks ago, I debut the "Top Whatever" countdown. Where I would rank what I had of a given set, housed in my three ring binders. The number of cards in each countdown would depend on however many I kept in my collection. My first countdown was the Top 115 1981 Fleer cards. Those cards came from a sealed Wax Box I bought online in June, 2011. The same day I purchased the box of 1981 Fleer, I also purchased a box of 1981 Donruss.
Which means the second edition of the Top Whatever Countdown will cover that box of 1981 Donruss. I plan on continuing the Top Whatever Countdown in future posts, highlight personal favorite and/or notable sets in my collection.
I broke both of those boxes on the afternoon they arrived in the mail. Previous to those boxes, I owned very little from either of the 1981 Fleer and Donruss sets. I bought them specifically because 1981 was a baseball year not very well covered in my collection.
Both Fleer and Donruss included a stick of chewing gum in each pack of their 1981 debut brands. However, a lawsuit from Topps forced both newcomers to drop the gum from their baseball cards for 1982...
I was disappointed in the 1981 Fleer gum sticking to the front of each card it was next to in the pack, peeling off the surface of these photos along with the gum. That affected 36 cards in total in the box of Fleer. Also ruining the only Nolan Ryan card in the box.
Whatever chemicals were used in making the Donruss gum, not only stuck to the back of the cards, also created a gross butt stain that still confounds me to this day...
With as much crap as Topps took over the years about gum and wax stains on their cards, they have NOTHING on the 1981 Donruss Gum Problem...
Due to front and back damage of the gum variety, about 50 cards in the box were worthless. I think I'm going to write a letter about this...
Here are the Top 118 1981 Donruss cards pulled from a sealed Wax Box in 2011. Presented in the order that I like them. No book value bias, just how much I like the card. It's just as simple as that...
Since it was already here, let's just flip that greasy crusty mess over and call Mr. Goodwin number 118 in the 1981 Donruss Top Whatever Countdown.
Actually, the box had 3 Goodwins, two of which escaped unharmed.
Though all three of them were miscut... Like nearly EVERY card in the box. So I'm not going to mention that anymore...
(Glitch in the middle of the scan was due to me opening the lid too soon... That wasn't Donrusseses fault...)
Looking at the awesome photo on the front of the card makes it a rank whole lot closer to number 1, than number 118... Those eyebrows, the tongue, the blank stare, that kickass mustache!
Yeah, this is way too awesome to be number 118... We're gonna bump Goodman all the way up to Number 6b!
1981 Donruss featured a great deal of washed out and blurry photos. And a lot of them were already flat out boring... But it's Carlton Fisk! I've always been a fan... Fisk would spend 1981 playing all of his home games with the Chicago White Sox, in Comiskey Park...
I, for one, am very proud of myself for not giving in to the strong temptation to photoshop this card... No matter how much I wanted to see the Chief Baseball Officer of Major League Baseball flipping off someone in the stands.
I'm used to seeing Bob Horner looking so much older on his cards... Probably because I wasn't collecting in 1981, starting in 1987...
As much as I've never liked the Braves uniforms of this era. (And what exactly is that patch on the sleeve supposed to represent? Butt Plug? Love Corn?) Either way, for some reason it works while cast against the bleachers of Wrigley. I almost like it...
1981 Fleer was known for featuring a large percentage of photos taken at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto, which is one of my favorite stadiums that I know very little about. 1981 Donruss is very heavy on Comiskey Park in Chicago. A very old (opening in 1910) and crumbling stadium that has been heavily photographed.
That being said, the Comiskey photos in 1981 Donruss offer a nice glimpse into what an in-game view would have looked like, done in a style I hadn't seen. Just as there were a ton of Exhibition Stadium cards in my 1981 Fleer Top Whatever, I hope you like the deep green of Comiskey... Because I sure do!
Had medical technology of today existed in 1977, Fidrych may have gone on to post some incredible numbers over multiple All Star Seasons. Instead, 1981 marked his last major league cards. His brief, but brilliant, career cut short by arm and shoulder injuries. Try to catch the MLB Network biography of Fidrych. It's a great, but tragic story.
A few weeks ago, the Minnesota Twins held their annual Twins Fest. A pre-spring training fan party, with player meet and greets, media panels, "Midwest's Biggest Card Show" (though that has been de-emphasized since the move from the Metrodome) and other activities to get fans amped for the upcoming season. Back in the early 1990's, the card show took up a large percentage of the Metrodome floor, and was the biggest deal for card collecting of the year in that region.
The January 1990 edition of Twins Fest (second overall, the first in 1989 was dominated by collectors insanely searching for Bill Ripken's 1989 Fleer Fuck Face card) saw a majority of my card budget spent of dime boxes. That year, my goal was to pick up stars from years past sets that I had very little (other than a handful of commons) of. I remember getting around ten or so 1981 Donruss star cards for cheap that day, Lynn was among them.
I know that is Milwaukee... Morris was another of my cheap stars from Twins Fest 1990. Had I waited a year, this card would likely have cost more, since Morris was the Twins hot free agent signing for the 1991 season. I remember that turning out pretty well...
In case you were wondering, I disqualified the actual Twins Fest 1990 cards from this Top Whatever. Only cards that came from the June 2011 wax box are included here. Speaking of which, I'm already noticing a trend. The dime box 1981 Donruss from 1990 didn't keep much prestige in my collection. Those stars are pretty low on the Whatever... Familiarity breeds contempt?
I became a John Tudor fan from watching him pitch against the Twins in the 1987 World Series. Which Tudor spent looking completely irritated that he was there...
I would really love this shot of Comiskey, but they had to turn the Donruss Blurrometer on full blast to remove all the scoreboard awesomeness behind an unhappy Tudor...
On the whole, the Expos and Twins in the 1981 Donruss set were all pretty unremarkable. The Twins got a great deal of posed shots at Comiskey, while the Expos were busy posing at Wrigley... Very few game action shots between the two...
Uninspired photo of a Hall of Famer... The washed-outedness even diminishes Blyleven's beard, that he was obviously trying to show off... That's just a crime...
And I'm starting to think that Cardinals jerseys of 1980 were simply t-shirts with logos sewn on... Though Herr's looks better than Jim Kaat's (see the 1981 Fleer Whatever...)
Dilone was a common that I picked up very early on in my collecting days. Nothing special, but there is some great Comiskey going on here...
I saw on MLB Network the other day that Cleveland is phasing out the Chief Wahoo logo, with 2018 being the last year it will be marketed. For now, they will be going with the block letter C on hats and jerseys. I totally get that it's a racist image and it's time has passed, but a part of me will miss it.
At least Progressive Field didn't put up any racist monument signs, unlike what stood on top of Cleveland Municipal Stadium for decades...
That batting cage alone means this card is ranked way too low... The mustache on Blackwell confirms it... Back in 1993, the upstart St. Paul Saints of the Northern League, tabbed Blackwell to be their first manager. The mustache he is sporting in this 1980 photo has nothing on the cookie duster he had grown some 13 years later. In an interview with the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Blackwell said that he last trimmed the mustache in 1982.
The curly P on Schmidt's jacket does not match the curly P on his hat. The hat curly P forms a baseball... The jacket curly P just looks like it needs eyes drawn on it...
Horner had the Love Corn Butt Plug... Burroughs had toothpaste... Dale Murphy just isn't bringing enough to the table, despite all the MVP awards... I've overranked yet another...
Even the arched windows of Comiskey look tired, and there were still 11 more seasons before demolition would put the overdue bullet in the back of the head. And where is everybody going by the way? You don't need to run away from Mike Heath... He was a decent catcher who had a lengthy career as a backup backstop for multiple teams....
Another Exhibition Stadium appearance on a Royals card... Wathen bests Brett because of the cartoonish A's logo behind him. The A's used to play in Kansas City, so there's some unintentional history... Also, Wathan's noted position is kind of confusing. Normal baseball abbreviations do not places dashes between out and field, or first and base. And the abbreviation for catcher is simply C.
Donruss turned off the Blurrometer for this picture, allowing some detail for my voyeuristic peek inside Comiskey... The poles between the first few rows of seats were white/grey in 1980, I remember them as bright yellow, contrasted against the deep green seats. Comiskey always provided great card photos over the years.
Unlike the last card, featuring a player traded to Houston from Texas, still in an outdated Rangers road uniform. Which looked ok against it's Comiskey backdrop... Had Roberts been in his current red-orange-yellow Astros monstrosity in Comiskey, that card would have looked awful...
In a set known for all it's Chicago stadium pictures, there is an occasional Rick Miller... A very generic sounding name in a very generic looking ballpark...
Look! A 1981 Donruss insert card! Not really, but this is what I'd imagine they would be, had they existed... Man, that tagline is severely lackluster... Donruss should have just wrote: "They're Good." underneath the future Hall of Famers...
Well, there's an Expos game action card... Looks like it was taken in San Diego, against the Padres. I'm thinking they let Speier play this game without a hat or helmet since he was having such a good hair day...
I don't recall too many other cards in my collection for the future manager of the Dodgers, Pirates and Rockies...
Personally, I thought Jim Tracy did a great job managing the Colorado Rockies. They offered him a massive contract, and he did well. A year later, he up and quit. Negative stories about Rockies management circulated and put the team in an even more unfavorable light. Not only did Rockies management not know what they were doing, they were micro-managing the hall out of what they didn't even know...
A rookie card that was also among the 1990 Twins Fest dime box purchases. I knew Welch from his stint with those damn Oakland Athletics. Which every Twins fan red hot hated from 1988-1994. Welch was a good pitcher, and I wanted his rookie card. Mainly because of his bright blue plastic action figure arms...
Milwaukee again? I'm really thinking that is County Stadium... I don't think the stands are situated correctly for Cleveland Municipal Stadium... Some good blurry detail anyway shows through anyways...
Foster always sported some sweet sideburns... They can barely be seen on this photo, but you can see some cool Wrigley Ivey. Photoshop technology could have done so much to fix 1981 Donruss... Too bad it didn't exist then...
Speaking of sweet sideburns, check out what Baltimore slugger Murray has going on... In Milwaukee... I'm almost certain now, that has to be Milwaukee County Stadium. Wait, it's not Anaheim Stadium is it? No, cant be...
From the first time I saw this card, Mickey's Rangers uniform has reminded me of pajamas. Bright blue pajamas. Though Mickey looks to have outgrown them. Both footies are missing...
I'm going to go all in on the Italian stereotype here and say that I've never seen a Lee Mazzilli card that didn't make me think he worked part time for the Mafia... Or at least played the slimy secondary villain character in all those 1980's teen sex comedy movies...
Bobby looks like he just hit a home run, and is every bit as angry about it as his son will be in 20 years...
Dwayne is one of those players who always happen to get cards with pictures I really like on them. Murphy's 1981 Donruss card shows off some of the best Comiskey in the set, the third base side staircase to the upper deck, along with several exit signs. Blurry, but awesome...
Wrigley Field had been spruced up considerably between 1980 and 1992, when I saw my first game there. Shots of Wrigley from this set make it seem like the legendary ballpark is just a mis-match of different colored walls and doors. Instead of the uniform look Wrigley took on in card sets as the 1980's advanced...
The classic middle infielder baseball card picture taken at Wrigley. This picture transcends decades of baseball. Just change the player, but keep the pose and backdrop... The sheer number of Ryne Sandberg cards like this alone, boggle the mind.
Minton had a long career, 16 seasons pitching for the Giants and Angels. While I know this photo wasn't taken in Milwaukee, I'm leaning towards Shea Stadium in New York. But I definitely could be wrong...
You've made it to the half way mark of the 1981 Donruss Top Whatever Countdown! Let's take a break and look at some 1981 Donruss packaging...
I found it funny that both Fleer and Donruss tried to work the value angle in their competition with Topps. Fleer awkwardly awarded two bonus packs in their wax boxes. (For 60 whole cents of added value!!!) Donruss opted to include three more cards per pack, for the same price.
If you want to look between Mike Schmidt's legs, you will note that Donruss also decided to make "Extra cards of star players." Which they did... And that would have been fine if they did something special to note why there are extra cards of star players. Instead, all of the multiples have identical designs, just different photos...
Featuring a bold and prominent logo for both Major League Baseball and the Players Association. Just so you know that Donruss is legit and means business! This wasn't your Donruss Golf, no Donruss Saturday Night Fever and definitely not even Donruss Elvis Presley!
Taken in the area behind home plate at Comiskey. I'd like to know what those orange rectangles above Coopers head are... Concession stands? The Donruss Blurrometer was dialed back pretty low on Cecil, but I still can't tell...
There's a lot I want to cover on this card.... First off, what happened to those ugly white pinstripes the Cubs put on their road blues back in the late 1970's? Royal blue on powder blue with no accent is a bad look.
While I can't be certain, it almost looks as if there's a split in Mick's pants, right at junk level...
Impostor crotchless Cubs uniform aside, I have to profess my love for photos taken in Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. The red, orange and yellow configuration of the upper deck seating was one thing, the fact that the seats would appear to be different shades of those three colors makes them even better. Well, until the Vet switched to all blue seats in the early 1990's.
Before I move on to number 53, I also want to point out the lower third of the Sunoco Oil logo hanging from The Vet's overhang, above Kelleher's left arm...
This card screams posed baseball card in 1981. You've got your forced pose... Sun providing accents on the Mets uniform stiching... Hundreds of empty green Wrigley seats... Upper deck ramp behind Henderson, and a hint of the home plate netting. Don't forget the giant Mets logo on deck circle!
Here's another example of what I was talking about with Wrigley looking like a mis-match of buidling parts. If it wasn't for the grass (which already doesn't look real), it would look like Dave Smith was getting ready to throw a pitch in an alley between warehouses. I would also like to point out the strange single fan, lurking above Smith in what appears to be an empty Wrigley...
The lights appear to be going out at Comiskey! At least Koosman's bright blue uniform seems to illuminate the dark ballpark. Hmmmm... I didn't remember florescent colors starting to take off until at least 1983...
Beyond the left field walls of Comiskey, stood tall trees that could be seen through the windows of the 70+ year old ballpark. There aren't too many cards that show the trees, but they can be seen over Stieb's left shoulder. Stieb pitched for 15 seasons with Toronto, and one with the Chicago White Sox.
Interestingly, after pitching 22 ineffective innings for the White Sox in 1993, Stieb did not play any baseball from 1994-1997. Then came back with the Blue Jays for 50 innings in 1998, before retiring for good. I'd forgotten all about that...
I became a Rich Dotson fan in 1989, after he was released by the New York Yankees. He would soon re-sign with the Chicago White Sox, to finish the 1989 season. This stood out in my mind because of a Twins - White Sox game that I listened to on the radio. It was one of Dotson's first games back with the White Sox, and the Twins announcers spent an excessive amount of time, going into great detail about Dotson's recent roster movements.
Actually, I learned a lot about how rosters are constructed from that game.
Not long after that game, I found a Rich Dotson rookie card (this card) and added it to my collection. Appropriately enough, some great Comiskey pokes it's nose around here... Going into Dotson's right ribcage, are Comiskey's obvious labeling of the bullpen.
The highest ranking appearance of Exhibition Stadium in the 1981 Donruss Top Whatever. Under the 1981 Fleer Whatever, I covered the story of Ainge giving up Blue Jays baseball for a lengthy career in the NBA. Of Ainge's big three branded rookie cards, I would easily nominate his 1981 Donruss as Ainge's top baseball card...
Or Roasyals... Someone woke Willie from his nap so he could block out what would have been a great shot of Comiskey's "exploding" scoreboard. Blurrometer took care of whatever Willie's melon couldn't cover up...
Rookie card of an Expo from the 2017 Hall of Famer class, Raines sure looks young here... Baseball's future Rock didn't stay at second base very long before moving to the outfield and becoming one of the greatest base stealers of all time.
The superstars of 1981 Donruss didn't typically get action shots. Again, zoom out a bit, and you have a much better Bench...
The Vet in Philadelphia, in addition to that upper deck of tri-colored, multi-color seats, featured a lot of green. From the artificial astroturf to the outfield walls, The Vet was a very recognizable setting for baseball card photos, until it's implosion in March 2004.
Donruss turned off the Blurrometer for Mr. Mitchell, despite there being no ads on the outfield walls for his hair care products... The Comiskey scoreboard is finally unblurred, and a Kool cigarette ad is exposed! Bullpen 1 is sticking out of Mitchell's left armpit.
Pouting aside, there is some great Wrigley here... From the ramps to the upper deck, to a couple of press boxes that are above the sad man's slumped shoulders...
Reed has been a near instant pick-up for my collection since the earliest days of my collection. While flipping through boxes of 1970's commons at Shinders, I found a Ron Reed card, bought it, and BLAMMO! I now collect Ron Reed. It's as simple as that... The 6' 6" Reed pitched 19 seasons in the majors from 1966-1984, mostly for Atlanta and Philadelphia.
The Angels should go back to the Black, Red and White color theme. It's so much easier on the eyes than the current Red, Red, White and Red...
The story of J.R. Richard is another baseball tragedy. The former second overall pick in the 1969 draft, Richard first made the majors less than two years later. After several middling seasons, Richard put it all together in 1975, and was one of the best pitchers in baseball from 1975 to the middle of the 1980 season. Without warning, Richard suffered a stroke before a game in July, 1980, and never played baseball again. Richard was absolutely dominant for 5 straight seasons, and had it all taken from him in an instant.
For the Astros, the loss of Richard canceled plans to pair him with recent free agent signee Nolan Ryan, to form a killer 1-2 punch of fireballing strikeout pitchers at the top of their rotation. Houston enjoyed their pair of aces for only three months...
Another card that just all around works. Simple in subject and presentation, the only thing that would have made it more appropriate was if it showed Concepcion making a great defensive play. Keeping the 1980 Reds from losing again in the late innings...
Home player in Comiskey... They get in-game action shots. Showing off those ugly untucked butterfly collared jerseys... Bad idea, but at least they are not shorts...
Zoom out! As I mentioned earlier, I'm a big fan of home team shots of the Phillies at the Vet. The green walls contrast nicely with the Phillies Home whites with burgundy pinstriping... Though, much less so with the switches from multi-color seats to navy blue... And burgundy for plain old red... Plus ditching the large curly P...
More left field trees through the large windows behind Comiskey. Rawley pitched his final season in the Major Leagues in 1989 for the Minnesota Twins, after logging time with the Mariners, Yankees and Phillies. Rawey's 1988 Topps All Star card (off winning 17 for the 1987 Phillies) gave me false hope that the Twins had just traded Tom Herr and a big pile of nothing for a real All Star... Rawley was going to come to Minnesota and win 25 games, strike out 300 and succeed Frank Viola as Minnesota's perennial Cy Young contender!
He was none of those things for Minnesota. However, Shane Rawley was a nice guy and a good autograph target before Twins games at the Metrodome. For this, and his lone, below average season with the Twins, Shane Rawley will always have a place in my collection....
While researching this article, I discovered that Shane Rawley was first drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers. He did not sign with them, and went on to be a 2nd round draft pick of the Montreal Expos (in 1974). Three years later, the Expos traded him to the Reds, who then traded him to Seattle, shortly after the 1977 Expansion Draft.
Technically, I can add Rawley to the list of former players who logged time for both the Twins and Expos...
Close up of Comiskey's stands, unblurred. Check out those uncomfortable wooden back chairs and everyone wearing sunglasses as if they are too cool to be there...
Love the padding haphazardly stuck to the brick walls of Wrigley Field, wIth hundreds of empty seats behind them. Initially, I thought this was a warming up in the bullpen shot, but it that was the case, there wouldn't be as much grass between Lucas and the wall. You can see the rise of the bullpen mound on the left side of the picture. Which you wouldn't see if he was standing on it...
I also find it funny there are all the rows of empty seats behind Lucas, but multiple pairs of cut off legs above him... Not one person would spring for the pricier seats to watch Lucas pitch?
The second Carew card in 1981 Donruss is much better than the first.... One of the best slap hitters in the history of baseball. Carew's short, quick contact swing drove him to well over 3000 major league hits with the Twins and Angels. That swing reminded me a lot of Ichiro Suzuki, without the pronounced lunge at the ball. This card shows Carew getting ready to swing, which shows much more than his mug shot that appeared earlier in the set. I like it a whole lot more...
Bradford is sporting some nice mutton chops at the warehouse district of Wrigley Field. I like the 355 cut out of the Ivey on the left field fence. The only thing that would help this picture be even more cool would be to show more of the house behind the walls.
Thank you Donruss for forgetting to turn on the Blurrometer for the Travers card. The scoreboard can finally be clearly seen behind him... The cigarette ad is indeed for Kool... Is that a Longines clock above? The light-up spinning wheels are clearly visible. However, the scoreboard here is much older than I've seen in later 1980's Comiskey cards. If I had to guess, the scoreboard was likely upgraded prior to the 1983 All Star Game. I know the scoreboard had a color video screen, which was used at the AWA Superclash in September 1985, because I've watched it!
One feature of the Comiskey Park center field scoreboard that is rarely visible on cards would be the horn shaped speakers jutting straight out from the wall. They can be seen just to the left of Travers right shoulder. I've seen them before on a few other cards through the years.
While no where near as many as 1981 Donruss, 1989 Upper Deck also features some great shots of Comiskey Park. And those are a lot clearer!
The most "valuable" card in the set... This is a pretty good photo of Ryan gearing up on a 4 seam fastball. A lot of the photos in the set are grainy or blurry, but some of them show pretty good detail. Larry Bradford showed off the left field corner of Wrigley, so Nolan Ryan covers the right field area. Numbers again cut out of the Ivey awards bonus points.
While the 1981 Fleer Nolan was marred by gum stuck to the surface, which tore off pieces of the photo. The 1981 Donruss Ryan escaped the pack intact, however, Donruss cut it so poorly, his name was almost trimmed off.
I take that as a sign. I'm not allowed a decent condition 1981 Nolan Ryan. (My 1981 Topps Nolan is lightly creased, however, the 1981 Topps complete set I have in a box is pretty much mint and centered.
A pretty good shot of the Comiskey scoreboard. The Kool ad is blocked by Simpson's Mariners cap. The more I look at it, the more I like Seattle's inverted trident M logo. The current throwback caps, featuring the inverted trident, that the Mariners are using today are really cool. Swapping the yellow M for a dark green M, outlined in silver.
Despite Travers ranking lower despite a clearer scoreboard shot, Simpson ranks higher due to the addition of the wrinkley infield tarp behind him.
Mr. Office had a pretty decent 11 year career in the Major Leagues, garnering a few cards with the Braves and Expos. Since he was clearly not an All Star, apparently the Expos decided he didn't need a decent helmet. So give him the one tossed in the corner, with the crooked logo, and paint chipped helmet that no one else wants. I bet if you were to zoom in real close on Rowland's helmet, it's probably cracked and dented to hell...
What would Comiskey look like with bunting? How about from a picture taken through a batting cage... Aw hell, throw in the third base stairs behind Rudi while you're at it...
Vuckovich has the only 1981 Donruss card that I could find, with the photo taken in Montreal's Olympic Stadium. The blurry faceless Expo in a home uniform behind him gives everything away that the yellow dugout bench didn't. Again, taking a look at the Cardinals uniforms, the jersey stitches are wrinkling the shirt. No other teams' uniforms seemed to do this...
The future Rockies manager has always been a personal favorite of mine. While his playing career didn't live up to his Top Prospect hype, Hurdle was another of those players that tended to take great pictures on his cards. The Kool cigarettes advertising on Comiskey's scoreboard looks like a Budweiser ad in this photo. More speaker horns can be also be seen here, just above the second base net.
Comiskey Park action shots seem to be restricted to White Sox players, while visitors are stuck with stale posed shots. Baumgarten is showing off the strange White Sox home uniforms of 1980, with the navy blue pants and butterfly collars. As far as Baumgarten the pitcher goes, he pitched in majors for roughly five season, posting below average numbers for both the White Sox and Pirates.
These cards are ridiculously thin. When I stacked all 648 cards from the box up, it measured only 1.375"! Okay, not really... But for something like baseball cards, you'd preferably use a paper stock that was at least somewhat thick... The cards are thin and flimsy. Donruss would improve on this a little over the coming years. 1982 Donruss are indeed thicker, but nowhere near as thick as Fleer and Topps cards.
Quality control was severely lacking!!! Mainly the bad trimming on nearly all the cards. You'd think baseball cards would have square corners... Some even had odd angles cut into straight edges. Even cards from the same pack of varying sizes. I didn't get any that were cut so two cards are showing on the same card. But I don't think I saw one that was 50/50, both top and bottom. Good thing I wasn't looking for condition sensitive cards...
I'm surprised it didn't include any sample card images on the box, to show what you'd be getting inside. The cut-out of Mike Schmidt doesn't offer too much insight...
Much like the box of 1981 Fleer, this box was a great deal of fun to break. The set is nice and simple for it's time. The coalition could have been better. I got a good amount of double and triples, and none of a good percentage of cards from the set. However, in 1981, most collectors were likely buying just a couple of packs at a time, instead of full boxes from a hobby shop...
Looking from this vantage point, I would have loved to seen an entire game from this angle. Between home and third base, you can see the stairs leading up to the upper deck, that was featured on so many 1981 Donruss cards...
Comiskey Park was demolished early in 1991, just as soon as new Comiskey Park opened. Demolition first started in the right field corner (the vantage point in the 1986 batting practice photo was the first part of the stadium to be destroyed via wrecking ball), and wrapped around the stadium until reaching the center field scoreboard. Which was the last to go.
An advertisement for Winston cigarettes (my former brand!) stayed up on the scoreboard until it was destroyed!
The land that Comiskey Park was built on, would become the parking lot for new Comiskey. I wish the White Sox and/or the city of Chicago would have saved the old scoreboard. It could have sat on the northeast corner of the new parking lot and not really affected parking, but been a great photo op and history preserved. The side facing the freeway could have been sold for advertising! Think about it!
Which means the second edition of the Top Whatever Countdown will cover that box of 1981 Donruss. I plan on continuing the Top Whatever Countdown in future posts, highlight personal favorite and/or notable sets in my collection.
But back to 1981 Donruss for today...
I broke both of those boxes on the afternoon they arrived in the mail. Previous to those boxes, I owned very little from either of the 1981 Fleer and Donruss sets. I bought them specifically because 1981 was a baseball year not very well covered in my collection.
Both Fleer and Donruss included a stick of chewing gum in each pack of their 1981 debut brands. However, a lawsuit from Topps forced both newcomers to drop the gum from their baseball cards for 1982...
I was disappointed in the 1981 Fleer gum sticking to the front of each card it was next to in the pack, peeling off the surface of these photos along with the gum. That affected 36 cards in total in the box of Fleer. Also ruining the only Nolan Ryan card in the box.
Disappointment with the gum damage to 1981 Donruss was a much different beast...
Whatever chemicals were used in making the Donruss gum, not only stuck to the back of the cards, also created a gross butt stain that still confounds me to this day...
With as much crap as Topps took over the years about gum and wax stains on their cards, they have NOTHING on the 1981 Donruss Gum Problem...
Due to front and back damage of the gum variety, about 50 cards in the box were worthless. I think I'm going to write a letter about this...
Oh, that's right...
So let's just have fun with it and not be all investory...
Here are the Top 118 1981 Donruss cards pulled from a sealed Wax Box in 2011. Presented in the order that I like them. No book value bias, just how much I like the card. It's just as simple as that...
As for reasons of full disclosure, I will explain why I ranked them they way I did...
118 - Danny Goodwin - Twins
Since it was already here, let's just flip that greasy crusty mess over and call Mr. Goodwin number 118 in the 1981 Donruss Top Whatever Countdown.
Actually, the box had 3 Goodwins, two of which escaped unharmed.
Though all three of them were miscut... Like nearly EVERY card in the box. So I'm not going to mention that anymore...
(Glitch in the middle of the scan was due to me opening the lid too soon... That wasn't Donrusseses fault...)
Looking at the awesome photo on the front of the card makes it a rank whole lot closer to number 1, than number 118... Those eyebrows, the tongue, the blank stare, that kickass mustache!
Yeah, this is way too awesome to be number 118... We're gonna bump Goodman all the way up to Number 6b!
Just remember that as you get deeper into the countdown...
117 - Carlton Fisk - Red Sox
1981 Donruss featured a great deal of washed out and blurry photos. And a lot of them were already flat out boring... But it's Carlton Fisk! I've always been a fan... Fisk would spend 1981 playing all of his home games with the Chicago White Sox, in Comiskey Park...
116 - Joe Torre - Mets
I, for one, am very proud of myself for not giving in to the strong temptation to photoshop this card... No matter how much I wanted to see the Chief Baseball Officer of Major League Baseball flipping off someone in the stands.
115 - Win Remmerswaal - Red Sox
He makes the countdown for name alone.
114 - Bob Horner - Braves
As much as I've never liked the Braves uniforms of this era. (And what exactly is that patch on the sleeve supposed to represent? Butt Plug? Love Corn?) Either way, for some reason it works while cast against the bleachers of Wrigley. I almost like it...
Still, Atlanta...
113 - Dan Quisenberry - Royals
1981 Fleer was known for featuring a large percentage of photos taken at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto, which is one of my favorite stadiums that I know very little about. 1981 Donruss is very heavy on Comiskey Park in Chicago. A very old (opening in 1910) and crumbling stadium that has been heavily photographed.
That being said, the Comiskey photos in 1981 Donruss offer a nice glimpse into what an in-game view would have looked like, done in a style I hadn't seen. Just as there were a ton of Exhibition Stadium cards in my 1981 Fleer Top Whatever, I hope you like the deep green of Comiskey... Because I sure do!
Big Quisenberry fan too...
112 - Mark Fidrych - Tigers
111 - Fred Lynn - Red Sox
A few weeks ago, the Minnesota Twins held their annual Twins Fest. A pre-spring training fan party, with player meet and greets, media panels, "Midwest's Biggest Card Show" (though that has been de-emphasized since the move from the Metrodome) and other activities to get fans amped for the upcoming season. Back in the early 1990's, the card show took up a large percentage of the Metrodome floor, and was the biggest deal for card collecting of the year in that region.
The January 1990 edition of Twins Fest (second overall, the first in 1989 was dominated by collectors insanely searching for Bill Ripken's 1989 Fleer Fuck Face card) saw a majority of my card budget spent of dime boxes. That year, my goal was to pick up stars from years past sets that I had very little (other than a handful of commons) of. I remember getting around ten or so 1981 Donruss star cards for cheap that day, Lynn was among them.
110 - Steve Renko - Red Sox
A former Expo in Milwaukee's County Stadium? Pretty sure that's where this was taken...
109 - Jack Morris - Tigers
I know that is Milwaukee... Morris was another of my cheap stars from Twins Fest 1990. Had I waited a year, this card would likely have cost more, since Morris was the Twins hot free agent signing for the 1991 season. I remember that turning out pretty well...
108 - Reggie Jackson - Yankees
And another from Twins Fest 1990...
In case you were wondering, I disqualified the actual Twins Fest 1990 cards from this Top Whatever. Only cards that came from the June 2011 wax box are included here. Speaking of which, I'm already noticing a trend. The dime box 1981 Donruss from 1990 didn't keep much prestige in my collection. Those stars are pretty low on the Whatever... Familiarity breeds contempt?
Well, I've only been a Reggie Jackson fan a few times. And for only a few minutes at a time...
107 - Jeff Zahn - Angels
Hey Geoff, someone misspelled your name!
They also misspelled Twins...
Comiskey!
106 - Mickey Hatcher - Dodgers
Future Twin and future Dodger at Wrigley... Is that a billboard for toothpaste behind him?
105 - John Tudor - Red Sox
I became a John Tudor fan from watching him pitch against the Twins in the 1987 World Series. Which Tudor spent looking completely irritated that he was there...
And he pitched well...
I would really love this shot of Comiskey, but they had to turn the Donruss Blurrometer on full blast to remove all the scoreboard awesomeness behind an unhappy Tudor...
104 - Jerry White - Expos
That same Donruss Blurrometer took away some classic circa 1980 Wrigleyville...
On the whole, the Expos and Twins in the 1981 Donruss set were all pretty unremarkable. The Twins got a great deal of posed shots at Comiskey, while the Expos were busy posing at Wrigley... Very few game action shots between the two...
103 - Jeff Burroughs - Braves
Better than Horner for reasons of above shoulder toothpaste...
102 - Bert Blyleven - Pirates
Uninspired photo of a Hall of Famer... The washed-outedness even diminishes Blyleven's beard, that he was obviously trying to show off... That's just a crime...
101 - Tom Herr - Cardinals
Bad dude-fro Tom...
And I'm starting to think that Cardinals jerseys of 1980 were simply t-shirts with logos sewn on... Though Herr's looks better than Jim Kaat's (see the 1981 Fleer Whatever...)
100 - Yogi Berra - Yankees
Yogi has electrical outlets over his shoulder. That's way better than toothpaste...
99 - Kent Tekulve - Pirates
The Donruss Blurrometer works overtime at Wrigley...
98 - Miguel Dilone - Indians
Dilone was a common that I picked up very early on in my collecting days. Nothing special, but there is some great Comiskey going on here...
I saw on MLB Network the other day that Cleveland is phasing out the Chief Wahoo logo, with 2018 being the last year it will be marketed. For now, they will be going with the block letter C on hats and jerseys. I totally get that it's a racist image and it's time has passed, but a part of me will miss it.
At least Progressive Field didn't put up any racist monument signs, unlike what stood on top of Cleveland Municipal Stadium for decades...
Yes, it's damn racist, but that's also a damn cool sign...
97 - Tim Blackwell - Cubs
That batting cage alone means this card is ranked way too low... The mustache on Blackwell confirms it... Back in 1993, the upstart St. Paul Saints of the Northern League, tabbed Blackwell to be their first manager. The mustache he is sporting in this 1980 photo has nothing on the cookie duster he had grown some 13 years later. In an interview with the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Blackwell said that he last trimmed the mustache in 1982.
I remember that every time I see a Tim Blackwell card...
96 - George Brett - Royals
Exhibition Stadium in Toronto does make a couple of appearances in 1981 Donruss....
95 - John Verhoeven - Twins
You cannot fool me Donruss Blurrometer... I know that is Comiskey Park...
94 - Mike Schmidt - Phillies
The curly P on Schmidt's jacket does not match the curly P on his hat. The hat curly P forms a baseball... The jacket curly P just looks like it needs eyes drawn on it...
93 - Dale Murphy - Braves
Horner had the Love Corn Butt Plug... Burroughs had toothpaste... Dale Murphy just isn't bringing enough to the table, despite all the MVP awards... I've overranked yet another...
92 - Rod Carew - Angels
Carew posing outside under the clearest and bluest sky ever...
The Blurrometer may have malfunctioned here...
91 - Damaso Garcia - Blue Jays
Comiskey... Bonus points for the terrific road blues of the 1980 Jays...
90 - Mike Heath - Athletics
Come back!
89 - John Wathan - Royals
Another Exhibition Stadium appearance on a Royals card... Wathen bests Brett because of the cartoonish A's logo behind him. The A's used to play in Kansas City, so there's some unintentional history... Also, Wathan's noted position is kind of confusing. Normal baseball abbreviations do not places dashes between out and field, or first and base. And the abbreviation for catcher is simply C.
John Wathan does not play Cat.
And if he does, that's his own business what he does in his non-baseball time...
88 - Tug McGraw - Phillies
This card would have ranked higher if it were not for such tight cropping...
Damat Donruss, I want more Burgundy on Teal!
87 - Andre Dawson - Expos
Some good Wrigley... Standard Dawson Angryface... No complaints here...
86 - Dave Roberts - Astros
Donruss turned off the Blurrometer for this picture, allowing some detail for my voyeuristic peek inside Comiskey... The poles between the first few rows of seats were white/grey in 1980, I remember them as bright yellow, contrasted against the deep green seats. Comiskey always provided great card photos over the years.
85 - Cesar Cedeno - Astros
Unlike the last card, featuring a player traded to Houston from Texas, still in an outdated Rangers road uniform. Which looked ok against it's Comiskey backdrop... Had Roberts been in his current red-orange-yellow Astros monstrosity in Comiskey, that card would have looked awful...
84 - Pete Rose - Phillies
Look at the camera, Pete... Pete! Stop betting on baseball games and just look at the camera...
83 - Dale Berra - Pirates
Yogi's kid is so happy when his hand is wrist deep in balls...
Or was it Coke?
82 - Rick Miller - Angels
81 - George Brett & Rod Carew - Best Hitters
Look! A 1981 Donruss insert card! Not really, but this is what I'd imagine they would be, had they existed... Man, that tagline is severely lackluster... Donruss should have just wrote: "They're Good." underneath the future Hall of Famers...
80 - Lou Piniella - Yankees
Piniella is very intense for batting practice (at Comiskey...) today.
79 - Chris Speier - Expos
Well, there's an Expos game action card... Looks like it was taken in San Diego, against the Padres. I'm thinking they let Speier play this game without a hat or helmet since he was having such a good hair day...
78 - Roy Smalley - Twins
Now we've got some Comiskey with exit signs and stairs leading to the upper deck!
77 - Jim Tracy - Cubs
I don't recall too many other cards in my collection for the future manager of the Dodgers, Pirates and Rockies...
Personally, I thought Jim Tracy did a great job managing the Colorado Rockies. They offered him a massive contract, and he did well. A year later, he up and quit. Negative stories about Rockies management circulated and put the team in an even more unfavorable light. Not only did Rockies management not know what they were doing, they were micro-managing the hall out of what they didn't even know...
Still feel bad for Walt Weiss because of it...
76 - Jim Palmer - Orioles
Been awhile, but here's another 1990 Twins Fest dime box star special... And more great Comiskey!
75 - Lenny Randle - Cubs
The playing field at Wrigley must not have been cut as often in 1980 as it is today...
You can barely see his left shoe under the tall grass...
74 - Roger Erickson - Twins
In 1980, Roger Erickson wore #19, and was a starting pitcher for the Twins.
In 1990, Scott Erickson wore #19, and was a starting pitcher for the Twins.
In 2000, Steve Erickson wore no numbers, and was a cable public access newscaster...
Telling stories of my hometown, on whatever channel it is now...
That used to broadcast 201 Proof Television...
Which I co-starred on when I was 19!
Now, that was a stretch!
73 - Bob Welch - Dodgers
A rookie card that was also among the 1990 Twins Fest dime box purchases. I knew Welch from his stint with those damn Oakland Athletics. Which every Twins fan red hot hated from 1988-1994. Welch was a good pitcher, and I wanted his rookie card. Mainly because of his bright blue plastic action figure arms...
72 - Jim Wohlford - Giants
Never been a Giants fan -or even tolerator- but I kinda like the 1980's era black road jerseys...
71 - Alan Trammell - Tigers
70 - George Foster - Reds
69 - Eddie Murray - Orioles
Speaking of sweet sideburns, check out what Baltimore slugger Murray has going on... In Milwaukee... I'm almost certain now, that has to be Milwaukee County Stadium. Wait, it's not Anaheim Stadium is it? No, cant be...
68 - Mickey Rivers - Rangers
From the first time I saw this card, Mickey's Rangers uniform has reminded me of pajamas. Bright blue pajamas. Though Mickey looks to have outgrown them. Both footies are missing...
67 - Lee Mazzilli - Mets
I'm going to go all in on the Italian stereotype here and say that I've never seen a Lee Mazzilli card that didn't make me think he worked part time for the Mafia... Or at least played the slimy secondary villain character in all those 1980's teen sex comedy movies...
66 - Bobby Bonds - Cardinals
Bobby looks like he just hit a home run, and is every bit as angry about it as his son will be in 20 years...
65 - Sparky Lyle - Phillies
I want better lighting on this card immediately... That mustache needs to be prominently featured!
64 - Dwayne Murphy - Athletics
Dwayne is one of those players who always happen to get cards with pictures I really like on them. Murphy's 1981 Donruss card shows off some of the best Comiskey in the set, the third base side staircase to the upper deck, along with several exit signs. Blurry, but awesome...
63 - John Littlefield - Cardinals
Wrigley Field had been spruced up considerably between 1980 and 1992, when I saw my first game there. Shots of Wrigley from this set make it seem like the legendary ballpark is just a mis-match of different colored walls and doors. Instead of the uniform look Wrigley took on in card sets as the 1980's advanced...
I also like the striping across the Cardinals stirrups...
Still hate the t-shirt jerseys...
62 - Joe Morgan - Astros
The classic middle infielder baseball card picture taken at Wrigley. This picture transcends decades of baseball. Just change the player, but keep the pose and backdrop... The sheer number of Ryne Sandberg cards like this alone, boggle the mind.
61 - Larry Milbourne - Yankees
Disguised as a Seattle Mariner... Comiskey looks extra green here, with a tarp that matches the seats.
60 - Greg Minton - Giants
Minton had a long career, 16 seasons pitching for the Giants and Angels. While I know this photo wasn't taken in Milwaukee, I'm leaning towards Shea Stadium in New York. But I definitely could be wrong...
Maybe...
*******
Congratulations!
You've made it to the half way mark of the 1981 Donruss Top Whatever Countdown! Let's take a break and look at some 1981 Donruss packaging...
1981 Donruss Wax Box
I found it funny that both Fleer and Donruss tried to work the value angle in their competition with Topps. Fleer awkwardly awarded two bonus packs in their wax boxes. (For 60 whole cents of added value!!!) Donruss opted to include three more cards per pack, for the same price.
Donruss wins!
Not even a "Best Hitters" to let you know...
1981 Donruss Wrapper
Featuring a bold and prominent logo for both Major League Baseball and the Players Association. Just so you know that Donruss is legit and means business! This wasn't your Donruss Golf, no Donruss Saturday Night Fever and definitely not even Donruss Elvis Presley!
Donruss has Major League Baseball! With 95% of all photos taken in Chicago...
And 1/8 oz of horrible paper staining chemicals disguised as gum...
And no, I did not try to chew any of it...
******
All right, let's get back to The Whatever...
I think we're on number...
59 - Cecil Cooper - Brewers
58 - Reggie Jackson - Yankees
"I must kill... The Queen..."
57 - Dave Winfield - Padres
Winfield just looks strange in any uniform that is not the Yankees...
And that includes his two seasons with the Minnesota Twins...
56 - Willie Stargell - Pirates
Zoom out a little, crop this photo so it can breathe, and you've got a great -but very yellow- card...
Better registration would help a lot too...
55 - Alfredo Griffin - Blue Jays
The 1979 American League Co-Rookie of the year winner (shared with Minnesota's John Castino)
has some great chops on his face too...
54 - Mick Kelleher - Cubs
There's a lot I want to cover on this card.... First off, what happened to those ugly white pinstripes the Cubs put on their road blues back in the late 1970's? Royal blue on powder blue with no accent is a bad look.
While I can't be certain, it almost looks as if there's a split in Mick's pants, right at junk level...
Impostor crotchless Cubs uniform aside, I have to profess my love for photos taken in Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. The red, orange and yellow configuration of the upper deck seating was one thing, the fact that the seats would appear to be different shades of those three colors makes them even better. Well, until the Vet switched to all blue seats in the early 1990's.
Before I move on to number 53, I also want to point out the lower third of the Sunoco Oil logo hanging from The Vet's overhang, above Kelleher's left arm...
That rules!
53 - Luis Tiant - Yankees
Tiant still doesn't look right as a Yankee...
52 - Steve Henderson - Mets
This card screams posed baseball card in 1981. You've got your forced pose... Sun providing accents on the Mets uniform stiching... Hundreds of empty green Wrigley seats... Upper deck ramp behind Henderson, and a hint of the home plate netting. Don't forget the giant Mets logo on deck circle!
It's almost trying too hard...
51 - Dave Smith - Astros
Here's another example of what I was talking about with Wrigley looking like a mis-match of buidling parts. If it wasn't for the grass (which already doesn't look real), it would look like Dave Smith was getting ready to throw a pitch in an alley between warehouses. I would also like to point out the strange single fan, lurking above Smith in what appears to be an empty Wrigley...
50 - Jerry Koosman - Twins
The lights appear to be going out at Comiskey! At least Koosman's bright blue uniform seems to illuminate the dark ballpark. Hmmmm... I didn't remember florescent colors starting to take off until at least 1983...
49 - Dave Stieb - Blue Jays
Beyond the left field walls of Comiskey, stood tall trees that could be seen through the windows of the 70+ year old ballpark. There aren't too many cards that show the trees, but they can be seen over Stieb's left shoulder. Stieb pitched for 15 seasons with Toronto, and one with the Chicago White Sox.
Interestingly, after pitching 22 ineffective innings for the White Sox in 1993, Stieb did not play any baseball from 1994-1997. Then came back with the Blue Jays for 50 innings in 1998, before retiring for good. I'd forgotten all about that...
48 - Ken Macha - Expos
Another Out-Fielder in deep florescent blue...
47 - Rich Dotson - White Sox
Actually, I learned a lot about how rosters are constructed from that game.
Not long after that game, I found a Rich Dotson rookie card (this card) and added it to my collection. Appropriately enough, some great Comiskey pokes it's nose around here... Going into Dotson's right ribcage, are Comiskey's obvious labeling of the bullpen.
And by his left armpit, a big sign with Come on it...
46 - Grant Jackson - Pirates
An odd freeze frame of a pitching motion, check out Jackson's left foot...
How do you throw strikes with your limbs all off-kilter?
45 - Broderick Perkins - Padres
Batting cage... Brown and mustard uniform... Loaded bat rack... Babes above the dugout...
This card is criminally underrated...
44 - Bill Lee - Expos
What bothers the Space Man?
43 - Danny Ainge - Blue Jays
The highest ranking appearance of Exhibition Stadium in the 1981 Donruss Top Whatever. Under the 1981 Fleer Whatever, I covered the story of Ainge giving up Blue Jays baseball for a lengthy career in the NBA. Of Ainge's big three branded rookie cards, I would easily nominate his 1981 Donruss as Ainge's top baseball card...
42 - Roy Jackson - Mets
Looks like the seats at Wrigley were replaced shortly after 1980 as well...
41 - Willie Aikens - Royals
40 - Tim Raines - Expos
Rookie card of an Expo from the 2017 Hall of Famer class, Raines sure looks young here... Baseball's future Rock didn't stay at second base very long before moving to the outfield and becoming one of the greatest base stealers of all time.
39 - John Goryl - Twins
I have no idea which teams dugout this picture could have been taken in...
I'm going with Milwaukee... Gotta be Milwaukee...
Or Anaheim?
No, Milwaukee...
38 - Johnny Bench - Reds
The superstars of 1981 Donruss didn't typically get action shots. Again, zoom out a bit, and you have a much better Bench...
37 - Dick Noles - Phillies
The twelve year old in me first typed Holes...
Almost looks as if Dick is going to throw his face at the batter...
36 - Pete Rose - Phillies
Pete has to run out this infield single quickly, his bookie is waiting...
35 - Pete Redfern - Twins
Oh look, it's those weird orange Comiskey rectangles above Redfern's armpits...
Maybe they are space heaters?
34 - Paul Mitchell - Brewers
Donruss turned off the Blurrometer for Mr. Mitchell, despite there being no ads on the outfield walls for his hair care products... The Comiskey scoreboard is finally unblurred, and a Kool cigarette ad is exposed! Bullpen 1 is sticking out of Mitchell's left armpit.
33 - Bob Shirley - Padres
Bob looks like he just got bitched out for taking the wrong teammate's Red Man...
Pouting aside, there is some great Wrigley here... From the ramps to the upper deck, to a couple of press boxes that are above the sad man's slumped shoulders...
32 - Ron Reed - Phillies
31 - Carl Yastrzemski - Red Sox
Yaz takes great card photos... In Milwaukee... I know this is County Stadium... POSITIVE!
30 - Bobby Clark - Angels
The Angels should go back to the Black, Red and White color theme. It's so much easier on the eyes than the current Red, Red, White and Red...
29 - Bill Madlock - Pirates
Though too much black in a uniform sometimes doesn't look right...
Damat! That's not what I mean!
You know, there is no way I can convey the thought I wanted to express about uniform color themes,
using this particular card, and not sound completely racist...
Some of my best friends are Bill Madlock!
So number 28 then!
28 - J.R. Richard - Astros
The story of J.R. Richard is another baseball tragedy. The former second overall pick in the 1969 draft, Richard first made the majors less than two years later. After several middling seasons, Richard put it all together in 1975, and was one of the best pitchers in baseball from 1975 to the middle of the 1980 season. Without warning, Richard suffered a stroke before a game in July, 1980, and never played baseball again. Richard was absolutely dominant for 5 straight seasons, and had it all taken from him in an instant.
For the Astros, the loss of Richard canceled plans to pair him with recent free agent signee Nolan Ryan, to form a killer 1-2 punch of fireballing strikeout pitchers at the top of their rotation. Houston enjoyed their pair of aces for only three months...
27 - Dave Concepcion - Reds
Another card that just all around works. Simple in subject and presentation, the only thing that would have made it more appropriate was if it showed Concepcion making a great defensive play. Keeping the 1980 Reds from losing again in the late innings...
Come to think of it, there are very few decent fielding pictures in 1981 Donruss...
26 - Glenn Borgmann - White Sox
Home player in Comiskey... They get in-game action shots. Showing off those ugly untucked butterfly collared jerseys... Bad idea, but at least they are not shorts...
25 - Sal Butera -Twins
Overranked a tad, but that's some nice Comiskey on display behind him...
24 - Paul Molitor - Brewers
Comiskey... Extra dark...
23 - John Candelaria - Pirates
Candelaria was one of my favorite pitchers during his half season in Minnesota in 1990.
22 - Frank Tanana - Angels
I know this is NOT Milwaukee... Doesn't look like Anaheim either... Arizona? Spring Training?
Either way, I like the photo...
21 - Dick Ruthven - Phillies
And zoom out damat!
20 - Reggie Jackson - Yankees
Reggie Jackson to 1981 Donruss is Aaron Judge to any 2017 Topps Product...
I saw all the press the other day about Judge being named to card #1 in 2018 Topps.
That should shock no one, I'm sure Aaron Judge is also cards 2-350 in 2018 Topps.
19 - Rickey Henderson - Athletics
A very young Rickey in a very old Comiskey...
18 - Shane Rawley - Mariners
More left field trees through the large windows behind Comiskey. Rawley pitched his final season in the Major Leagues in 1989 for the Minnesota Twins, after logging time with the Mariners, Yankees and Phillies. Rawey's 1988 Topps All Star card (off winning 17 for the 1987 Phillies) gave me false hope that the Twins had just traded Tom Herr and a big pile of nothing for a real All Star... Rawley was going to come to Minnesota and win 25 games, strike out 300 and succeed Frank Viola as Minnesota's perennial Cy Young contender!
He was none of those things for Minnesota. However, Shane Rawley was a nice guy and a good autograph target before Twins games at the Metrodome. For this, and his lone, below average season with the Twins, Shane Rawley will always have a place in my collection....
While researching this article, I discovered that Shane Rawley was first drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers. He did not sign with them, and went on to be a 2nd round draft pick of the Montreal Expos (in 1974). Three years later, the Expos traded him to the Reds, who then traded him to Seattle, shortly after the 1977 Expansion Draft.
Technically, I can add Rawley to the list of former players who logged time for both the Twins and Expos...
I didn't know that until today...
17 - Enrique Romo - Pirates
Black pants, yellow stirrups, pitching in the warehouse district of Wrigley Field...
16 - Robin Yount - Brewers
Close up of Comiskey's stands, unblurred. Check out those uncomfortable wooden back chairs and everyone wearing sunglasses as if they are too cool to be there...
As much as I like this card, it should have been taken in Milwaukee...
15 - Gary Lucas - Padres
Love the padding haphazardly stuck to the brick walls of Wrigley Field, wIth hundreds of empty seats behind them. Initially, I thought this was a warming up in the bullpen shot, but it that was the case, there wouldn't be as much grass between Lucas and the wall. You can see the rise of the bullpen mound on the left side of the picture. Which you wouldn't see if he was standing on it...
I also find it funny there are all the rows of empty seats behind Lucas, but multiple pairs of cut off legs above him... Not one person would spring for the pricier seats to watch Lucas pitch?
14 - Rod Carew - Angels
The second Carew card in 1981 Donruss is much better than the first.... One of the best slap hitters in the history of baseball. Carew's short, quick contact swing drove him to well over 3000 major league hits with the Twins and Angels. That swing reminded me a lot of Ichiro Suzuki, without the pronounced lunge at the ball. This card shows Carew getting ready to swing, which shows much more than his mug shot that appeared earlier in the set. I like it a whole lot more...
13 - Kiko Garcia - Orioles
Milwaukee! Batting cage!
12 - Larry Bradford - Braves
Bradford is sporting some nice mutton chops at the warehouse district of Wrigley Field. I like the 355 cut out of the Ivey on the left field fence. The only thing that would help this picture be even more cool would be to show more of the house behind the walls.
11 - Bill Travers - Brewers
Thank you Donruss for forgetting to turn on the Blurrometer for the Travers card. The scoreboard can finally be clearly seen behind him... The cigarette ad is indeed for Kool... Is that a Longines clock above? The light-up spinning wheels are clearly visible. However, the scoreboard here is much older than I've seen in later 1980's Comiskey cards. If I had to guess, the scoreboard was likely upgraded prior to the 1983 All Star Game. I know the scoreboard had a color video screen, which was used at the AWA Superclash in September 1985, because I've watched it!
One feature of the Comiskey Park center field scoreboard that is rarely visible on cards would be the horn shaped speakers jutting straight out from the wall. They can be seen just to the left of Travers right shoulder. I've seen them before on a few other cards through the years.
While no where near as many as 1981 Donruss, 1989 Upper Deck also features some great shots of Comiskey Park. And those are a lot clearer!
10 - Nolan Ryan - Astros
The most "valuable" card in the set... This is a pretty good photo of Ryan gearing up on a 4 seam fastball. A lot of the photos in the set are grainy or blurry, but some of them show pretty good detail. Larry Bradford showed off the left field corner of Wrigley, so Nolan Ryan covers the right field area. Numbers again cut out of the Ivey awards bonus points.
While the 1981 Fleer Nolan was marred by gum stuck to the surface, which tore off pieces of the photo. The 1981 Donruss Ryan escaped the pack intact, however, Donruss cut it so poorly, his name was almost trimmed off.
I take that as a sign. I'm not allowed a decent condition 1981 Nolan Ryan. (My 1981 Topps Nolan is lightly creased, however, the 1981 Topps complete set I have in a box is pretty much mint and centered.
9 - Carl Yastrzemski - Red Sox
Milwaukee! Batting cage! Hall of Famer!
8 - Joe Simpson - Mariners
A pretty good shot of the Comiskey scoreboard. The Kool ad is blocked by Simpson's Mariners cap. The more I look at it, the more I like Seattle's inverted trident M logo. The current throwback caps, featuring the inverted trident, that the Mariners are using today are really cool. Swapping the yellow M for a dark green M, outlined in silver.
Despite Travers ranking lower despite a clearer scoreboard shot, Simpson ranks higher due to the addition of the wrinkley infield tarp behind him.
7 - Rowland Office - Expos
Mr. Office had a pretty decent 11 year career in the Major Leagues, garnering a few cards with the Braves and Expos. Since he was clearly not an All Star, apparently the Expos decided he didn't need a decent helmet. So give him the one tossed in the corner, with the crooked logo, and paint chipped helmet that no one else wants. I bet if you were to zoom in real close on Rowland's helmet, it's probably cracked and dented to hell...
Poor Mr. Office...
6 - Joe Rudi - Angels
What would Comiskey look like with bunting? How about from a picture taken through a batting cage... Aw hell, throw in the third base stairs behind Rudi while you're at it...
6b - Danny Goodwin - Twins
Remember Me?
Batting Cage... Comiskey Park... Dopey Face... THAT SWEET MUSTACHE!!!
5 - Pete Vuckovich - Cardinals
Vuckovich has the only 1981 Donruss card that I could find, with the photo taken in Montreal's Olympic Stadium. The blurry faceless Expo in a home uniform behind him gives everything away that the yellow dugout bench didn't. Again, taking a look at the Cardinals uniforms, the jersey stitches are wrinkling the shirt. No other teams' uniforms seemed to do this...
I think I'm going to blame Tom Herr...
4 - Clint Hurdle - Royals
The future Rockies manager has always been a personal favorite of mine. While his playing career didn't live up to his Top Prospect hype, Hurdle was another of those players that tended to take great pictures on his cards. The Kool cigarettes advertising on Comiskey's scoreboard looks like a Budweiser ad in this photo. More speaker horns can be also be seen here, just above the second base net.
3 - Ross Baumgarten - White Sox
Comiskey Park action shots seem to be restricted to White Sox players, while visitors are stuck with stale posed shots. Baumgarten is showing off the strange White Sox home uniforms of 1980, with the navy blue pants and butterfly collars. As far as Baumgarten the pitcher goes, he pitched in majors for roughly five season, posting below average numbers for both the White Sox and Pirates.
But he's number 3 on the Top Whatever... And that means... Well, pretty much nothing...
2 - Ruppert Jones - Yankees
Comiskey! Batting cage! Gimpy tire! Only one guy in the stands!
Lotsa green, blue, and contrasting colors. This card is just soothing to look at. I like it a lot.
But it's not number 1 in the Top Whatever...
That honor goes to...
1 - Rusty Kuntz - White Sox
Yeah... That name...
Plus it's an action shot (of inaction) at Comiskey Park!
While not a definitive number 1, and no one picking up this card would ever call it a number 1 on any sort of 1981 Donruss countdown...
But this my card story and my Top Whatever...
So the fact that Rusty Kuntz made number 1 here makes perfect sense to me...
******
So that is that... The Top 118 cards in the 1981 Donruss set, according to me!
Overall thoughts...
These cards are ridiculously thin. When I stacked all 648 cards from the box up, it measured only 1.375"! Okay, not really... But for something like baseball cards, you'd preferably use a paper stock that was at least somewhat thick... The cards are thin and flimsy. Donruss would improve on this a little over the coming years. 1982 Donruss are indeed thicker, but nowhere near as thick as Fleer and Topps cards.
Quality control was severely lacking!!! Mainly the bad trimming on nearly all the cards. You'd think baseball cards would have square corners... Some even had odd angles cut into straight edges. Even cards from the same pack of varying sizes. I didn't get any that were cut so two cards are showing on the same card. But I don't think I saw one that was 50/50, both top and bottom. Good thing I wasn't looking for condition sensitive cards...
I'm surprised it didn't include any sample card images on the box, to show what you'd be getting inside. The cut-out of Mike Schmidt doesn't offer too much insight...
Much like the box of 1981 Fleer, this box was a great deal of fun to break. The set is nice and simple for it's time. The coalition could have been better. I got a good amount of double and triples, and none of a good percentage of cards from the set. However, in 1981, most collectors were likely buying just a couple of packs at a time, instead of full boxes from a hobby shop...
Of course, the retail price of a box of 1981 Donruss (in 1981) was only $10.80!!!
And who doesn't like the classic Donruss logo?
Rather simple ingredient list for the gum...
You wouldn't think something so seemingly innocuous would destroy paper after 30 years...
It's all that damn BHT...
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While researching this story, I found these images of Comiskey Park, from 1986.
Home plate entrance of Comiskey Park, taken from the south parking lot.
New Comiskey Park (now Guaranteed Rate Field) was built on the south parking lot, and opened in April 1991.
Watching batting practice from the Right Field corner of Old Comiskey, 1986.
And finally...
An advertisement for Winston cigarettes (my former brand!) stayed up on the scoreboard until it was destroyed!
The land that Comiskey Park was built on, would become the parking lot for new Comiskey. I wish the White Sox and/or the city of Chicago would have saved the old scoreboard. It could have sat on the northeast corner of the new parking lot and not really affected parking, but been a great photo op and history preserved. The side facing the freeway could have been sold for advertising! Think about it!
*******
Hope you enjoyed this latest Top Whatever...
There will be another one coming up soon!
And it will NOT be 1981 Topps!
I may even open the floor to set suggestions...
Get creative!
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