The 1978 Detroit Tigers must have been a fun bunch to root for.

Just three years earlier, the Bengals had lost 102 games, but an infusion of young talent at the Major League level had catapulted the team into .500 territory and toward the middle of the standings in the tough old American League East division.

The kids first to arrive were slugger Jason Thompson and pitching phenom Mark “The Bird” Fidrych in 1976.

They were followed to the Bigs by another smasher, Steve Kemp, in 1977, and the image of a winning team started to developed. Bolstered by fellow youngsters Dan Meyer and Tom Veryzer, as well as veterans like speedster Ron LeFlore, Ben Oglivie, and Rusty Staub, that ’77 club climbed all the way to 74 wins.

It wasn’t all rosy, as Fidrych went down with injuries twice and looked iffy for the future, but hopes were high that he and the rest of the Tigers could push even further toward the front of the pack in 1978.

And, although The Bird himself made only three starts that summer, Detroit was bolstered by a quartet of rookies who helped them notch an 86-76 record en route to a fifth-place finish.

While first place may have seemed a long ways off, that team engendered dreams of something much grander among the players and among the fan base.

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Cram in All the Rookies You Can!

Throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, the 1978 Topps baseball card set was known for three things:

• It was home to the Eddie Murray rookie card, and Murray was a future Hall of Famer.
• It was home to Dale Murphy‘s second-year card, and Murphy was a future Hall of Famer.
• It was home to dozens of rookie cards of players who were at least good and maybe great, and it seemed a decent bet that at least one of them would also end up in Cooperstown, someday.

This set was an investor’s dream because it had a couple blue-chip cards which would increase steadily in value for decades to come, and it featured a slew of rookies that might pay off really handsomely should one of the involved players go on a mid- or late-career tear.

It’s pretty easy to look back now and see how it played out:

• Murray did his part by slugging more than 500 home runs among his 3000+ hits and was elected to the Hall in 2003.
• Dale Murphy declined steeply in his 30s and fell well short of Cooperstown.
• One of those other rookies did go on a late-career tear. His name was Paul Molitor, and he finished with more than 3000 hits, more than 500 stolen bases, and a .304 batting average that catapulted him into the Hall of Fame in 2004.

But even on his own card, Molitor was an afterthought for much of his career.

Terrific Tigers

As the long-time Milwaukee Brewer broke down year after year and battled drug problems, fellow 1978 rookie shortstop and rookie card playmate Alan Trammell just kept plugging away for the Tigers.

Trammell had been the proverbial slap-hitting middle infielder with that ’78 club, but he developed into a strong power bat by the early 1980s and stayed there throughout the rest of his career, which finally ended in 1996.

Next to Trammell throughout a storied run that included a five-game victory in the 1984 World Series after one of the most dominant regular seasons in history was second baseman Lou Whitaker.

Trammell and Sweet Lou seemed to match each other swat for swat and great play for great play over two decades together around the Detroit keystone, and both spent years at the top of most lists of Hall of Fame snubs.

And, like Trammell, Whitaker’s rookie card is one of those multi-player beasts/beauties in the 1978 Topps set that made investors drool and Whitaker fans weep. You could barely see his face!

Lance Parrish knew that plight all too well, toiling as he did behind the plate for the Tigers from 1977 through 1986. The catcher’s face almost never sees the light of day, so Parrish’s own quarter-rookie card must have seemed like a gosh darn spotlight to the young receiver.

That almost surely was not the case for Parrish’s frequent battery mate, young Jack Morris, though. Starting pitchers seem to have a natural penchant for the limelight, and even though the 22-year-old Morris had yet to break through to stardom, he managed to snag seven starts during that summer of ’78.

Yet he, too, was relegated to one of Topps’ super-duper super rookie four-player masterpieces: “ROOKIE PITCHERS.”

At one time or another, each of these four players looked like they were among the best in the game and like they had at least a shot at Cooperstown.

And yet, each was reduced — and reduced and reduced — to a tiny little corner of his rookie card.

Collectors and money guys liked the fact that Parrish shared his RC with Dale Murphy, and especially that Trammell and Molitor shared their cardboard debut.

But when you looked back on the magnitude of their careers, the shoddy treatment by Topps was nothing less than ignominy.

Except …

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Have It Your Way

Topps didn’t just issue their base set in 1978.

Instead, they teamed up with Burger King to issue four sets of 23 cards, each dedicated to a specific Major League team and each distributed through restaurants in and around the clubs’ home cities.

The four teams were …

The New York Yankees …

The Texas Rangers …

The Houston Astros …

… and …

… wait for it …

… yes!

The Detroit Tigers!

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And who do you think we find on the Tigers checklist other than the self-same young gents who would help build the team into a powerhouse?

And, these guys appear alone on their burger cards.

So, yes, Virginia, that means we get solo rookie cards of Alan Trammell, Lou Whitaker, and Jack Morris, thanks to Topps and BK.

Have it your way, indeed!

Sadly, Parrish still gets the short shrift here, but it’s really kind of fitting.

Of the four, he was by far the worst when it came to final Cooperstown qualifications.

So we can cut Topps some slack for dissing him again, and maybe even congratulate them for their prescience.

That still leaves us with three (still) potential or current Hall of Famers with beautiful rookie cards to consider and, spoiler alert, we’re going to choose one of them as the best baseball card of 1978.

But which one will it be?

From my memory of watching them play and for my Sabermetrics money, Trammell was always the best Hall of Fame candidate among the three, and he finally got in.

Whitaker is the most underrated of the three and probably should be in the Hall.

Morris is the most overrated — easily — of the three and doesn’t really belong in Cooperstown (to me). He was really good and racked up some nice totals, but is something like the 150th best starting pitcher ever.

This, however, is about baseball cards.

Star status and Hall of Fame prospects go into the consideration, but so do aesthetics and coolness.

And here, well …

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Trammell looks like he’s in pain or angry.

The Whitaker shot is pretty solid — he’s looking slyly to our left and the stadium looms behind him. Still, there is something in his stretch that says, “indigestion,” and the photo angle is weird.

Then we have Jack Morris, Mr. Most-Wins-in-the-1980s. The angle is weird here, too, but …

Morris is following through in an obvious posed shot, but it’s closer to real action than the other two.

And, by golly, the baseball in the upper right-hand corner that shows Morris’s position — “P” — looks like it just flew out of his hand.

He’s also glaring at us and, sitting here in the 2020s, we know that same intensity would become part of his stock-in-trade.

These three cards are like a secret treasure that toppled out of your hamburger bag just as you were about to throw it away. All of them are supercool, but Morris’s is just a bit supercooler than the others.

It’s the best baseball card of 1978, even if Morris wasn’t the best pitcher of the 1980s — or any other time period.

(Read all about this 30-day challenge — and jump in on the fun — right here.)

Want to see a video version of this article?

Can you imagine tearing into a pristine wax pack of 1972 Topps baseball cards and pulling a vintage card of Hammerin’ Hank Aaron? Talk about a hobby dream come true.

But for Doug, a long-time collector from Grand Rapids, MI, it’s no dream — it actually happened!

That’s just one of the many awesome memories Doug has built during nearly four decades of collecting, and he was gracious enough to share his collector’s story with us.

Enjoy the golden memories …

—

How long have you been collecting?
37 years. Since I was 7.

How did you get started collecting?
My brother introduced me to them. I loved baseball and when he first showed them to me I was in awe.

What is the first card you can remember owning or buying?
My first pack was 1977. I remember opening it and hoping for a Mark Fidrych as we were diehard Tiger fans. I didn’t get that one, but I did get a Rusty Staub. The All-Star ribbon made it seem like I hit the lottery. Loved that card.

Which sports do you collect?
Baseball and football.

What other memorabilia, besides cards, do you collect?
Not much other than some jerseys and balls.

What is the focus of your collection?
Most of what I have I have sold over the years. I keep a small portion that I have on display. 1971 is my favorite year with 1959 a close second.

Who are your favorite players?
Lou Whitaker was my favorite player growing up. I loved George Brett. Mickey Mantle and Pete Rose as well.

Which is your favorite team?
Detroit Tigers

Do you have a favorite card or set?
Top three in no particular order: 1969 Mantle, 1971 Nolan Ryan, 1977 Rose.

Do you have a collecting project or goals you’re working on now?
Nope. Been pretty quiet. I still find myself on eBay staring at cards I either had or never got the chance to own. 1959 Mantle for sure. Can’t justify buying it at my age.

Where do you buy most of your cards?
Local Meijer store and the occasional eBay purchase

Which card or set have you always wanted to own but has always eluded you?
The cards I mentioned earlier, and the set is 1977 Topps. I never was able to complete it, and it was so special to me being the first year I collected

What’s your favorite hobby memory?
Card shows. The excitement of seeing the older cards has been unmatched. I would buy Al Kalines and Mantles and Aarons and then stare at them for hours.

Do you have any other memorable hobby moments to share?
Buying an unopened pack of 1972 Topps in 1985 — opened it up to a Hank Aaron. So it was worth the $5!

Anything else you want other collectors to know about you or the hobby?
I got in it for the love of the sport and the player. Never about the money. Looking at an old card brings back so many memories. Just picturing a 1962 Lou Brock instantly reminds me of the place I bought it (card show in Grandville), the price I paid ($9!), and how it made me feel. Not many other things can do that.

—

Amen, Doug!

Who doesn’t still get chills when a favorite old card passes our way, either in real life or on the computer screen?

While Doug doesn’t have a lot of time to devote to baseball cards these days, he does keep up with the hobby through Twitter and various websites he finds there.

It’s a pull veteran collectors know well.

After all, when you’re in it for the love of game, you can’t stay away from the cardboard gods for long.

UPDATE!!

In late June 2019, I caught up with Doug again, on Twitter, and he had some interesting things to share about his hobby activity over the last couple of years.

Here’s how that conversation played out …

What have you been up to, hobbywise, since we spoke in 2017? Any projects or focus areas come into play?

Well, we can blame Wax Ecstatic for my jump back into the hobby. I always bought a pack or two of the latest Topps each year, but that’s it. Listening to his podcast, especially going over the old years I loved so much, got me to eBay. I started buying up a bunch of the old cards I either had and sold or never got and wished I did. I bought every Rose from 64-79 and put on some shadow box displays to look at. Picked up several Mantles and Kalines. Just basically got acquainted again with old friends.

 

I’m not the kind to go back and start rebuilding sets but I have started buying old complete sets of the Tigers. Got the ’59 then ’74-’78. No real stars other than Kaline, so affordable except for some of the sets with a lot of high numbers.

 

Nice. So is eBay still your go-to, or are you using any other sites, too? Any online trading, going to card shows, etc.?

 

EBay only as it’s simply the cheapest route. Haven’t done any trading yet and have stayed away from the shows. Too dangerous. (WPG note: No Kidding!)

 

I keep track of release dates. Hit the Targets and Walmarts and Meijer out here for Topps, Heritage or Bowman. The thrill of opening a pack never leaves you.

 

Any favorites among recent issues? Favorite current players?

I loved this year’s Topps (2019). Last years Heritage was nice as there was just something about the 1969 set I liked despite all pictures being boring. The All-Star cards that year were awesome.

Love Cabrera and Verlander for sure. Judge is a great player. Kershaw. Not a huge Trout fan but that’s due to the media always thinking he deserved MVP votes over Miggy so often.

Are you doing much with football these days?

Not much new. I’ll grab a few Paninis for the new season but that’s it. Collected about ten old Lions sets off eBay. Those cards really don’t hold the memories like baseball ones do for some reason. I can see a card from the 60s or 70s and can remember the first time I saw it and if I owned it, who I bought it from. Or at least what show or LCS.

Any parting shots?

One thing I would like to add about cards….I loved looking at them for hours growing up. One of the main reasons was that was a rare glimpse into that player, that team, etc. You didn’t always see pics of say Pete Rose except on a magazine or All-Star Game. Because of the internet, pictures are countless. Video, etc. It’s not the same. You can’t go back unfortunately.

—

Thanks, Doug. Always fun “talking” to fellow collectors online, which does help me go back to simpler times, at least for a few minutes.

And speaking of going back, Doug indulged me by answering a couple of time-warp type questions with more personal interest to me …

First, Doug — who goes to 2-3 Tigers games a year — took on the subject of whether he preferred Comerica Park or Tiger Stadium …

That’s tough, as you are comparing memories. Tiger Stadium was my first game at 8 years old. It was being a part of “the wave” in 1984 with the stadium literally feeling like it was liquid. Comerica has hosted 2 World Series. It is beautiful, but I guess if I had to choose, I would choose the old one.

And then, at the prodding of my wife, Doug shared a few logistics about how he houses his collection — specifically, how much room it swallows in his house …

 

Funny question. I took from my house when we got married a large amount that I kept in a storage shed at our first place. It now resides in a full closet but, I now have 5 framed shadow box holders for my favorites. I have a room upstairs with some of my Tigers sets and even New England Patriots cards from the last Super Bowl. I try to not have them all over.

 

For the record, I do try to have them all over, but that generally doesn’t fly. Doug’s approach seems much more considerate and mature than mine, I suppose.

 

Thanks again for the updates, Doug. Fun to catch up!

 

(Read all of our collector stories here. Want to share your own story? Let me know!)

They’re one of the prime drivers for the friendships we form, the social tribes — in the vernacular of today’s whippersnappers — we build.

I mean, have you ever had friends you met at work? Unless your name is “Albert Belle,” chances are pretty good. And somewhere among that group, I’ll bet there are at least a few folks who would have never come into your circle were it not for things you did together in the job place.

And if you’ve ever lost a job or a loved one or a pair of glasses, you know it’s the people around you going through the same emotions, or who have gone through the same emotions, who help you survive the grieving process.

But it’s not just negative or tough situations that help bring people together … nope, good stuff can do it, too.

Like baseball cards.

I mean, here we are, two people who don’t know each other (probably) sharing some digital space for a few minutes and having the same sorts of nostalgic thoughts — about baseball, about collecting, about fathers and sons or other relationships, about the good times we’ve had in the hobby, and the good times we hope lie ahead.

We have a shared past, shared hopes and dreams, whether or not we ever meet each other.

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And I’ll bet that most of us who partake of the cardboard arts have other shared experiences, too, from similar memories of our school days to anticipation of the new baseball season.

And cartoons.

I mean, if you’re reading this, chances are you grew up at least partially in the 1970s or 1980s … or at least the 1960s or 1990s. And in any of those cases, you likely know a thing or two about Saturday morning cartoons, Sunday funnies, maybe even comic books.

It’s one of the reasons, I think, why those little cartoons on the backs of some old baseball cards appealed to us so much as kids, and why they continue to pull at us today.

It’s also why I knew I had to include a card based specifically on the merits of its cartoon quality here on Day 44 of my 2019 Spring Training Baseball Card Challenge. Toons are one of the basic building blocks of a classic card collection, after all.

But which card, among the hundreds or thousands of possibilities, would make the cut here?

It was a tough call, let me tell you. But in the end, I came back to our true north for the day — shared experiences.

Page through (or thumb through if you’re going the stacks route) just about any Topps issue from 1954 through 1982, and you’ll see the dilemma — but not if you linger in 1973. Because there, on card #551, Topps presents us with a cartoon that stops the whole search train on the spot.

The front of the card features Mike Kilkenny, then of the Cleveland Indians and formerly of the Detroit Tigers, Oakland A’s, and San Diego Padres. Kilkenny is gazing into (or at a spot near) the camera, not looking too amused from his set-position pose, but looking very 70s chic with his brake-shoe sideburns. A sparsely populated Indians dugout peeps in behind him, and a few fans mill around in the blue stadium seats looming into the darkness above that.

It’s a fine card of a journeyman pitcher (23-18, 4.43 RA, 4 saves over five Major League season).

But flip the thing over and, holy cow!

Right at the very top of the vertical card back is a drawing of a young player in a baseball uniform, a large sack slung over one shoulder, and a trio of baseball-card-shaped golden *things* in his other hand. The caption confirms what you suspected at first glance:

Mike carries his baseball cards in his duffle bag.

Forget holy cow … holy crap!

This guy was one of us … a collector who couldn’t stand to be away from his precious cardboard for even as long as it took to do his business at the stadium. Nope, they went along with him. How could you not love him for that?

How could you not love this card for telling us about it?

You couldn’t not love either one, that’s how.

We have shared experiences, Mike and me, and you, too. And here’s one more for you …

Mike Kilkenny passed away on June 28, 2018, at the age of 73. I somehow missed the news, and I’m sure I’m not alone in that. And it’s all the sadder to learn about now, because Mike Kilkenny wasn’t “just” a baseball player … he was part of the vast cardboard brotherhood that ties us all together.

Check out the entire series of 2019 Spring Training Challenge posts here.

The answer to that question depends on how you define “old,” of course, and there’s a good chance the answer is incremental.

For instance, I clearly remember hauling in a 1980 Topps Tony Scott card as part of a trade with a friend at school in the spring of 1983. I had never owned any card issued prior to 1981, so that thing was ancient (and priceless) to me.

Not long after, though, my family and I began frequenting antique shops, flea markets, and even card shows, and I started to get a taste of what old cards really were.

In particular, they were cards that neither I nor my friends could have ever pulled from a pack at the store. They were cards that our dads might have pulled from packs. They were cards that featured dusty photos, archaic drawings or paintings, crude designs, defunct teams.

I had a new standard.

My first step backward from Mr. Scott was a 1971 Topps Boots Day card I found in a ten-cent box at one of those flea markets in the summer of 1983. It was pretty old, issued right before I was born, and it looked like it came from another century. Boots probably was my first old card, but he was really more just “dated” at that point — some of my friends older siblings could have easily pulled him from a pack and handed him down.

I didn’t have to wait long, though, to get hold of a couple cards that checked all the boxes for my definition of “old” and passed the sibling test in just about every case.

At one of those same monthly flea markets that same summer, I ran across a bona fide baseball card dealer who had cards in cases, cards in sleeves, cards in 700-count boxes, cards in wax, cello, and rack packs. He had everything, it seemed, including a small box of “old” cards that were bargain priced for one reason or another.

I had to have one.

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But as I shuffled through the box, it quickly became apparent that I had to have two …

First was a horizontally-oriented card that looked like an old wood-grained TV set and featured a young player identified as KALINE in a batting stance with a huge light tower over his right shoulder.

The guy wanted five bucks for it, but I pulled out my trusty pocket price guide and showed my dad that a 1955 Bowman Al Kaline card was worth considerably more — I don’t remember for sure how much — $10, $15, $20?

Whatever it was, Dad agreed it seemed like a good enough deal. (Only later on did I realize that the photo being detached from the card back actually dinged the value. Oh well.)

The other card didn’t look like anything I could find in my price guide or anything I had seen before. It was in the standard vertical format and started with a big red SENATORS pennant at the top, complete with team logo. Underneath was a photo of an old, old man who looked like he should be coaching Rocky or something.

The color shot seemed not quite real, and I thought it might even be a painting.

And underneath, in alternating red and blue letters, the guy’s impossible name clinched the deal for me: COOKIE LAVAGETTO. He was identified as “MANAGER * WASHINGTON.”

The back of the card was all cartoon, detailing Cookie’s careers as a player and a manager, and mentioning long-ago, unheard of years like “1947” and “1939.”

Here was the old card I’d been looking for, and at just a buck, it was going to be mine. And it was.

As the years passed, I pulled plenty of manager cards from packs and accumulated probably hundreds more as I grew my collection as fast as humanly possible. But none ever quite compared to that first memorable one of the guy named “Cookie.”

Dude just looked like a manager, even if his time in the dugout would end after the 1961 season with a career record of 271-384 … and even if he was only 46 years old in the picture on that 1960 Topps card of his.

Doesn’t matter … Cookie is always the one I think of first when I hear, or type, “manager card.”

So, when I laid out my 2019 Spring Training Baseball Card Challenge and slotted a manager card here on Day 39, there could really only be one choice.

Check out the entire series of 2019 Spring Training Challenge posts here.

Sure, you can talk about the modern “tanking” strategy some teams seem to employ these days, tearing everything down in order to build up to a title run a few years from now.

But you think those players who are on the team in those lean, torn-down years don’t want to win? Don’t want to win the World Series?

Nah, baby, nah.

Give any player or manager worth his salt the choice between winning or going through the motions all summer, and he’ll be trying his level best at all costs.

Of course, even your level best doesn’t pan out sometimes if the team around you isn’t all that great, or if a fly ball falls this way or that. Some all-time great players hung up their spikes without ever even reaching the Fall Classic (I’m feeling for you, Ernie Banks).

At the other end of the spectrum you have some great teams who make it all the way to the promised land without the benefit of a Hall of Famer. For a long while, there, it looked like the 1984 Detroit Tigers would uphold that standard. The recent Cooperstown elections of Jack Morris and Alan Trammell, and copious support for Lou Whitaker, have quelled that possibility, thankfully.

And if you dial back the clock to the last great Tigers before that, in 1968, you find a couple of guys who were almost always surefire Hall of Famers, but who didn’t figure so prominently in the ultimate title run.

By that point, Al Kaline was relegated to “utility” status, though he did contribute 3+ WAR to the 103-win Tigers. And Eddie Mathews was at the very end of the line, appearing in 31 games and collecting the last three of his 512 career home runs as a Tiger.

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But if you’ve read anything about 1960s baseball history, then you probably already know that the 1968 Detroit Tigers were a great team largely because of their pitching. Consider that their staff featured …

The last pitcher to win 30 games in a season (Denny McLain, at 31-6) …

Two relievers who each logged more than 120 innings (Pat Dobson and John Hiller) …

A dude who went 17-9 and THEN won three games in the World Series (Mickey Lolich).

None of those guys ever sniffed the Hall of Fame.

Then there was the unsung member of that pitching staff, another guy who never sniffed the Hall of Fame — catcher Bill Freehan.

Ask most folks who saw that team in the moment, and they’ll tell you that Freehan was the quiet glue who helped hold it all together. At 26 years of age, Freehan raked to the tune of .263, with 25 home runs and 84 runs batted in. He was only mildly patient at the plate, drawing 65 walks, but also striking out just 64 times. But when you add in the 24 times he took a pitch off his body, Freehan pushed his on-base percentage all the way to .366, good for an OPS+ of 145 and 7 WAR — second on the team to McLain’s 7.4.

In terms of the staff Freehan led, they finished the Year of the Pitcher third in the American League with a 2.71 ERA, third with a 117 ERA+, second in strikeouts (1115), and allowed the fourth fewest walks, with 486.

So it’s somehow both ironic and appropriate that Topps chose to feature Freehan on card #11, WALK, in their 1968 Game set, inserted in packs that summer. I mean, sure, you might get a walk from Freehan at-bat or from one of his pitchers on the mound, but you were just as likely to get an extra-base hit or HBP (from Freehan) or a  K from one of his battery mates.

The card does feature those probing and suspicious Freehan eyes that helped him cut down 53% of would-be base stealers back in 1964 and  37% over his 15-year career, though. It also provides a great opportunity to look back on the guy that Baseball Reference (via JAWS) ranks as the 15th greatest catcher of all-time … yet appeared on just 0.5% of ballots in his only shot at Cooperstown in 1982.

Who knows? Maybe with the rejuvenated and re-segmented Veterans Committee, Freehan will get another look someday.

Until then, his 1968 Topps Game card is more than a worthy representative of players who won a World Series here on Day 30 of my 2019 Spring Training Baseball Card Challenge, even if they are no longer household names.

Check out the entire series of 2019 Spring Training Challenge posts here.

Since it’s your absolute favorite set, you probably know a lot about it, and you should be able to answer some basic questions, like … what’s the last card in that set?

Unless your favorite set is 1952 Topps (Eddie Mathews) or 1954 Topps (Ted Williams) or 1975 Topps (Hank Aaron) or some other set with similar star-power love in its upper reaches, there’s a good chance you’re coming up short here.

And you’re not alone.

First cards are pretty high-profile, appearing as they do on the top of so many rubber-band dented stacks. And cards in the middle are fair game for fame and fortune, too, provided they picture a hotshot rookie or a beloved Hall of Famer.

But the last card in a set?

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Well, those guys suffer from the same sort of dented edges and center creases that first cards do, but they suffer their slings and arrows at the bottom of everything. Not much exposure unless, again, the player is something special.

In Spring Training, though, every player is something special, right? I mean, these guys are in Big League camp and they all think — or at least hope and pray — they’ll make the Big League team. And some of them actually do make the Big League team.

And when that happens, there’s a better than even chance they’ll show up on a real live Major League Baseball card of their very own, even if that leaves them on the bottom of the pile, at the back of the set.

To celebrate these cappers who so often find their way to the commons bin but without whom no set could be complete, this here Day 23 of my 2019 Spring Training Baseball Card Challenge is dedicated to a last card … in particular, the last card in a set.

In particular particular, I want to talk for a minute about a last card that really ended something. You know, like Ron Blomberg effectively ended the hitting career of Mel Stottlemyre and players like him (AL pitchers, that is).

And it’s funny you should mention Blomberg, because about the time he became the first-ever DH in MLB history (April 6, 1973), collectors were digging into the first series of 1973 Topps baseball cards. It was a pretty standard Topps issue, as these things go, with 660 cards of all the good players and mediocre players and rookie players and players who led their league in stuff and team cards, even.

Oh, and the 1973 Topps set was issued in series (as alluded to by that “first series” bit above) — five series, with 132 cards in each series. That’s significant because it was the LAST time Topps issued their cards in series, adopting the practice of dumping everything all at once beginning in 1974. (“But, they started issuing cards in series again in 1993 …”  No.)

Put all those facts together and you’re left with the inescapable conclusion that the last card in the last series of 1973 Topps baseball cards represents the end of an era. So who landed on card #660?

Well, that would be none other than Fred Scherman, who spent 1969-73 doing some pretty nice bullpen work for some pretty good Detroit Tigers teams, including the American League East champions in 1972. His time in Detroit ended almost exactly the same time that Topps-by-series ended, as the Bengals traded Scherman and cash to the Houston Astros in exchange for Jim Ray and Gary Sutherland after that 1973 season.

After a couple of so-so campaigns with the Astros, it was on to the Montreal Expos, where Scherman finished up in 1976. Overall, he posted a 33-26 record with a 3.66 ERA and 39 saves.

And, of course, he scored the last-ever (real) Topps card issued in (real) series format. It’s a good-looking card featuring a head-and-shoulders shot of Scherman against the Yankee Stadium grandstand.

As the man said, you can’t always be first … but you can be last.

Check out the entire series of 2019 Spring Training Challenge posts here.

• Cartoons on Saturday morning
• A different sugary breakfast cereal for every one of those cartoons
• Video games, first in the arcade, then at home
• Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books in the school library
• Multiplayer rookie cards in our Topps baseball card sets

That last one — multiplayer rookies — was a gosh darn birthright for Little Leaguers and card collectors of all sort.

And, even if we sometimes would have rather had single cards of the players in question (I’m looking at you, Bill Denehy), the mashed-up rookies gave us something interesting to break up the monotony of the simply wonderful cards around them.

With all that said, we couldn’t really do a proper Spring Training Baseball Card Challenge without including a multiplayer rookie card, now could we? Nah.

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So that’s why I’m here on Day 13, getting ready to talk about the card that started it all — 1962 Topps Rookie Parade Pitchers (#591).

Not only is this a multiplayer rookie card, it’s the first multiplayer rookie card. Before 1962, Topps had given special treatment to their rookies in 1960 with Rookie Star (Carl Yastrzemski) and Rookie All-Star (Willie McCovey) designations, and in 1961 with the first appearance of the Topps All-Star Rookie trophy on “regular” cards (Ron Santo).

But those were all single cards.

In 1962, though, Topps decided to sardine as much talent as they could into their wood-bordered 598-card set, and one way to do that was to showcase more up-and-comers. Sort of like an early version of the modern Bowman concept.

And Topps unveiled their master plan for the first time there on care #591 with five pitchers making up a Rookie Parade of arms that held the hopes and dreams of four franchises in their pitching grips:

• Sam McDowell, Cleveland Indians
• Ron Taylor, Cleveland Indians
• Dick Radatz, Boston Red Sox
• Art Quirk, Baltimore Orioles
• Ron Nischwitz, Detroit Tigers

Of those, McDowell had by far the longest and most distinguished career. Over 15 Major League seasons, Sudden Sam crafted a 141-134 record on the strength of a 3.17 ERA and 2400+ strikeouts, nearly a K per inning.

Taylor and Radatz also had solid, extended stays in the Bigs, while Quirk and Nischwitz saw limited action over a handful of seasons.

But none of that is what’s important. Not really. Not for us. Not today.

More important is to realize that card #591 was just the lead-in to a whole subset in 1962 Topps …

• 591 Rookie Parade Pitchers
• 592 Rookie Parade Pitchers (different pitchers!)
• 593 Rookie Parade Pitchers (different still!)
• 594 Rookie Parade Catchers
• 595 Rookie Parade Infielders
• 596 Rookie Parade Infielders (different #1)
• 597 Rookie Parade Infielders (different #2)
• 598 Rookie Parade Outfielders

And the really important thing to realize is that this subset led to all the rookie subsets to come — the two-player cards, the three-player cards, four-player, Rookie Stars, Future Stars, Prospects, and on and on and on.

So, yeah, maybe Topps would have unleashed this concept on us sooner or later, no matter what happened in 1962. But as far as I can tell based on the evidence, 1962 Topps Rookie Parade Sam McDowell spawned the whole dang rookie card craze.

And even if he didn’t, this is still a pretty cool card to celebrate Spring Training with.

Check out the entire series of 2019 Spring Training Challenge posts here.

For me, this assignment brings visions of the big trades and free agent signings from my childhood, roughly the 1980s.

And during the 80s, there was no single more dominant team than the 1984 Detroit Tigers, who ran out to a 9-0 record in April and then streaked to 35-5 before “cooling” to a final record of 104-58.

The Bengals ran the table in the old American League East, holding first place wire-to-wire, and winning the division by 15 games over the Toronto Blue Jays.

The postseason was pretty much a formality, as the Tigers swept the Kansas City Royals in the ALCS and then met the San Diego Padres in the World Series. The Padres were a good story in their own right, having taken out the upstart Chicago Cubs (who had taken out the upstart New York Mets in the NL East) in the NLCS. The Pads also had a young batting title winner on their roster — one Tony Gwynn. Ever hear of him?

Didn’t matter to the Tigers, though, as they downed San Diego, four games to one.

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Now, most of that Tigers team consisted of homegrown players who all peaked — or close to it — at the same time. Guys like Alan Trammell, Lou Whitaker, Kirk Gibson, Jack Morris, Barbaro Garbey, Chet Lemon, Dan Petry.

There was one notable “outsider” who contributed in a big way — closer Willie Hernandez made 80 appearances and pitched to a 9-3 record, with a 1.92 ERA and 32 saves. That was good enough to garner him both big American League awards … Cy Young and MVP.

Guillermo had pitched for the Philadelphia Phillies “Wheeze Kids” team the year before, and he appeared with the Phils on his 1984 baseball cards, so he’d definitely qualify for this piece.

But there was another guy on that ’84 Tigers team who sort of toiled in the shadows of his more flamboyant teammates and who, truthfully, didn’t play all that well in 1984.

After the San Francisco Giants let him walk as a free agent, aging slugger Darrell Evans signed on with Detroit to be their DH during his age-37 season. Though he had smacked 30 home runs on the Bay in 1983, that was his highest total since he hit 41 with the Atlanta Braves way back in 1973. And, even though he was (partially) hanging up his third baseman and first baseman gloves, no one could expect Evans to match that power output again.

He didn’t, either.

In 131 games for Detroit, Evans managed just a .232, 16 HR, 63 RBI output and sort of faded from whatever little bit of limelight he had garnered in his career. It didn’t help that he hit .061 in the World Series, either.

Probably just as well that he appeared on Giants cards all summer long, like his 1984 Topps issue.

Things didn’t go quite so well for the Tigers in 1985, though. They sported a winning record all season long but fell out of first place on April 30 and never got back there, finishing in third place in the East. Along the way, Sparky Anderson started to make some adjustments to try and rev up his team, and one of those was installing Evans as his regular first baseman.

Whether it was getting back on the field with more consistency or just a matter of adjusting to a new league and a new park (Tiger Stadium), Evans found his old power stroke, and then some.

At age 38, Darrell connected on 40 bombs and drove in 94 runs while upping his average to .248. He also drew 85 walks, good for a .356 OBP.

Maybe more importantly, that summer of 1985 gave Evans some room to breathe and helped him tack on another three productive power seasons to his career. From 1986-88, he hit 85 home runs and collected 248 RBI, good for 9 WAR if your Sabermetrically inclined.

Though he finished with a forgettable one-year return engagement with the Atlanta Braves in 1989, Evans’ late push left him as one of the top 20 or so third basemen of all time and with 414 home runs to his name. It’s not inconceivable that he’ll get some Hall of Fame consideration from the Modern Baseball Era Committee one of these years.

Above all, though, his geriatric power show made Evans an undeniable part of Tigers history and leaves his 1984 Topps card looking not quite right.

Thank goodness for those traded sets, huh?

Check out the entire series of 2019 Spring Training Challenge posts here.

Consider the case of the 1981 Donruss Mick Kelleher baseball card and the 2018 Chicago Cubs …

Dynasty Delayed

The 2018 Chicago Cubs were a somewhat star-crossed club who suffered through injuries, sub-par performances, and off-field issues from big names like Yu Darvish , Kris Bryant, and Addison Russell, yet also get clutch production from guys like Javier Baez, Kyle Schwarber, and Cole Hamels.

The result?

After struggling to find their mojo in the first half of the season, the Cubs seized first place in the National League Central on Friday, July 13, and never let go.

Well, almost …

After building their lead to a season-high five games on September 2, Chicago played at a mediocre 14-12 clip the rest of the way. Probably good enough most seasons to hold serve, but the Milwaukee Brewers were busy going 18-6.

The teams were tied after 162 games, in other words.

That set up a one-game playoff for the Central title, to be played at Wrigley Field on October 1 — the Brewers won, 3-1.

And that set up the Cubs to play the Colorado Rockies in the NL Wild Card game, again at Wrigley Field. On October 2, the Rox beat the Cubs 2-1 in 13 innings.

If you include the Cubs last loss of the 162-game schedule, a 2-1 clinker at the hands of the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday, September 29, Chicago dropped three of four home games at home to seal their fate.

And in each of those losses, they managed just one run. Yuck.

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You might feel sorry for these Cubs if they were the Cubbies of old, the ones who scrapped together a decent team once every 15 years or so only to implode when things got real. It’s tough, though, to find real sympathy for what is now a huge payroll team that was — and still may be — expected by many to run off a string of championships when they copped the World Series title in 2016.

But just because the lovable losers are now the bombastic bombs, that doesn’t mean we can’t look back at the gory glory of Chicago’s painful past.

And what better way to do that than with some hideous cardboard.

Crappy Cubbies

If we step back through Cubs’ records over the years, we see that the losingest Chicago teams took the field in 1962, 1966, and 2012. Those first two teams were immortalized on 1963 and 1967 Topps cards, respectively, and those are two stellar sets.

That 2012 team was a “Suck for Luck” special that was designed to tank in order to build the supposed juggernaut we see today.

So I’m going a bit deeper in the stack, to the 1980 Chicago Cubs, who finished at 64-98 and in last place in the old NL East.

Not only that, but the Cubs finished last in the National League in OPS+ (83) and fielding (.974), while somehow hitting the league average for ERA+ (101).

Given all that, if you were looking for a poster boy to represent those light-hitting 1980 Cubs, you couldn’t do much better (worse?) than second baseman Mick Kelleher.

Now, Kelleher wasn’t the Cubbies full-time second-sacker in 1980. That honor belonged to Mike Tyson, who started 104 games and batted a robust .238 in 363 plate appearances, good for an OPS+ of 65.

Kelleher made 15 starts at second and five at shortstop, amassing 107 plate appearances in 105 total game appearances.

He slashed .146/.217/.177 with no home runs, one double, one triple, four runs batted in, 12 runs scored, one stolen base, and three times caught stealing. It was an amazing display that netted him a 9 OPS+ and a whopping -1.1 WAR.

That 1980 season was Kelleher’s ninth Major League campaign, and while he had never done much with the bat before, he had established himself as a veteran.

That status, and the need to fill in their Cubs’ cardboard rosters, enticed Topps and Donruss to include Kelleher in their 1981 sets. Fleer somehow abstained, and you have to give them props for that.

The 1981 Topps Mick Kelleher card is pretty decent, stats on the back notwithstanding. It features Mick in a posed throwing shot, showing the Cubs pinstripes and Cubbie logo to good effect in front of a gorgeous blue sky.

You want to be there, on that day, even if the Cubs stink.

Inauspicious Debut

The 1981 Donruss Kelleher?

It’s an embodiment of his — and the Cubs’ — 1980 season.

A smiling Kelleher kneels in the on-deck circle at one of the cookie-cutter 1970s sports bowls — Fulton County, Veteran’s Stadium, Riverfront Stadium? — in his powder blue road pajamas.

And he’s leaning on a bat that looks too big for any man to swing, let alone one with a .215 lifetime batting average.

That would all be enough to make the card front mostly preposterous, but add in the typical blurry, grainy lens work thatamrred most 1981 Donruss pasteboard, and you have a classically terrible baseball card.

At least the back is relatively uncluttered by 1981 Donruss standards, thanks to Mick’s limited career highlights …

1979 – Hit .571 against San Francisco pitching.

The irony of all this is that 1980 Mick Kelleher couldn’t have sniffed the 2018 Chicago Cubs starting lineup if he’d had Ernie Lombardi‘s nose, yet they essentially fielded a one-to-nine of Kellehers to round out their season.

And it only cost them a couple hundred million dollars to do it.

No wonder Kelleher is smiling at us from that awful, and suddenly wonderful, 1981 Donruss card of his.

(Check out the rest of our 2018 playoffs posts here.)

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Sometimes, a little bit of luck in timing and location can make all the difference in the world.

Take the Jack Morris rookie card, for example.

If the 2018 Hall of Fame inductee had made his debut before 1977 or with just about any team other than the Detroit Tigers, he would have had one rookie card.

And if he had made it to the Major Leagues a few years later, he likely  would have had three rookie cards, and that’s what everyone would have expected.

As things stand, Morris got a cup of coffee with the Tigers in the summer 1977, appearing in seven games and going 1-1 with a 3.74 ERA. That was enough for Detroit to call him back to Motown early in the 1978 season.

It was also enough for Topps to tag Morris for card #703, a Rookie Pitchers card he shares with Larry Andersen, Tim Jones, and Mickey Mahler.

Here is what that one looks like:

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But the Tigers probably wouldn’t have called Morris up at all, not right then, had they been, say the New York Yankees. After bottoming out in the mid-1970s, though, Detroit had invested in a youth movement, and their minor league moves were paying off in the spring of 1978.

Ready to reshape the Big League team were youngsters like catcher Lance Parrish, second baseman Lou Whitaker, shortstop Alan Trammell, first baseman Jason Thompson, left fielder Steve Kemp, starter Dave Rozema … and bullpen hand Jack Morris.

Of course, Morris was destined for the starting rotation, too, and moved into a full-time starting role in 1979.

Before that came to pass, though, it just so happened that hast food monarch Burger King decided to ramp up their baseball card promotions. In 1977, BK had tested the cardboard waters with a Topps-made set devoted to the Yanks and available with food purchases in the New York area.

That apparently worked out well enough that the King wanted more in 1978, expanding their sets — and markets — to include the Houston Astros, Texas Rangers, and, yes, the Detroit Tigers.

The Yanks were back on the docket, too.

But it’s that Tigers set that really paid dividends for a generation of baseball card collectors. Among the 23 cards issued in the Motown BKs were solo cards of Whitaker, Trammell, and Morris.

While most of the Burger King cards were just copies of the corresponding base Topps cards, that wasn’t really possible with the three youngsters — they all appeared on multiplayer cards (like Morris’ above) in the regular Topps issue.

And, no matter how good Topps is at their craft, even they can’t make one player look like four players, or vice versa.

So each of these guys, all of whom will someday be in Cooperstown, instantly doubled their baseball card count. And, in each case, that new rookie card was an upgrade over the original.

Here is the Morris single from that Burger King set:

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Now, I’ve already told you, in this post, what I think of the 1978 Burger King Jack Morris card, but you can decide for yourself.

Is it better than his base card?

Is it better than Trammell’s card?

Than Whitaker’s?

That’s the beauty of baseball cards, and, especially these Burger King cards …

You can have them your way!

At least in a binary sort of way.

(Check out the rest of our posts on the 2018 Hall of Fame class here.)

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