See …

Several years back, when I chose the best baseball card from each year, the 1986 Topps Don Mattingly came out on top for, you know, 1986.

Awhile later, I posted a link to that article on Twitter, and one of my followers, @MSUBeastLansing, reminded me there were other great cards from 1986, even from that same Topps set:

pic.twitter.com/Q5dYma53VO

— GreenIsGood.BeGood (@MSUBeastLansing) June 9, 2018

Faced with this evidence, I was forced to reconsider (yes, again) my self-imposed restrictions for this series — limit the number of catchers, limit the number of Cincinnati Reds chief among them.

But this is a card I somehow hadn’t seen often in my life until the point of that Twitter exchange, and it’s quite striking.

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

Diaz has thrown off his mask and is knee-deep in a home-plate dustup as Tom Herr of the St. Louis Cardinals slides in feet-first. The bright red Cards and Reds helmets look almost identical to each other, since we can only see the backs, and you might think the two combatants toiled for the same team if not for Diaz’s slightly grayer uniform.

One of the great things about looking through old baseball cards in this electronic age of ours is that it usually takes only a few keystrokes to find out a whole lot more about what’s going on in the pictures that were such mysteries to us as children.

Now, if you’re the type who doesn’t want to see behind-the-scenes snippets from Star Wars because it will spoil the illusion, you should probably stop reading here.

But if you’re interested in the context of this Diaz-Herr play, I can provide some likely insight …

On September 4, 1985, the Reds were in St. Louis to take on the Cards at Busch Stadium in the last of a three-game set.

The Card were in first place in the NL East, and the Reds were fighting to stay in the NL West race. Their 69-61 record entering the game was a minor miracle compared to the mess they had been since 1982, but they needed help to catch the Dodgers.

They wouldn’t find that help in St. Louis.

After the Reds managed only a Max Venable single against Kurt Kepshire in the top of the first, the Cards loaded the bases with two out in the bottom half of the frame.

Herr had provided a large helping of the early heroics, singling against Andy McGaffigan and then stealing second. Terry Pendleton singled to left to score Vince Coleman from third, and Herr decided it was worth the gamble to try and make it 2-0.

It didn’t pan out, because Venable’s throw found Diaz waiting right where he should be, and that’s where we come in with our 1986 Topps card.

Herr was out.

In the end, though, that one-run margin held up as the Cards won 3-2 on a Mike Jorgensen single to score Pendleton in the bottom of the ninth.

St. Louis, of course, went on to lose a controversial World Series to the Kansas City Royals, while the Reds made a late push but came up 5 1/2 games short in the division.

You couldn’t lay too much of the blame on Bo Diaz, though, as the veteran catcher hit .261 with three homers and 15 RBI after coming over from the Philadelphia Phillies on August 8.

Over the next few seasons, Diaz became one of my favorite Reds (which admittedly is a bit like “favorite cookie”), and it was sort of sad when they didn’t re-sign him after the 1989 season.

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

Even sadder was that ugly day in 1990, just over a month after the Reds completed their World Series sweep of the mighty Oakland A’s, when I saw the news in the sports section.

On November 23, Diaz had been adjusting a large satellite dish on his roof at home in Venezuela when something went wrong — the apparatus slipped or shifted or just fell, and it crushed Diaz’s neck and skull, killing him instantly.

Knowing and remembering these dark details is one of the hardest parts of being a baseball fan, but that’s what happens when you are immersed in a team and in its players.

And it also makes the bright points so much sweeter and more poignant.

Bright points like the 1986 Topps Bo Diaz card, with a cameo by Tommy Herr — it really may be the best the set has to offer.

(This is the 19th in our series of posts about the best baseball cards from the 1980s. Check out the rest of those posts here.)

Want to see a video version of this article?

Consider …

Mike Schmidt is the greatest third baseman of all-time and one of the greatest overall players in the history of Major League Baseball. For several years in the 1980s, Mike Schmidt baseball cards were among the hottest in the hobby, too, as Iron Mike racked up three MVP awards and more than 500 career home runs.

But it’s been more than 30 years now since Schmidt retired, and a lot has happened in that time.

Pete Rose was banned from baseball.

The game almost imploded due to the players’ strike in 1994 and 1995.

Home run records fell like Seattle rain during the so-called Steroid Era as bashers like Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds and — ahem — Brady Anderson rewrote the record books.

The hobby boomed and busted.

The hobby boomed again when the pandemic wrecked the rest of the world.

Along the way, Schmidt fell out of the public spotlight and mostly slid from collectors minds.

But Schmidt is still around, a living monument to better times in Phillies land … at least when times are rough, which seems to be plenty often.

And Schmidt’s cards are still around, too, testaments to the wonders of the hobby’s glory years.

What follows is a rundown of every regular-issue Mike Schmidt baseball card produced by the major card companies during a storied career.

So sit back and enjoy the pasteboard show of the guy that Bill James once said was not that far off from the conversation for “best player ever.”

(Note: The following sections contain affiliate links to eBay and Amazon listings for the cards being discussed. Card values reflect actual selling prices for graded cards in the most common conditions reported by PSA. )

1973 Topps Mike Schmidt Rookie Card (#615)

If you could own only one Mike Schmidt card, this would be the one to target.

Not only is it the rookie card of a top-tier Hall of Famer, but it’s also part of the 1973 Topps high series — the very last time Topps issued sets in parts before ushering in the modern era with an all-at-once 1974 series.

The Mike Schmidt rookie card is no aesthetic masterpiece, and it relegates Mike to the last third of the real estate, but he does share rookie honors with John Hilton. Ron Cey is there, too, though technically his rookie card comes in the 1972 set.

No matter its shortcomings the 1973 Topps Mike Schmidt rookie card is a must-have for any serious vintage collector, and it carries a price tag befitting its status as a hobby legend (values for copies in PSA 7 condition).

Value: $400-475 (PSA 7)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1974 Topps Mike Schmidt (#283)

There was a time in the late 1980s and early 1990s when “second-year cards” were all the rage, and they owed their fling with the spotlight largely to Schmidt and other players of his ilk.

It made some sense.

After all, this 1974 Topps pasteboard was the first to picture Schmidt all by himself, and it is still a very early card of a Hall of Famer.

This card in raw condition generally won’t sell for anywhere near the $100 or so it brought at its peak, but copies in really nice graded condition still carry a heavy price tag today.

Value: $140-160 (PSA 8)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1975 Topps Mike Schmidt (#70)

By the time this 1975 Topps card was issued, Schmidt had led the league in home runs for the first time, with 36 in 1974. He was a legitimate power hitter with a bright future ahead of him, so it would have been great to see his big swing on this card.

Instead, collectors got an awkward head shot that didn’t tell them much about the quiet man with the monster bat.

But these 1975 cards were mostly about the design, and few things make a veteran collector’s tummy flutter like a stack of these Chiclet-colored beauties. And if that stack has a legend — like Mike Schmidt — nestled inside?

All the better.

Value: $140-150 (PSA 8)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1976 Topps Mike Schmidt (#480)

At first glance, this photo seems even worse than the 1975 Topps version — Mike Schmidt bunting?

On closer examination, I prefer to think that Schmitty has just slammed a bomb and is preparing to discard his bat and round the bases.

This was one of the first pre-1981 cards that I added to my own collection, so it holds a special place in my collector’s heart.

Value: $65-80 (PSA 8)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1977 Topps Mike Schmidt (#140)

Compared to the sets around it, 1977 Topps featured a pretty crisp card design, and this spring shot of Iron Mike adds to the fresh feel.

Solid card of a legend still ramping up against a perfect blue-and-fluffy-white-cloud sky and Shea Stadium gearing up for a division matchup in the background.

Value: $40-60 (PSA 8)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1978 Topps Mike Schmidt (#360)

The 1978 Topps set features a minimalist design that is somewhat reminiscent of the classic 1957 Topps set.

Too bad Topps chose to use all that photo real estate for a fairly boring head shot here on the sixth-year Schmidt card.

Even with no “action” and an indecisive looking Schmitty, though, this is a solid offering of a soon-to-be legend.

Value: $20-25 (PSA 8)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1979 Topps Mike Schmidt (#610)

Was Schmidt ever happy on a baseball card early in his career?

He doesn’t look too thrilled here on his 1979 Topps cards, for sure, but the color scheme works well and the overall design is clean. And, maybe that serious face is because Schmidt is in his “office” – the batting cage.

Value: $25-30 (PSA 8)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1980 Topps Mike Schmidt (#270)

Schmidt’s Topps offering got a little snazzier just in time for his first MVP campaign.

He was already 30 years old by the time this card came out, but his superb conditioning and key role on the contending Phils would keep him in his prime for several more years.

This batting-practice pose shows Schmidt’s intensity even in game prep and is nicely framed by the banner-laden 1980 Topps design and the “N.L. ALL-STAR” designation.

Value: $15-25 (PSA 8)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1981 Donruss Mike Schmidt (#11)

Schmidt didn’t break into a smile for his first non-Topps cards, either, but collectors were happy to see both Donruss and Fleer join The Old Gum Company on store shelves in 1981.

Donruss card stock was thin as tissue paper, but this is a decent looking glamor shot of Iron Mike.

Value: $15-30 (PSA 9)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1981 Fleer Mike Schmidt (#5)

The overall quality of the 1981 Fleer set was a smidge better than its Donruss counterpart, but it looks like they used the same photographer, on the same day.

Same warm-up suit.

Same hair.

(Of course, Fleer also produced another version of #5, with Schmidt at bat – value is about the same, though the portrait version appears to me a bit more scarce. )

Value: $15-30 (PSA 9)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1981 Topps Mike Schmidt (#540)

This is the first Schmidt card I remember pulling from a pack, and it still stokes the collector’s fire in me every time I see it.

One of the few cards to feature Mike live in the field, this 1981 Topps beauty makes you believe he could stop a train with his glove and grit.

Value: $40-50 (PSA 9)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1982 Donruss Mike Schmidt (#294)

The 1982 Donruss set featured crisper photos and thicker card stock than the 1981 set, but Schmidt looks about the same.

Same warm-up suit.

Same hair.

Same scowl.

Value: $15-35 (PSA 9)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1982 Fleer Mike Schmidt (#258)

Is that a smile on Mike Schmidt’s 1982 Fleer card?

He must have just won an award or something.

Value: $10-15 (PSA 9)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1982 Topps Mike Schmidt (#100)

While not quite as toothy as his Fleer offering, the 1982 Topps Schmidt card came about as close to showing a smile as any Topps Schmitty pasteboard before it.

Ah, the joys of being in your prime, huh?

Value: $35-55 (PSA 9)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1983 Donruss Mike Schmidt (#168)

Strong follow-through from Mike on his 1983 Donruss card, with a design nearly identical to the 1982 set.

Value: $10-15 (PSA 9)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1983 Fleer Mike Schmidt (#173)

Schmidt must have really mellowed as the 1980s wore on because you can almost see an upturned corner of the mouth as he talks to an unidentified Montreal Expo on this 1983 Fleer card.

Who is that masked man?

Looks like either Tim Raines or Al Oliver, both of whom were on the 1982 NL All-Star roster. Could have also been Andre Dawson … those 1980s Expos teams were loaded!

Value: $15-20 (PSA 9)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1983 Topps Mike Schmidt (#300)

Schmidt looks off-balance on his 1983 Topps card, but the power in his follow-through and the stunning card design make this one a winner all the way around.

Value: $30-35 (PSA 9)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1984 Donruss Mike Schmidt (#183)

The 1984 Donruss set established a new standard for card design and (perceived) scarcity.

It’s a classic issue that never goes out of style, and Donruss even managed to get Schmidt in a fielding shot.

Good on you, pre-Panini.

Value: $10-15 (PSA 9)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1984 Fleer Mike Schmidt (#48)

Maybe it’s because the company was based in his adopted hometown of Philadelphia, but Schmidt seemed to love Fleer’s camera.

How else to explain all the smiles and near-smiles, as on this solid 1984 Fleer offering?

Value: $10-15 (PSA 9)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1984 Topps Mike Schmidt (#700)

This is the first card I ever paid a premium for while I could still (or soon) pull it from a pack.

This beauty cost me 40 cents in March of 1984, purchased from a favorite dealer who used to set up at a local (Indianapolis) flea market.

Not a perfect card by any means, but not bad either.

And priceless in terms of nostalgia.

Value: $25-40 (PSA 9)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1985 Donruss Mike Schmidt (#61)

Donruss got in on the Smiling Schmidt craze with its 1985 offering.

Pretty sure Mike could have swung all three of those bats at once and slammed a dinger with each one.

Value: $15-20 (PSA 9)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1985 Fleer Mike Schmidt (#265)

This 1985 Fleer card broke the string of Schmidt head shots, but the sacrifice was worth it.

Just look at those colors and that awesome home run follow-through!

Value: $15-20 (PSA 9)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1985 Topps Mike Schmidt (#500)

You may not realize it, but Schmidt could run pretty well throughout a large chunk of his career.

Even by 1984, when this photo for his 1985 Topps card was snapped, he still had some wheels — though they weren’t as good as he thought.

That season, he stole five bases … and was thrown out seven times.

Value: $20-25 (PSA 9)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1986 Donruss Mike Schmidt (#61)

Iron Mike is channeling Ted Kluszewski on this 1986 Donruss card.

Welcome to the gun show!

Value: $10-15 (PSA 9)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1986 Fleer Mike Schmidt (#450)

After several years of smiles and one at-bat action shot, Fleer treated collectors with this unusual pre-game shot of Schmidt in 1986.

Should there be air quotes around “treated”?

Value: $10-15 (PSA 9)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1986 Sportflics Mike Schmidt (#44)

Sportflics had impenetrable Mylar packs (take that, “innovator” Upper Deck)!

Sportflics had Magic Motion!

Sportflics had 3-D!

Sportflics had clean card backs!

Sportflics had thick card stock!

Sportflics had indecipherable images.

Value: $5-10 (PSA 9)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1986 Topps Mike Schmidt (#200)

Ho hum. Another vicious follow-through on another Topps card during another MVP season for Big Mike Schmidt.

Value: $20-25 (PSA 9)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1987 Donruss Mike Schmidt (#139)

Mike Schmidt was 37 years old when this 1987 Donruss card was issued and, though he’d just come off an MVP campaign, his face was showing his age.

Iron Mike would get lost in the shuffle of young sluggers in 1987 and would finish 14th in MVP voting even though he had a better year than many of those ahead of him.

Value: $10-15 (PSA 9)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1987 Fleer Mike Schmidt (#187)

Schmitty in a sunny ballpark watching the flight of a home run (?) ball.

Pretty heady stuff.

Value: $10-15 (PSA 9)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1987 Sportflics Mike Schmidt (#30)

The 1987 Sportflics set featured all of the same goodies as the 1986 inaugural set, but they added a color photo to card backs.

Doesn’t sound like much now, maybe, but it was awesome at the time.

Value: $5-10 (PSA 9)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1987 Topps Mike Schmidt (#430)

The 1987 Topps set is a love-it-or-hate-it type of proposition.

Personally, I love it … one of my favorite sets of all-time.

Here, Schmidt looks on, apparently trying to decide how far he should hit the next pitch.

Value: $15-25 (PSA 9)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1988 Donruss Mike Schmidt (#330)

Did a ball just fly through the zone so fast that Mike Schmidt can’t figure out what happened?

Is he watching a bug crawl across the infield grass toward him?

Or is this a Starting Lineup Schmidt figurine?

Those are the mysteries of the 1988 Donruss Mike Schmidt card.

Value: $25-35 (PSA 10)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1988 Fleer Mike Schmidt (#315)

I always thought of 1988 Fleer as the Little Debbie set because the design reminds me of an icing-laden snack cake.

Photos are crowded out by busy border elements, but this image of Schmidt is a pretty solid action shot nonetheless.

And looks like he generated a pretty good breeze with that swing-and-miss.

Value: $25-35 (PSA 10)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1988 Score Mike Schmidt (#16)

The 1988 Score set pushed the limits for baseball card technology at the time and had collectors excited by its quality white card stock, solid photography, and comprehensive card backs — complete with another (fairly large) color photo.

The Schmidt card features the HOFer on his toes at third base, ready for whatever might come his way.

Value: $80-90 (PSA 10)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1988 Sportflics Mike Schmidt (#35)

Sportflics was back in 1988 with a heavier card design and an even larger photo on the reverse.

I still have no idea what Schmitty is up to on the card front, though.

Value: $20-25 (PSA 10)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1988 Topps Mike Schmidt (#600)

Schmidt’s warming up for his second-to-last season on this card, and Topps celebrated by capturing him still in his pajamas, and with his hair on backwards.

Mornings can be rough.

Value: $50-60 (PSA 10)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1989 Bowman Mike Schmidt (#402)

The 1989 Bowman set was widely panned by collectors, mainly because the cards were too big to fit in with all our other little rectangles.

We also didn’t really ask for a revival of the dead brand, and many saw it as a money grab by Topps. That was true, of course, but it was still pretty cool to get a shot of reinvigorated hobby history if you were a fan of such nostalgia (guilty as charged).

And, boy, does this Schmidt card look great, with an almost-end-of-the-road Michael Jack watching the flight of some poor baseball he just demolished, his seldom-seen burgundy Phillies jersey fairly glistening in the eternal sunshine of the diamond.

Value: $20-25 (PSA 10)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1989 Donruss Mike Schmidt (#193)

Schmidt’s last regular Donruss card treats collectors to one final classy follow-through.

Value: $30-35 (PSA 10)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1989 Fleer Mike Schmidt (#582)

Schmidt checks his swing and his career aspirations on this 1989 Fleer card.

Value: $30-35 (PSA 10)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1989 Score Mike Schmidt (#149)

Of all the regular-issue cards of Mike Schmidt over his storied career, it took until 1989 for a card company to capture him in the midst of his powerful swing.

Thanks, 1989 Score!

Value: $15-25 (PSA 10)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1989 Sportflics Mike Schmidt (#21)

By this point, Sportflics was all about the back-of-card photo.

Value: $5-10 (PSA 10)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1989 Topps Mike Schmidt (#100)

Mike Schmidt, running for first one last time on his 1989 Topps card.

Value: $40-55 (PSA 10)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1989 Upper Deck Mike Schmidt (#406)

Upper Deck changed almost everything about the hobby in 1989, and they were lucky enough to get in one Schmidt card before the legend hung up his spikes.

I would have been OK if they switched the front and back photos, but it’s a great piece of hobby history no matter how you flip it.

Value: $75-85 (PSA 10)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1990 Donruss Mike Schmidt (#643)

I’m breaking my own rules by including this 1990 Donruss card here because it’s a tribute card, not really a regular-issue pasteboard.

But back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, companies just didn’t issue cards of non-active players, no matter how great.

Granting Schmidt this capstone offering that shows his entire career stats roll gets Donruss an extra feather in its cap.

Value: $20-30 (PSA 10)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

1990 Upper Deck Mike Schmidt (#20)

Like the Donruss card above, this 1990 Upper Deck issue breaks my rules.

But Schmidt’s retirement deserved cardboard commemoration, and this artistic number does the trick.

Value: $45-55 (PSA 10)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

It happens all the time to me, even after all these years of collecting and after having spent a decade or more as a kid pouring over every card I could get my hands on.

It’s an amazing phenomenon and one that leaves me in disbelief every single time. But it also makes me feel giddy … there’s a new 1981 Topps card out there?

Well, no, probably not. But in that moment, it’s new to me.

That’s sort of what discovering baseball is like for the new fan — you know the game has been there all along, but by golly, it’s so new and exciting to you that you’re on Cloud 9.

So I knew I  had to include this treasure-from-the-mundane thing in my 2019 Spring Training Baseball Card Challenge, and that’s what this Day 15 post is all about — a baseball card that I’ve never seen before.

Most of the time, I stumble on these babies when I least expect it … like the aforementioned stack-thumbing.

This time around, though, I consulted my local Google machine to help me pan through a few hundred cards of various topics … Reds cards … Hall of Fame cards … 1980s Donruss cards … 1978 cards.

And that’s where I saw it — the 1978 Topps Zest Willie Montanez.

Check Prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

Check Prices on eBay (affiliate link)

The what what?

You heard me — the 1978 Topps Zest Willie Montanez. The one that jumped off the page at me like the baseball on a 1975 Topps wax pack wrapper.

Now, Willie Montanez himself is no stranger to me. I vividly remember pushing his early 1980s cards around my bedroom floor during sorting sessions that lasted deep into the night. I marveled at the long line of stats on his card back.

I also remember that he played for the Philadelphia Phillies, Atlanta Braves, Pittsburgh Pirates, and New York Mets, though a couple of his other stops don’t register at all (for me).

Finally, I get an instant mental image when I think of “1978 Topps Willlie Montanez” — an image of Willie leaning in with his reaching left-handed batting stance, wearing a Braves warm-up jacket on the grass, looking off to his right rather than at the camera or toward the “pitcher.”

By the time that card made its way to collectors, though, Montanez was with the Mets. We’d get a Montanez-Mets card courtesy of 1979 Topps, but collectors were doomed to stale Willie cards in the summer of 1978.

Except …

Except that Topps teamed up with Zest soap to make a five-card set that collectors in certain states could nab through the mail, in exchange for some proofs of purchase from Zest. (There is a discussion of the cards and even a big old picture of the original order form in this thread at Collectors.com.)

Besides Montanez, the Zest-y players included Ed Figueroa, Manny Mota, Joaquin Andujar, and Bert Campaneris.

Cards were identical to those in the base Topps set, except their numbering (1-5) and the fact that they included both English and Spanish text on the back.

Oh, one other difference …

Willie Montanez is pictured in a smiling head-shoulders-and-bat pose, and he’s wearing his New York Mets hat and pinstripes.

And just like that, at least a few collectors had an updated Montanez cards … and, 41 years later, I stumbled across another card I’d never seen before.

Wonders never cease!

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

In 1953, the Philadelphia Phillies gave pitching phenom Tom Qualters a $40,000 contract, immediately making him their highest paid player, eclipsing the combined salaries of his Hall of Fame teammates Richie Ashburn and Robin Roberts. The fresh-faced right-hander quickly earned the nickname “Moneybags” and became the poster boy for the bonus rule, which required teams to keep a player on the active roster if his bonus exceeded $4,000.

“It was somebody — a newspaper guy — who started that,” Qualters told the author about the nickname’s origin during a 2008 interview from his home.

Some teams struck gold with their “bonus baby” signings, producing Hall of Fame talents such as Sandy Koufax and Al Kaline. However, others turned a cold shoulder to players like Qualters. He pitched just one game on the mound during the two years the Phillies were required to keep him on the roster.

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

“That was about the worst rule they could have ever done,” he said. “You had to stay there two years. I was there 1953–54 and a little bit of 1955. … Basically, I was a batting practice pitcher. That was a sad thing. A lot of guys were in the same situation.”

The Phillies front office had different plans for Qualters. They shielded him from major league competition until he finished his mandated service time. For two years Qualters suffered on the bench while teammates resented him for holding a valued roster spot hostage.

“For some reason, the management in Philadelphia had this theory that if I went out there and got beat up, that it would ruin me,” he said. “What a bunch of bulls–t that was. It was the most frustrating period in my life. I hated being there. Some [players] were really good to me, and others ignored me altogether.

“I didn’t belong there. All I was doing was taking up space for someone who was a major league player. Imagine how that made me feel; I’m hurting the team, not helping them. I’m not even getting a chance to go out there and learn the game. It was two years out of my life that was totally a waste. You can sit there, talk and listen to guys — sure I got an education about the game, but it’s not like being on the field and playing it. You can’t learn to play the game by sitting on the bench. I could have bought a ticket. It was just a horrible thing.”

Not all of the players, however, turned their backs on Qualters. He made it a point to acknowledge those who looked out for him.

“There were some guys who were very kind,” he said. “Robin Roberts and Curt Simmons were super guys. Jim Konstanty was [also] nice. There were other guys who didn’t want anything to do with me. As time wore on it got better and it wasn’t a personal thing anymore.”

Qualters was relieved when the Phillies sent him to their Reidsville, North Carolina, Class B team. From there he was promoted to their Triple A team in Miami. With the Marlins, he linked up with Satchel Paige and thrived under the Hall of Famer’s tutelage.

After a shaky Triple A debut, Qualters showed up to the ballpark still doubting his abilities. The ageless Paige knew something was off about his new teammate.

“I’m sitting down in the bullpen, Satch sits down beside me and asked, ‘What’s wrong?’” Qualters recalled. “He recognized there was something wrong with me by the way I was acting. I did not know what to do so I just flat out told him that I did not have the courage to play the game and that I shook all over, etc. He called me Climber. He said, ‘Imma tell ya, Climber, them sons of bit–es can beat ya, but they can’t eat ya!’”.

Paige’s words were just the right recipe to help Qualters get through tough times on the mound. It was the push he needed to move forward with his career.

“Another tight game and I get called up there and I just get the shakes again,” he recalled. “I said to myself, ‘You sons of bit–es, you can beat me but you can’t eat me!’ It was all over from then on; I couldn’t wait to get out there.”

Qualters eventually made it back to the Phillies briefly in 1957 before resurfacing with the Chicago White Sox in 1958. His time in Chicago led to the 1959 Topps card featured in this article. Even though he pitched only 43 innings, he said that didn’t make a difference to the baseball card manufacturer.

“They didn’t care what you did or didn’t do, as long as you were on the team [you had a card],” he said.

Fifty years later, the amount of fan mail he received after being on the team for only one season still amazed him. Topps even had him sign 300 cards for their 2008 Topps Heritage set.

“It’s been crazy the last 4–5 years,” he said. “I probably get 3–4 of them per week. I have a card from 1959 when they went to the World Series. I didn’t even play [for the White Sox] in 1959, that’s when I hurt my arm. A guy came here with 300 cards I had to autograph and [Topps] paid me money for it.”

Nick Diunte runs the Baseball Happenings website, which details current baseball events and features interviews with a multitude of baseball veterans. Check it out here.

(Check out our other player card posts here.)

That even goes for the many varieties of the Jim Thome rookie card that you can add to your collection.

But the good news is — well, you can probably afford just about all of those early Thome cards, including the rookies.

To help you with that quest, below is a quick rundown of Thome’s first card from each of the major brands on the market while he was making an early name for himself with the Cleveland Indians.

And, after you revel in the cheap glory of a young Thome, be sure to check out the rest of our posts on the 2018 Hall of Fame class here.

1991 Bowman Jim Thome (#68)

After a couple of years of fumbling around with oversized cards and an uncertain identity, Topps seemed to hit their stride with Bowman in 1991.

They would focus on … rookies!

Of course, the two — Bowman and rookie cards — are almost synonymous these days, but no one was quite sure how it would work out in 1991. Just like Thome’s career.

In the end, both Bowman and Thome did just fine, and their marriage on this 1991 rookie card seems just about perfect.

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1991 Upper Deck Final Edition Jim Thome (#17F)

By 1991, Upper Deck was well-established but starting to fight the sameness of their cards from year to year. Apparently even sustained greatness can get boring if it’s nearly identical each time out.

So, late that season, UD changed things up a bit by issuing a Final Edition in addition to their traditional low and high series.

So that was different.

And this Thome rookie card gets an additional splash of differentiation with the “Minor League Diamond Skills” shield.

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1992 Donruss Jim Thome (#406)

In 1992, all three old-school manufacturers — Donruss, Fleer, Topps — stepped up their games to try and compete with the premium offerings from Upper Deck.

For Donruss, that meant improved card stock, a cleaner design with more emphasis on photos and photo quality, and photos on card backs.

For Jim Thome, that meant a sharp Rated Rookie card where he looks young, agile, and athletic.

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1992 Fleer Jim Thome (#125)

The 1992 Fleer issue also showcased improved card stock and on-the-back photos, but the design was fairly heavy-handed.

Pretty much, you loved or hated the fadeout green borders and massive block lettering.

Even if you fall into the “hate” camp, you might be able to make an exception for Big Jim Thome, whose power is on full display on his first Fleer card.

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1992 Leaf Jim Thome (#299)

Two years after Leaf broke the hobby with their limited 1990 set that was jam-packed with big-name rookie cars like Frank Thomas, Sammy Sosa, David Justice, and … um … Scott Coolbaugh, Donruss was struggling to keep the brand alive.

Emboldened by their inaugural success in 1990, Big D cranked up the presses in 1991 and pretty much choked the market.

As a consequence, the 1992 Leaf set was met with hardly any enthusiasm, but this skulking Thome rookie (first Leaf card, anyway) is still a worthy addition to any Hall of Fame collection.

As a bonus, each Leaf card came in a Gold parallel version that today sells for about the same prices as the base card.

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1992 O-Pee-Chee Jim Thome (#768)

This would be the last time that O-Pee-Chee cards exactly mimicked the year’s base Topps set, so if you love parallel Thome cardboard, 1992 OPC has to be part of your collection.

And this is a great shot of a smiling young future Hall of Famer waiting his turn in the batting cage — what’s not to love?

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1992 Pinnacle Jim Thome (#247)

Score jumped into the premium card market with their Pinnacle line in 1992.

Apparently big fans of the 1985 and 1987 Donruss sets, Score layered player photos inside of two black borders for their inaugural stab at Pinnacle.

As a result, the cards are pretty dark. Couple that with the standard overproduction of the era, and you have a set that doesn’t sell for all that much on the secondary market a quarter century later.

Still, this is Thome’s first Pinnacle card, for what that’s worth.

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1992 Score Jim Thome (#859)

Now, the 1992 Score baseball card set is not dark at all. In fact, it’s pretty light and colorful, even if in a cheap sort of way.

But, hey, it was issued in the heart of the Junk Wax Era, even if it came in those funny little plastic packs instead of real wax.

So what do you expect, anyway?

The good news about all of 1992 Score’s junkiness is that you can find Jim Thome’s first Score card — in the high number series, no less — for a song most days.

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1992 Stadium Club Jim Thome (#360)

The 1991 Topps Stadium Club issue represented the next step forward in super premium baseball cards and drove the hobby price scale all through that summer.

In 1992, though, Topps fell victim to the Leaf Syndrome, wherein one year’s breakout set engenders a huge increase in the next year’s production run …

… rendering that second set virtually worthless in the process.

The good news is that young Thome looks pretty good in this action shot on cardstock that’s about as thick as your standard knotty pine paneling.

Classic, cheap Junk Wax at its finest!

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

1992 Topps Jim Thome (#768)

Sure, this first Topps Jim Thome card is pretty much identical to the O-Pee-Chee issue, but that Canadian cardboard only comes first on this list through a consequence of the English alphabet.

You know and I know that Topps always has been The Real One, so you can’t very well have a Jim Thome rookie card collection — or blog post — without a Topps card.

So here it is.

Besides, the 1992 Topps set was the first one with those creamy white borders for which collectors had long clamored, which almost makes up for its Junk Wax status.

And don’t forget those tasty Gold and Gold Winner parallels!

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

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

Want to see a video version of this article?

Sometimes, a baseball card is just so perfect that it falls outside the jurisdiction of all man-imposed rules.

Consider the 1985 Fleer Pete Rose, for example.

When I set out to choose the best card from every base set of the 1980s, I planned to adhere to these basic principles:

• Limit the number of Cincinnati Reds featured (non-homer rule)
• Don’t write about cards I’ve covered before (duplicate content rule)
• Don’t repeat players (keep-it-fresh rule)
• Guard against selection patterns (catchers-rule-but-don’t-let-them-dominate rule)

So far, I’ve done a pretty good job.

But a few Reds have sneaked into the fold, and catchers always pull at my heartstrings and sense of aesthetics.

Check prices on Ebay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

As I flip through the 1985 Fleer set, though, I’m left with cold truth that my homerism must be served — I have to pick the Pete Rose card.

Here is why …

Aside from, maybe, the unbelievable ending to the 1985 World Series, the biggest story of that eventful season was Rose’s pursuit of Ty Cobb‘s all-time hit record.

When Rose laced number 4192 against Eric Show in Riverfront Stadium on September 11, he was the hottest player in the hobby — if not over the whole summer, then at least in that one moment.

And I’d wager (ouch!) that tens of thousands of boys watched that occasion play out surrounded by their Rose cards, including the 1985 Fleer that they might have just pulled from a fresh wax pack.

Though Rose has appeared on hundreds, thousands of cards in the last 55 years, maybe no other swatch of cardboard captures his essence like that ’85 Fleer issue.

Here is Rose, well into his 40s but still a thickly-muscled fireplug, hustling out of the batter’s box while watching the flight of yet another ball he has put in play.

The sun shines on him at Jack Murphy Stadium while the host San Diego Padres look on from the dugout in the background.

Is it a moment of prescience on Fleer’s part, knowing Rose will set the record against the Pads? Or just a happy coincidence?

In the end, it doesn’t really matter, because it just is — a golden moment captured in time, a moment that helped us celebrate the big Charlie Hustle moment that fall.

Check prices on Ebay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

And all of this Hit King goodness is wrapped in a red border that perfectly complements Rose’s uniform accents and makes the card as visually appealing as it is historically significant.

Sometimes, you just have to say to hell with the rules and do what you know is right.

That’s why, despite his warts and the other contenders, no one can hold a candle to Pete Rose when it comes to picking the best 1985 Fleer baseball card.

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

(This is the 15th in our series of posts about the best baseball cards from the 1980s. Check out the rest of those posts here.)

Want to see a video version of this article?

Forgive this indulgence, but baseball is no mere game.

No …

Baseball is the story of fathers and sons.

It’s the story about how we follow Daddy around from the time we can take our first step.

About how we want to know what he’s doing — all the time — and why he’s doing it.

Baseball is the story about how Daddy one day, finally, lets us try to cut a board on our own and then stitches our jagged-cut fingers back together with spit, sawdust, and electrical tape.

It’s about those hours spent hitting Wiffle Balls in the side yard and shooting baskets in the driveway until you finally hit one, and until you finally hit one.

Baseball is the story about how you first come to realize that Daddy goes away everyday so that you can play and go to school — and eat.

It’s about those nights when Daddy comes home with just a little light left in the sky, or none at all, and he still plays ball with you in the side yard or the driveway even though he’s dog-tired.

Baseball is the story of how Daddy becomes a Little League coach even though he doesn’t really know that much about the game, but he knows he loves you and wants to spend time with you.

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

inks at Mommy in the stands every time you come to bat or take a ball off the shin while trying to field it.

The story about how, one day, you beat Daddy at H-O-R-S-E.

And the day you finally hit his fastball.

And the day Dad loses to you at one-on-one for the first time.

Baseball is the story of Dad teaching you to drive and then holding out when you ask to use the car.

It’s about the two of you arguing over politics.

And over girls.

And about your decision to quit baseball.

Baseball is your Dad’s beaming pride and swallowed sorrow when you leave home for college, and then decide not to come home for summer break.

It’s the beer you share on your 21st birthday and the cigars you smoke when your son is born.

It’s the wisdom Dad passes along as your boy grows and starts to follow you around — and calls you Daddy.

Baseball is that time you finally let your son use a saw for the first time. And how you stitch him up when things go sideways.

Baseball is the story about your Dad going gray and getting old … and frail. It’s about how he’s sitting the bench more and more these days.

It’s about being Daddy and following after your Daddy, again, and knowing you’ll do what he does, by and by.

He taught you everything you know, after all, and he’s your role model. No matter how great or lousy he may seem to the rest of the world.

And so, yes, there can be only one choice as the best card from the 1982 Fleer baseball card set.

And no, it’s not the Cal Ripken, Jr., rookie card or the Brad Mills bubble gum card or the Fernando Valenzuela eyes-to-heaven card or even that frightening Lee Smith rookie card.

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

Because … whether you’re a father or a son or a mother or a daughter or an uncle or cousin, brother, or sister … baseball is a thread that runs among you and pulls families and generations together like locks of hair in an old scrapbook. At least if you’re doing it right.

Rarely has it been done so blatantly right as on card #640 in the 1982 Fleer baseball set — Pete & Re-Pete.

Pete Rose is no legend on this card, no future disgrace. He’s a Daddy — soon to be a Dad — taking his son to work and pulling him to the side to offer a few words of advice.

They’re part of our collective fabric of fathers and sons and, in that moment, they’re damn near perfect.

Just like you and your daddy.

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

Want to see a video version of this article?

“Best 1981 Donruss baseball card” is an oxymoron on par with terms like “approving mother” and “effective hair regrowth”.

Donruss’s inaugural baseball set just wasn’t all that good. In most ways, it was pretty bad.

Bad photos.

Bad cardstock.

Small set size.

Gum stuck to card fronts.

But when you thumb through a stack of 1981 Donruss or peruse an online gallery of the cards, you’ll find there are a few that look OK. Maybe even good.

My personal favorite is the Jesus Figueroa Chicago Cubs/San Francisco Giants combo. But I’ve already written about that one.

And Gary Carter looks pretty good in his swing follow-through, but he “won” our 1980 Topps sweepstakes.

Other candidates include the lone single-player Tim Raines rookie card of the year, Danny Ainge looking rangy in the field, Willie Stargell crouched at first base, Nolan Ryan freight-training  a pitch toward home, and Byron McLaughlin with a right-at-you pitch delivery.

Even some of the many posed shots look pretty good from our perspective here in the 21st century — Pete Rose, George Brett, Dave Parker, and several others make fine displays.

But there is one card that combines good action, a clear shot of the player’s face, stadium ambiance, and a historical component that make it hard to beat …

That would be card #18 of Joe Morgan.

This pasteboard captures Little Joe on the ready at second base, focused intently on an unseen batter, waiting for the action to unfurl. Morgan peers out from under flipped-up sunglasses in quintessential 1980s style.

What’s cool about this card — besides all I’ve already mentioned — is that Morgan sports a Houston Astros road jersey with rainbow shoulder stripes.

Morgan had signed with the Astros as a free agent after the Cincinnati Reds let him walk after 1979, but Houston released him after the 1980 season.

So this is a point-in-time shot during an uncertain moment in a Hall of Fame career. Morgan would log a few more seasons, first with the San Francisco Giants, then helping the 1983 Philadelphia Phillies to the World Series, then wrapping up with the Oakland A’s.

But nobody knew any of that when this card came out. All we knew was that Morgan had not impressed in his return to Houston, where he began his Major League career in the 1960s, and was trying to hang on with the Giants.

And that he still looked brilliant there in his Astros garb with the dazzling Wrigley Field ivy as his background.

Is it the best card in the 1981 Donruss set?

It sure has all the elements to lift it head-and-shoulders above the rest … even if Morgan himself always had to take a front-row seat during team photos.

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

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

Want to see a video version of this article?

Did you know that former Major Leaguer Joe Cowley spent his prime pitching years leading a double life? It might sound far-fetched, but I have some (remembered) evidence to back up this assertion, and it would help explain a few things.

Here’s how the story goes …

In the spring of 1986, Joe Cowley was 27 years old and flirting with the front of the Chicago White Sox rotation. It was an unlikely development for a guy whom the Atlanta Braves signed as an amateur free agent in 1976 and then spent six years in the minors before getting a brief shot at the Majors in 1982.

After an uninspiring 17-game run with the Braves that summer, they sent him back to Triple-A Richmond in 1983 and then released him that fall.

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

The New York Yankees apparently saw something in the soon-to-be 25-year-old and signed him as a free agent. It must have been an exciting time for Cowley considering that 1) he was getting a new lease on Big League life and 2) he was going to the Yankees, who had won 91 games in 1983.

After half a season with the Triple-A Columbus Clippers, Cowley got the call from New York, and he seized his opportunity. In 17 appearances for the Yanks in 1984, including 11 starts, he went 9-2 with a 3.56 ERA.

That performance earned Cowley a rotation spot for 1985, and he parlayed that status into a 12-6 record, though with a heftier 3.95 ERA.

Cowley had to be feeling pretty good about his future, but the Yanks wanted something different. In particular, they wanted Britt Burns, so they shipped Cowley to the White Sox along with Ron Hassey in exchange for Burns and minor leaguers Glenn Braxton and Mike Soper.

And so Joe Cowley entered his age-27 season — the prime of his prime — in the rotation of a ChiSox team that finished 85-77 in 1985, with hopes of contending in 1986.

By that spring, I considered myself a veteran baseball card collector, and I was also finishing up my eighth-grade year.

Now, our country school was small enough that the junior and senior high schools shared the same building. That made for some uncomfortable moments every fall as fresh-faced seventh graders made their way through Senior Hall, littered with man-sized delinquents, on their way to algebra or typing or whatever class.

In the spring, the big kids turned their attention toward proms and graduations and jobs — real adult stuff, it seemed at the time.

And so it happened that, one day in April 1986 as I was walking to class after lunch, I had to pass through a gauntlet of meatheads just looking to pick a fight. My heart dropped as one of them pivoted in front of me and stopped me cold.

It was Joe Cowley.

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

Now, I know that sounds ridiculous, but I knew my baseball cards, and I knew the faces on my baseball cards. And this dude standing in front me with a fake smile was Joe Cowley, erstwhile Atlanta Braves prospect.

“Hey, you’re Adam, right?” Cowley cooed at me. His buddies snickered all around me. I was being set up, and I knew it — but what could I do?

“Yes.”

The kid gave me his name, which he claimed was something other than Joe Cowley, but I knew better.

“You collect baseball cards, right?”

Warning alarms threatening to burst my mind — and ticker — I answered in the affirmative again.

Cowley’s smile broadened, and he clapped a meaty hand on my shoulder. The sea of bullies parted, and Joe guided me to his locker.

“My dad used to collect, too, back in the 1950s. Had some really good cards … and he gave them to me.”

That was cool. I was starting to thaw. Maybe this guy — Joe Cowley — was OK, after all. Maybe he really wanted to be friends since we were both collectors.

“Here, look,” Joe said as he pulled a tattered brown paper sack from the bottom of his locker. I was excited. And scared, sorta.

Joe unrolled the top of the bag and reached inside. Pulled out a handful of mushy old cardboard that I recognized immediately: these were indeed 1950s Topps and Bowman cards.

And time had beat the hell out of them.

There were probably 100 cards in the bag, and the undoubted king of the pile was a 1955 Topps Willie Mays.

Now, I’m all for ugly cards. Beat-up cards. Loved cards.

But this Mays card was loved more than most — multiple major creases, corners rounder than John Kruk and fuzzier than Yogi Berra‘s logic, a hunk or two missing, pinholes ready to aid with bulletin-board display.

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

I could feel Joe glance at me, grinning, as he thumbed through the cards. My stomach fluttered, because I knew where this was heading.

“I can let you have them for $200,” Cowley told me.

There are three basic reactions people have when they find out you collect baseball cards:

• Their eyes dim as they ratchet down their internal opinion of you.
• Their eyes light up because they’re immature, too.
• They offer to sell you the rare treasures they’ve been sitting on for generations.

I’ll let you guess which one Joe had.

What he may not have realized, and certainly didn’t care about, was that I was just a kid and didn’t have any money. What’s more, I was savvy enough to know that a piece-of-crap Willie Mays card was worth much more to the the person who had “built” it than it was to anyone else in the world.

I’m guessing those cards were worth maybe $10 total, and they probably haven’t appreciated too much in value in the intervening decades.

So … I tried to explain my situation to Joe Cowley as delicately as I could, laying the blame on myself as much as possible.

I didn’t have money.

I didn’t know that much about old cards.

Etc.

But Joe was insistent — he needed money for his post-prom trip, he said, and his offer was fair. He needed me to uphold my end of the “bargain.”

I could feel the flesh walls closing in on me as Cowley and his cohorts stared me down. Only the sweet chime of the class bell and a vigilant math teacher saved me from certain doom.

In the end, I scampered down the hall to English class while Joe burned holes in me with his eyes.

I slinked through the rest of my day and week trying to avoid his notice, but Joe always seemed to be there, standing against a bank of lockers, seething. Ready to pounce again should I get close enough.

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

The prom came and went, and I suppose Joe worked something out — those kinds of guys always do — but his disgust for me was palpable, and I never really felt comfortable until summer break swooped in to save the day (year?).

Just a few days into vacation, while I was sorting through cards and pounding chips and grape soda,  Joe returned to his second life as a Major League pitcher. He went 7 1/3 innings as the White Sox beat the Kansas City Royals, 4-1, at Royals stadium.

Then, on May 28, he drew the starting assignment against the Texas Rangers in Arlington Stadium. Whatever anger still seethed in his blood over my temerity in refusing his cardboard overtures boiled over on that hot night, and Cowley did something astounding …

He struck out the first seven Rangers he faced: Oddibe McDowell, Scott Fletcher, Pete O’Brien, Pete Incaviglia, Gary Ward, George Wright, Steve Buechele.

Those were some pretty decent hitters, but Cowley got them all.

Then … well, reality caught up to him.

Maybe it was the reality that he was just a high school student whose coercion skills needed brushing up.

Maybe it was the reality that he wasn’t really a strikeout pitcher — at least not that kind of strikeout pitcher.

Or maybe it was just the reality that he had thrown a big gob of pitches in less than three innings.

Whatever the case, the reality of an Orlando Mercado flyout broke the rhythm.

Then, Curt Wilkerson collected the Rangers’ first hit, a single to right field.

After catcher Carlton Fisk muffed a foul ball, Cowley coaxed McDowell into a groundout to end the inning.

But in the bottom of the fourth, with his arm tiring and the strikeout streak long gone, Cowley gave up two runs on two hits, an error of his own, and a wild pitch. The next inning, he got hammered for four more runs and left with two outs, relieved by Gene Nelson.

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

Cowley took the loss that day, dropping his record to 1-2, and he’d scuffled to stay above .500 the rest of the way, though he did throw a no-hitter against the California Angels in a 7-1 victory on September 19. After his last start on October 5, a loss to the Minnesota Twins in the Homer Dome, Cowley’s record landed at 11-11, though he had an OK 3.88 ERA and struck out more than seven batters per nine innings pitched.

The next spring, Chicago traded him to the Philadelphia Phillies for outfielder Gary Redus, but Cowley struggled to crack the rotation for a mediocre Phils team.

After four starts in five appearances for Philly in 1987, Cowley was 0-4 … and then he was released.

I don’t really remember seeing Joe around school that fall of 1986 (or after), and I always just kind of assumed he graduated. I mean, he was 28 by the time he retired from the Phillies, so that seems like a good enough time to leave high school, too, right?

If there was one consolation for Joe Cowley in all his mixed-up, messed-up travels and travails between rural Indiana and the Big Leagues, it’s that he crafted his own space in baseball card collections across the land.

His cardboard may never be loved enough to end up fuzzy and creased and pinholed, but he did log face time on 10 or so real Big League cards — including a spotlight card for his no-hitter in the 1986 Donruss Highlights set and mention of the same on the back of his 1987 Donruss card.

He also has the distinction of logging a no-hitter as his last Major League victory.

So, was it the strain of the seven straight strikeouts in May if 1986 and the no-no on September that eventually led Cowley out of the game?

Maybe.

Or was it the mental hangover from not being able to sell his dad’s baseball cards?

Nah …

After all, Joe Cowley wasn’t really the cardboard bully from my high school.

I think.

(Check out our other player card posts here.)

If you came to the cult of baseball cards in the early-to-middle 1980s, it’s likely your introduction to Jim Kern looked something like this …

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

Take off that Chicago White Sox cap and Atari-style jersey, and he could have been any one of the high school hooligans who made your life miserable on the bus, in the hallways, and in the classroom because your teachers were wary of everything because of the jerks who came before you.

Fleer didn’t do much to disabuse you of that notion, either:

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

On the Topps card, the bully smirks as you approach, laughs at your utter lameness as you try to blend into a bank of lockers. But you somehow don’t respond the way you should, don’t give the tough his proper respect.

And the situation gets serious.

That’s the Fleer card.

At least Topps and Fleer got Kern’s team right, though. Even though the Cincinnati Reds traded Kern to the ChiSox during the 1982 season, Donruss still shows him in Cincinnati garb:

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

If you were a Reds fan back then, this shot might have given you a twinge of insight into how Kern came to look as he did on those other 1983 cards. You might have remembered that the 1982 Reds staff was bad — really bad — and Donruss insisted on memorializing Kern’s part in all that.

Even though Kern was only on the Riverfront long enough to make 50 appearances, and even though he sported a nifty 2.84 ERA, the stench of the Big Dead Machine permeated his cardboard presence.

You probably didn’t bother to turn over Kern’s cards, though … you’d never heard of him, he wasn’t a star, he played for the White Sox (or Reds) — he didn’t like you.

But if one of them slipped from your grubby fingers as you shuffled through a stack of cards and landed face down, well you might have noticed …

• Kern once played for the Texas Rangers.
• And the Cleveland Indians.

Neither of those facts would have likely done much to improve your disposition toward Kern, other than maybe make you feel more sorry for him. But you might also have noticed …

• He had been with the Rangers as recently as 1981.
• He had been really, really good for awhile.

The back of Kern’s 1983 Topps cards, for example, shows multiple 10-win, 10-save seasons with just a handful of starts in his career. And maybe, the picture started to swim into focus for you.

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

Kern had been a top-notch reliever before you knew what relievers were, but not really all that long ago.

And, in 1979, he was outstanding.

Like 136 strikeouts in 143 innings, a 13-5 record, 29 saves, a 1.57 ERA.

That kind of outstanding.

But the next year?

Just 63 innings and a 4.83 ERA.

You could see that the ERAs got a bit better from there, until he landed in Chicago, but the innings stayed down … way down.

What happened? You may have pondered that briefly until you saw Bob Brenly or Rusty Staub or Steve Yeager also staring up from the spilled pile at you. And then you swept them all up, and Jim Kern disappeared into the stack forever.

Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)

Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)

You had no way to know, really, just how incredible Kern had been in 1979 or even before that. No Baseball Reference, no FanGraphs (or The Hardball Times) to point out how Kern helped define the fireman role as the 1980s dawned.

You didn’t know — even if you suspected – that injuries set in after that big campaign at the end of the 1970s.

Didn’t know that, while Kern made it back to being a pretty good pitcher, he’d never get all the way back.

Didn’t know that Kern had other stuff going on — that he would found the Emu Outfitting Company in just a few years.

So Jim Kern ended up in your dusty commons boxes, to be seen only rarely and always accompanied by that nagging feeling you might end up with a swirly just for looking at his picture.

But even your high school tormentors had lives and dreams and aspirations, and most of them did good stuff before and after you knew them.

Sometimes, they did great stuff before and after you knew them.

Just like Jim Kern.

(Check out our other player card posts here.)

Want to see a video version of this article?