Tim Raines baseball cards spent most of their lives chasing the the cardboard version of that other all-time leadoff man who plied his trade during the 1980s and 1990s, and who shall remain nameless (for a few paragraphs, at least).

In many ways, the cards mirrored the men themselves.

But …

Tim Raines was a giant killer, and that was never more evident than at the 1987 Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Oakland

That summer, Andre Dawson was playing for peanuts in Wrigley Field, trying to prove himself after being shunned on the free agent market. He was smashing baseballs like no one since George Foster had 10 years earlier.

In the American League, strapping young Mark McGwire was a rookie first baseman for the hometown A’s. On the heels of teammate Jose Canseco‘s monster rookie season in 1986, McGwire took up the Bash Brother mantle and matched Dawson homer-for-homer throughout the season.

But on that sweltering July 14th night in the Coliseum, two of the most potent lineups in recent memory battled to a 0-0 tie after nine innings. And after 10 innings. And after 11 innings.

And after 12 innings.

Finally, in the top of the 13th, NL catcher Ozzie Virgil led off with a single against Jay Howell. Lee Smith struck out, Hubie Brooks singled, and Willie McGee lined out.

The number-5 hitter in the inning thus strode to the plate with two outs and runners on first and second.

There is more than a little irony in the fact that that hitter was Tim Raines, the Montreal Expos’ speed burner who normally slotted into the leadoff position. On this occasion, though, it was up to Raines to bring home the bacon — and he delivered by smacking a two-run triple that gave the National League a 2-0 lead.

It didn’t matter that Juan Samuel — another burner — lined out to end the inning, because Sid Fernandez set down the AL in order after allowing a leadoff walk to Kevin Seitzer.

For the game, Raines went 3-for-3 and was an easy pick for MVP, besting all the sluggers and lockdown pitchers who had pushed the contest deep into the night.

It was a stellar performance by a superstar at the peak of his game, but it was soon forgotten as baseballs continued to fly out of stadiums faster than Donruss and Fleer wax packs flew off store shelves that year. By October, Raines had amassed 50 stolen bases, 123 runs, and batted .330. He was one of the very best players on the planet but finished a distant seventh in MVP voting, far, far behind Dawson, who won the NL award.

That season was a microcosm of Raines’ career: consistent superlative play with frequent flashes of otherworldly talent.

But he was always overshadowed.

For most of his time in the Majors, it was Rickey Henderson who relegated Raines to an afterthought in the conversation about the best leadoff men in baseball.

Even when Rickey had a rare down season, Raines was mired in the obscurity of Montreal.

And when the Expos finally let him go, four years after Dawson’s escape, Raines landed with the Chicago White Sox and was immediately eclipsed by “Big Hurt” Frank Thomas.

As the speed began to erode, Raines moved to the New York Yankees, where he won titles in 1996 and 1998. Stints in Oakland, Montreal (again), Baltimore, and Florida left the speedster with 2605 hits, 808 stolen bases (against just 146 times caught stealing), and a lifetime batting average of .294.

It was all great stuff, but by that time, Barry Bonds and others were swatting home runs like they were fleas, and the public was hungry for bigger numbers, more gawd, more flash. Raines slid into retirement as an interesting footnote to the pre-Millennium era in baseball.

It was little surprise, then, that he languished on the Hall of Fame ballot for most of his eligibility. It took him six ballots to crack the 50% barrier, and, even in 2015, he languished well below 60%.

But with the backlog of huge all-time names clearing out in recent years and an increased overall appreciation of analytics, Raines took a big leap forward in 2016, being chosen by 69.8%  of voters.

And then finally, in 2017, The Rock got The Call.

After a career that saw him slug .425, get on base at a .385 clip, and score 1571 runs, Tim Raines goes into the Hall of Fame as the eighth greatest left fielder of all time (according to the JAWS metric at Baseball Reference).

What better way to celebrate Rock’s election than with a little vintage cardboard? In that spirit, here are 30 of the best Tim Raines baseball cards ever issued.

Why 30?

Take a look at that uniform number flying around the bases in your diamond memories.

(This is part of a series of posts about the 2017 Hall of Fame inductions. Read them all here.)

1979 TCMA Memphis Chicks (#20)

There’s not much to this card other than the fact that it features a minor leaguer named Tim Raines two year before he’d appear on a “real” baseball card and almost 40 before he’d be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Seems worthy of your consideration, no?

1981 Donruss (#538)

Sure, Fleer may have been the company that ended Topps’ monopoly by winning a famous $1 antitrust lawsuit in 1980, but it was Donruss who really surprised collectors in 1981. After nearly three decades of pumping out non-sports cards, Donruss reached across the collecting aisle with a rush-job baseball set to go head-to-head with the other two giants.

While the cardstock was as flimsy as toilet paper and the photos were generally dark and blurry, Donruss scored a coup as the only manufacturer to issue a single-player Tim Raines rookie card in its base set.

1981 Topps (#479)

Of course, Topps was still king to most collectors in 1981, and their version of Raines’ rookie card has been the standard-bearer since it was issued. Never mind the fact that he has to share his debut with a pair of immortals: Roberto Ramos and Bobby Pate.

1981 Topps Traded (#816)

Topps used their first full, dedicated Traded set, at least in part, to ameliorate their whiff on featuring Raines on a solo pasteboard in their base set. His #816 is arguably one of his best-looking early issues and sees healthy continued activity on eBay.

1982 Kellogg’s (#53)

You can’t really run down the cards of any even moderately popular player from the late 1970s or early 1980s without breaking out that novelty of novelties — the 3-D card. In Raines’ 1982 Kellogg’s issue, he appears to be searching for lost keys, but it’s still a fun card.

1982 Topps Stolen Base Leaders (’81) — and Rickey Henderson (#164)

Rickey Henderson and Tim Raines appeared together on a slew of these League Leader cards in the 1980s, but this is the only one where Raines actually bested his AL counterpart, 71 to 56 swipes in the strike-shortened 1981 season. Perhaps that failing spurred Rickey on to his record 180 thefts in 1982.

1982 Zellers (#3)

One of my favorite parts about collecting in the 1980s were all of the oddball and regional issues that would wink at me from the pages of Sports Collectors Digest and occasionally make an appearance at a local card show. In the US, the 1982 Zellers Montreal Expos set was a real delicacy since it was issued in Canada. It didn’t hurt any that the Expos were loaded with young talent, and Raines was right there alongside Andre Dawson, Gary Carter, and all the rest.

1982 Perma-Graphics Super Star

The oddball parade continues with Raines’ 1982 Perma-Graphics Super Star issue. Each of these cards was rendered on hard plastic stock which, coupled with its smaller-than-normal size, earned the set the sobriquet of “credit cards.” These were another card-show favorite and a great impulse buy that was nearly impossible to resist.

1983 Topps All-Star (#403)

With its blue star, this card immediately brings to mind that hot summer night in 1987 when Raines bested all of the sluggers to take home the All-Star MVP award. He doesn’t look too happy here, but things would get better.

1983 Topps (#595)

Raines looks like he’s standing in the middle of a meadow, but you just know he’s getting ready to turn on the burners and make some poor pitcher pay for being too slow to the plate. Great design, and a nice full-body shot of the Expos home whites.

1984 Donruss (#299)

The 1984 Donruss set was a landmark in the hobby, combining vastly improved card quality with perceived scarcity. This shot of a peaking Raines is a perfect fit.

1984 Topps (#370)

The design is not quite as strong as the 1983 Topps or 1984 Donruss set, but the visuals for this underrated Tim Raines card are better than its counterpart in those other more ballyhooed sets. Great card that you can find for next to nothing most days.

1984 Topps Nestlè Dream Team (#17)

Topps made two Nestlè sets in 1984 — one 792-card parallel that the chocolate maker released in sheet-only form, and a special “Dream Team” set that was issued in small, cellophane-wrapped groups in the company’s chocolate candy bars. The former is fairly scarce, but this Raines card is a sweet example of the latter and a wonderful period piece for nostalgia lovers.

1987 Fleer (#328)

This was the year that all three major companies unleashed innovative designs, and the 1987 Topps set remains a classic that evokes the essence of the era. It was the other two sets, though, and especially the 1987 Fleer set, that set the hobby abuzz. Early-season scarcity sent collectors scrambling to soak up any product they could locate, and prices spiraled out of control. It may have been the first true new-product frenzy, and if you dared to open a pack, you could have pulled this cherry Raines card.

 1987 Fleer Juan Samuel and — Doubles & Triples (#642)

During the 1980s, Fleer revived a concept that Topps had used to great effect two and three decades earlier — the multi-player “candid” card. By 1987, Juan Samuel had joined Raines and Henderson among the list of legitimate burners, and he added a healthy dose of power to the mix. No wonder he took top billing on this card, but he seems out of place next to a HOFer all these years later.

1988 Donruss Diamond Kings (#2)

This is Raines’ only Diamond Kings card, and it came the year after Andre Dawson left Montreal for the Chicago Cubs. It also came as part of the first set that was perceived as massively overproduced almost the second the first cases came off the truck. No matter though, because it’s still a beautiful combination of colors and baseball.

1989 Topps Rock Raines (#560)

“Rock” looks every bit as powerful as his nickname would suggest as he prepares for his time at-bat on the front of this 1989 Topps card. There are those who would suggest that Topps was taking a dig at Raines for his “extracurricular” activities by using his sobriquet here, but we’ll leave that for the card truthers.

 1990 Baseball Cards Magazine 1969 Topps Replica (#24)

Back when it was still thrilling to go the actual mailbox every day and every envelope might contain an adventure of one sort or another, the best day of each month was the day my copy of Baseball Cards Magazine arrived. The writing was like nothing else going, and the articles were innovative and fun. I felt like I’d found my brethren. Maybe best of all was that the rag came with actual cards, inserted in the middle and featuring then-current players on classic Topps designs. It was heaven, just like this Raines insert.

 1991 Topps Desert Shield (#360)

In early 1991, the US plunged into the first Gulf War. Before we unleashed Desert Storm, though, we tried the more diplomatic Desert Shield. Though that sentiment soon escalated to full-on military offensives, it did give Topps the chance to issue a special run of their 40th-anniversary cards to be sent to our military men and women in the Middle East. Of course, where there was something new in the hobby, there was a way for someone to make money, so the cards quickly found their way to the stateside market. Here, Rock Raines is in full-swing glory beneath the Desert Shield shield.

1991 Upper Deck (#773)

After the 1990 season, Raines bid adieu to Montreal and landed with the Chicago White Sox. While base sets that year still pictured him in Expos togs, the updates caught him in his ChiSox uniform. As a first card with his new team, it’s hard to beat this 1991 Upper Deck high number offering, featuring a clean design and a crisp action shot.

 1992 Topps (#426)

After years of almost outright begging by collectors, Topps finally capitulated and ditched their long-standing love of soft, drab brown card stock in 1992. The new white stock complemented the crisp new design, and this Raines action shot is a perfect example of a card done right.

 1993 Stadium Club White Sox (#5)

Topps Stadium Club was one of a handful of super premium sets that lit the hobby on fire during the early 1990s. It was the darling of 1991 that had lost a bit of luster by ’93. In an attempt to regain some of that sheen, Topps issued 16 team-specific, factory-sealed sets, each containing 30 cards. This Raines offering is typical of the artsy photography and glitzy design elements of the era.

 1994 Donruss Triple Play (#268)

Full-bleed images, garish product logos, and a set name that makes it impossible to distinguish from 20 other issues of the same time period? Yeah, 1994 Donruss Triple Play checks all those boxes for being a poster boy of the overproduction era, but this Tim Raines card looks pretty darn good anyway.

1995 Topps (#77)

This must have been what opposing pitchers saw in their nightmares as they prepared to face Raines — Rock waving goodbye on his way to second base. Topps designs and quality came a long way between 1990 and 1995, huh?

1996 Pacific (#284)

There were just so many sets from so many manufacturers in the 1990s — does anyone even remember Pacific? We do, right here, right now, with this solid action shot of Raines coming out of the batter’s box.

1997 Topps (#334)

Any pinstripes card from the mid-1990s just looks regal, and especially if it’s coupled with a solid Topps design. Add in Tim Raines, and you have a triple-whammy that stands out in any commons bin.

1999 Plumbers Union (#30)

Thanks to the Plumbers Steamfitters Refrigeration Local Union 342, we get this team-color-coded card of a tough-looking Raines, ready to hack a baseball or maybe cut down a tree (yes, I know that’s not in the typical job description for steamfitters).

Cool oddball all the way around

2001 Fleer Platinum (#308)

Fleer may have missed out on issuing a Raines rookie card in their first set in 1981, but they got their chance to make up for that with their 2001 Platinum edition. Great to see an old design upgraded with better print quality and image crispness.

2002 Fleer Tradition (#87)

Tim Raines on a modern-day Goudey card? No way this one could have missed the list, even if Raines in Orioles gear looks almost as strange as Eric Davis would have.

Oh.

Right.

2003 Donruss (#285)

If you had told me that Tim Raines finished his career with the Florida Marlins, I wouldn’t have believed it. But this Donruss pasteboard proves me wrong and serves as a capper card that shows his entire MLB record. Still looks strange, but it is, indeed, a wrap.

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Life must have been pretty exciting for Steve Dunning in the spring and summer of 1970.

He had just wrapped up his college baseball career with a stunning (sDunning?) season in which he went 13-2 with a 1.83 ERA and 144 strikeouts in 108 innings.

That was enough to convince the Cleveland Indians to select Dunning with their first pick — 2nd overall — in that year’s draft.

And then, the Tribe decided they liked Dunning so much that they stuck him right onto the Major League roster without his having to spend a day in the minor leagues. He was just the second player, after Mike Adamson of the Kansas City Athletics in 1967, to go directly from draft day to his MLB club.

Not only that, but Dunning went straight into the rotation, making his Big League debut on June 14 against the Milwaukee Brewers. He allowed five hits, two walks, a homer, and two runs over five innings, but it was enough to pick up the win in Cleveland’s 9-2 victory.

Dunning stayed on the Indians’ roster the entire 1970 season and finished with a 4-9 record and 4.96 ERA in 19 games, 17 of them starts. Not spectacular, but a decent beginning for a 21-year-old hurler with no minor league seasoning.

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You Know You’ve Made It When …

It was also good enough to keep Dunning in the rotation for 1971 and to land him his very own 1971 Topps baseball card (#294). It’s a decent looking hunk of cardboard, with Dunning in his set position and Municipal Stadium in the background. He’s wearing the nifty pinstripes the Tribe rolled out in 1970, and the angle of the shot shows most of Chief Wahoo on Dunning’s left sleeve.

As collectors were pulling that card from packs, Dunning headed back to the mound and put together a sophomore campaign that featured an 8-14 record with a 4.50 ERA in 29 starts over 31 total appearances.

Dunning was rewarded for that effort by hanging onto his roster slot and with a 1972 Topps baseball card (#658). This time, he’s completing his follow-through in his Indians road grays with Yankee Stadium as his backdrop.

The 1972 season saw Dunning’s workload drop to 16 starts, but it also brought his first winning record, at 6-4. His 3.26 ERA would be the lowest of his career.

So Dunning entered his age-24 season on the upswing and with a chance to build something better with the only team he’d ever known. Oh, he also had his third baseball card in the offing — #53 in the 1973 Topps set.

And that’s where things get strange …

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We Have This New Model We’re Just Dying to Try Out

We know that Topps had pictures of Dunning in his Indians uniform because they issued cards of him in 1971 and 1972.

And we know that, in those days, Topps was not averse to using the same picture of a player in consecutive years. See Ernie Banks in 1968 and 1969.

So why, oh why, did Topps airbrush that hideous red Indians cap over whatever Dunning had going on up there on his 1973 Topps card?

At first, I thought maybe it was because Dunning finally had been sent to the minors in 1972, but I can’t make script on his chest into either “Portland” or “Beavers” … and why would Topps bother taking a minor league photo of a guy when they already had Major League pics?

Maybe a quick trade-and-trade — out of Cleveland and back — with Topps snapping his picture in the interim? Baseball Reference says no on that front — Dunning was with the Indians organization throughout 1972.

And, if you look more closely at that 1973 Topps Dunning card, you can see that he’s wearing the Indians pinstripes, like he was on his 1971 Topps card.

Well, not quite like on his 1971 Topps card … those 1973 letters are plain and blocky, while the 1971 card shows rounder characters with fancy red shadow piping. You can see this most clearly on the “S” in “Indians.”

That difference might make you think Dunning is, indeed, wearing something other than an Indians uniform. But if you dig around a bit, you can find these togs other places.

Notably, on the 1972 Topps card of Cleveland manager Ken Aspromonte (#784). That’s the same lettering that Dunning sports on his ’73 card.

So we’re back to the question of what Topps was up to with that dastardly airbrush of theirs. Why would they mar an otherwise OK card with an unsightly red blob?

We Did It All for You

The answer lies in the cards of Dunning’s teammates.

Take a look at the 1973 Topps Indians checklist card:

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Yeah, that’s ugly and not all that helpful, but it’s still pretty cool, don’t you think? But I meant take a look at the back of that card:

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There you have a listing of all the Indians cards issued by TGC in 1973. Now, start working down the list, and what do you find?

Well, a bunch of names. But if you look up the actual cards, what do you find?

You can do this exercise for yourself if you want, but I’ve taken the liberty of checking out a few of the cards, like …

Ken Aspromonte (#499)

The Tribe manager appears with his college of coaches, as you would expect. Aspromonte was at the helm all season for the 1972 Indians, so Topps had plenty of time to snap his picture, yet … he, too, had the red-blob Cleveland cap! Hmmm …

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Buddy Bell (#31)

The future All-Star third baseman was just 20 years old for most of the 1972 season, but he steps up big here on this card to help us solve our mystery. There stands Bell with the Yankee Stadium on-deck circle and third-base line in the background, donned in Cleveland road grays and a red cap — no airbrush in sight.

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Charlie Spikes (#614) red hat AND sleeves, airbrushed

Finally, and maybe most telling of all, we have this Spikes “beauty.” Sure, Spikes was actually a member of the New York Yankees organization through 1972, and you can see those famed Yankees pinstripes peeking through on his third of this rookie outfielders card.

But it would have been easy for Topps to just blot out the NY logo or paint over it with the red, football-shaped Cleveland “C.” Instead, they went full hovering, glowing, bloody red cap … and they dipped Spikes’ arms in ketchup.

Oh well, at least we can enjoy the other two gents on this card — Dwight Evans and Al Bumbry might amount to something someday, and how often is there an “Alonza” sighting?

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What’s Really Going On Here?

Taking these three cards into consideration, along with that stunning Dunning, it’s easy to see that Topps was dead set on … ahem … painting the Indians in red in 1973.

But why?

Well, a quick search for the history of Indians uniforms and caps leads you to this page at SportsLogos.net, where you’ll find what’s labeled as “Cap Logo (1972)”:

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Look familiar?

Yeah, that’s the same logo that Buddy Bell flashes on his 1973 Topps card, and the same one Topps tried to install on the foreheads of Dunning, Aspromonte, and Spikes.

Do a quick Google image search for “1972 Cleveland Indians” and you’ll find this same logo over and over and over …

Gaylord Perry had it.

Ray Fosse had it.

So did John Lowenstein … Tom McCraw … Graig Nettles … Eddie Leon.

Now do the same search for 1971 and for 1973.

In ’71, it was all black caps with a red “C.”

In ’73, it was the cockeyed red “C” on a navy cap that you see here in Perry’s 1974 Topps card:

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And all that leaves us with one conclusion …

Topps didn’t manage to secure actual 1972 photos of many Cleveland Indians, but they still wanted to give collectors the authentic look and feel of that season by the Lake. So they did what Topps always did to fix a problem in the 1970s — they fired up the airbrush.

Their intentions may have been noble, but, man the results were u-g-l-y, and Steve Dunning took the brunt of that indignity.

And Topps wasn’t done “flattering” Dunning, either.

The Long and Painted Road

A month into the 1973 season, Cleveland finally got tired of waiting for Dunning to develop and sent him to the Texas Rangers in exchange for Dick Bosman and Ted Ford. Dunning made 23 appearances (12 starts) for the Rangers, but it wasn’t enough to keep his streak of Topps cards alive.

In February of 1975, Texas traded Dunning to the Chicago White Sox for Stan Perzanowski, and then sent  him down to the Triple-A Denver Bears. That December, the ChiSox shipped Dunning and Bill Melton to the California Angels in a trade that brought Morris Nettles and Jim Spencer to Arlington.

Dunning made four ineffective appearances (7.50 ERA) for the Angles in 1976 before they sold him to the Montreal Expos in May. He spent the rest of the Bicentennial season between Montreal and Triple-A Denver, and then Expos sent him, along with Pat Scanlon and Tony Scott, to the St. Louis Cardinals in exchange for Bill Greif, Sam Mejias, and Angel Torres in November.

In 1977, Mr. Stunning made 24 starts for the Triple-A New Orleans Pelicans through early August, when the Cards traded him to the Oakland A’s for Randy Scarbery.

All through that long stretch, from 1973 through 1977, Dunning went 0-for-Topps, and it looked like he might never get another baseball card. But the A’s were still staggering through their post-dynasty years, and they gave Dunning another shot at the Majors. In six appearances, he went 1-0 with a 3.93 ERA, but his more modern peripherals weren’t great — 1.473 WHIP, 2 K/9, 104 ERA+.

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Modest as that showing may seem now, it evidently was enough to convince Topps that Dunning was back, because they included him in their 1978 set (#647). It’s another masterpiece, in which Dunning dons his best Jeff Daniels face and also in which Topps slathers Dunning in A’s green and gold. Now, I’ll admit that the airbrush job is markedly better than the one on Dunning’s 1973 turd, but there is an odd, blurry shadow effect around Dunning himself.

Almost like he’s not really there … or like there are two people in the one sleepy-eyed image, attempting to separate from each other even as we look on.

Heck, the photo and background are bad enough that there’s some small chance there’s no airbrushing going on at all.

Whatever.

At least Dunning got this one last card. He spent 1978 in the San Diego Padres minor league system and then was done.

And at least we can be pretty sure Topps was trying to do us all a solid with his 1973 Topps card.

But that doesn’t change the fact that this former first-round burner recorded maybe the highest percentage of lousy baseball cards (career) this side of Bryan Clark.

(Check out our other player card posts here.)

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Look, we all know that the Ken Griffey, Jr., rookie card is the greatest card in the 1989 Upper Deck set.

I admitted as much when I anointed it as the best card in all of 1989 last year as part of a similar (but different) series of posts on the best card from each year from 1960-89.

Heck, the Junior rookie is one of the greatest baseball cards of all time when you consider everything. It’s the first card in the first set of cards from a company (Upper Deck) that changed the hobby forever, and it pictures a once-in-a-generation player in Griffey.

It looks pretty darn good, too.

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But I’ve already written about that card, so it can’t be my choice for best 1989 Upper Deck card here and now (unless it somehow morphs into a catcher card — then we can talk). Them’s just the rules.

So that frees us up to thumb through the other bazillion 1989 Upper Deck cards in search of The Best 1989 Upper Deck Card, Senior Division (as opposed to Junior, get it?).

There are plenty of strong candidates, too:

• Ramon Martinez banking into a turn as he prepares to land a pitch on his rookie card (#18)
• John Smoltz looking in for the sign from his rookie card (#17)
• Gary Sheffield actually *smiling* in the dugout on his rookie card (#13)
• Bo Jackson on the hot corner  talking with Royals third base coach Adrian Garrett about how easy it will be to score on card #221
• A young and lean(ish) Kirby Puckett leading off first base with Mark McGwire lurking and hulking behind (#376)

They’re all great, and they’re not alone. Love it or hate it, you have to admit that 1989 Upper Deck is jammed full of some of the best photography the hobby had ever seen.

So which is the best card among the non-Junior crowd?

As with so many of my selections in this series, it comes down to personal choice, guided by aesthetics and a sense of history.

Setting Junior aside, then, the best baseball card in the 1989 Upper Deck set is McGwire’s own pasteboard at #300.

By that point in history, of course, everyone knew that Big Mac was a slugger (if not a hitter) of Ruthian proportions. McGwire had smashed the rookie home run record with 49 in 1987, after all.

He followed that up with 32 home runs and 99 RBI as the Oakland A’s rolled to an American League pennant in 1988.

With 1989 dawning, the young slugger was looking to bounce back to the 50-homer potential he displayed as a rookie, and Upper Deck captured the feeling of giant expectations — and ability — that swirled around McGwire.

Big Mac stands in stark profile against a twilight sky, just a young baseball god and his weapon (a wooden baseball bat). The camera angle helps McGwire dwarf the trees in the background and makes it seem like anything is possible.

There is also a striking desolation, a loneliness, to the shot, and the overall effect is eerily prescient.

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Within 10 years, McGwire would demolish Roger Maris‘s single-season home run record by slamming 70 of his own in 1998, and he’d also separate himself from the pack as a legendary slugger.

But there is sometimes a fine line between standing alone and being alone, and the whispers of steroid use that exploded to shouts in the late 2000s helped to separate McGwire from the game he loves.

There has since been some repair as Big Mac has moved back into the game as a coach, but what once looked like a surefire Hall of Fame resume still has him on the outside looking in at Cooperstown.

No matter what, though, he’ll always have the Best 1989 Upper Deck Baseball Card, Non-Junior Division.

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This is the 30th in our series of posts about the best baseball cards from the 1980s. Check out the rest of those posts here.

You might also enjoy our complete rundown of Mark McGwire rookie cards.

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With a variety of baseball card projects underway at any given time, Sam dedicates a couple of hours each day to the hobby.

Recently, Sam took carved out some time to share his Collector Story with us. Enjoy!

How long have you been collecting?
37 years

How did you get started collecting?
I remember looking through the Sears catalog and asking for those lots of football cards they had for sale. Nothing but commons I’m sure but they were like gold to me. I also remember finding random packs of basketball cards at several convenience stores. I was also hooked on those stickers from the early 80’s.

What is the first card you can remember owning or buying?
Although I’m now a baseball-only collector, the first big card I can remember owning was the Joe Montana rookie.

Which sports do you collect?
Baseball

What other memorabilia, besides cards, do you collect?
Nothing

What is the focus of your collection?
Every collector goes for something different. I have a two pronged collection. First, I collect sets (base cards only:I’m not into the insert and special sets). I have every set from the major brands since 1972. Second, I collect star cards – mostly Hall of Famers, players that should/will be there someday, or just favorites from my childhood that I know won’t make it but that I like anyway (Dale Murphy…). In addition to the sets, I try to get one of every one of the star cards on my list and place in an album.

Who is your favorite player(s)?
Rickey Henderson.

Which is (are) your favorite team(s)?
Oakland Athletics

Do you have a favorite card or set?
I don’t have the set, but I’ve always like the 1962 Topps design.

Do you have a collecting project or goals you’re working on now?
I recently started working backwards again. I’m currently working on a 1970 Topps set.

How much time do you spend on the hobby these days?
After stepping back from cards in the early to mid 90’s, I got back into it again with the emergence of ebay/online sales in the late 90’s. I run a website and have ebay auctions so I usually spend a couple of hours a day on the hobby.

What’s your main source of hobby information?
ebay and twitter

Where do you buy most of your cards?
ebay

Which card or set have you always wanted to own but has always eluded you?
1960 Topps Carl Yastrzemski rookie card. I don’t actively pursue it but when I have, I just haven’t found the sweet spot of card condition and price I’m willing to pay.

What’s your favorite hobby memory?
Searching through Beckett magazines to find card shows in my area. Getting all my want lists together in the days before and then spending hours going from table to table finding what cards I needed.

Do you have any other funny or memorable hobby moments to share?
When I was in college I opened a card shop above my father’s business. I could only do it a couple of hours a day but it was great fun.

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Great memories that resonate with me and I’m sure many other collectors who were there for The Boom (and The Bust).

Thanks for sharing, Sam!

If you’d like to get in touch with Sam, you can follow him on Twitter (@McMillanSam) or visit hes website, CompleteYourSets.com.

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