How will the new guys who came to the team over the winter pan out?

Will any new stars emerge between now and Opening Day?

Is there real hope that “we” will contend this year, finally?

They’re all valid questions, but maybe the most emotional and awaited developments each spring revolve around the comeback candidates — those guys who once held lofty positions in the game but, for one reason or another, have fallen on hard times in recent seasons (even if “recent seasons” has thus far been limited to last season).

These days, it seems, we most often watch our comeback candidates trying to catch on with another team rather than reclaiming their status with the clubs that made them what they were, and vice versa. Teams are much more likely as we head into the 2020s to just cut ties with a player whose production tanks than they were in years past.

But, man, in those years past, like 30, 40, 50 years ago, fans lived and died not only with their teams, but with the individual players on their teams. You think Pete Rose fans didn’t follow along with him to the Philadelphia Phillies and then, briefly, the Montreal Expos before he headed back to the Riverfront in 1984?

Pretty sure we did.

And when one of “our” guys fell on hard times in the olden days, we really pined to see him reclaim his former glory. It’s hard to let go of heroes, after all, and there’s always the hope they can pull it all together again. Nowhere does that hope bloom brighter than in Spring Training camps across the land.

So that’s why I knew I had to talk about a comeback player sometime during my 2019 Spring Training Baseball Card Challenge, so that’s what I’m doing here on Day 34.

If you were a Boston Red Sox fan in the 1960s, or really a baseball fan of any sort in the 1960s, a young man named Tony Conigliaro undoubtedly came into your purview. As the BoSox were developing into a solid year-to-year contender in the middle of the decade, Conigliaro was busy busting out as masher in right field.

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The two developments were not coincidental.

In 1964, when the Sox were still dwelling nearer the bottom of the American League standings than the top, Conigliaro logged a rookie season that included 24 home runs and 52 RBI to go along with a .290 average.

The next two seasons brought more power (32 and 28 home runs), and a handful of MVP votes.

As 1967 dawned, Conigliaro was still just 22 years old, and he was poised with teammate Carl Yastrzemski to lead Boston toward baseball’s promised land — a berth in the World Series.

Through 95 games, Conigliaro did his part and more, slamming 20 home runs, driving in 67, and raising his average to .287. Then, on August 18, tragedy struck. In the fourth inning of a game against the California Angels, Conigliaro stepped into the box against Angels starter Jack Hamilton.

It should have been a normal power v. power at-bat, but a Hamilton fastball got away from him and crushed into Conigliaro’s left eye. The young outfielder crumpled to the ground and was rushed to a local hospital.

After copious exams and after the initial swelling and bruising subsided to some degree, a diagnosis began to emerge — broken cheekbone, dislocated jaw, and retinal damage.

Conigliaro was done for 1967, and he missed all of 1968, as well, all in the name of recovering from an incident that went down in a flash.

So, as Red Sox camp opened in 1969, the question that hung in the air like a curveball waiting to be planted over the outfield wall was, can Tony C. come back?

The answer would take several years to unfold.

In the short term, and on the surface, it appeared that Conigliaro indeed would be what had been before, if not more. After 20 homers and 82 RBI over 141 games in 1969, he pumped up the power to 36 and 116 in 1970.

But then in October, Boston sent him along with Ray Jarvis and Jerry Moses to the — why them? — Angels for Doug Griffin, Jarvis Tatum, and Ken Tatum.

Things didn’t go well in Cali, and, with vision problems plaguing him, Tony C. managed just four dingers over 74 games in 1971, and his OPS fell from .822 to .620. The Angels released him in November, and he was done at 26.

Except he wasn’t quite done … hope springs eternal, remember.

In March of 1975, Conigliaro signed on as a free agent with his hometown Sawx and eventually made it into 21 games. But, at age 30, too much time had passed, and not enough healing had gone on in between, and he managed a meager .466 OPS before the Red Sox released him in September.

But, even though things didn’t turn out how anyone thought they might have, Tony Conigliaro made it back — all the way back, for at least a couple of seasons there. And there is some cardboard evidence that’s what was expected of the slugger all along.

Because, not only did Topps keep him in their base set for 1969, when his last season-plus had been a wash, but he also made an appearance in the 1969 Globe Imports set of baseball “playing cards” — an issue of 55 blank-backed cards that you could purchase at gas stations in the southern part of the United States that summer.

The set contained superstars like Yaz and Frank Robinson and Mickey Mantle, but also lesser lights such as Rick Reichart, Bob Aspromonte, and Gene Alley.

And there among the greats and the might-be-goods, Globe Imports placed a bet on Tony Conigliaro with the three of hearts. He might not have won the whole shebang, but he at least turned in a couple more strong hands before it was all said and done.

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

They’re all around us, all the time, whether we are able to or want to see them.

For baseball fans, nowhere are the game’s beginnings and endings so poignantly evident as they are during Spring Training. And they’re just about impossible to ignore.

There is the young phenom who hits the ball like Mickey Mantle and explodes out of the hole like Rickey Henderson.

There is the grizzled veteran moving over to first base after a decade in the outfield or across the diamond at third. He’s still fit, still a torrid hitter, but can he make the transition? Time … and Spring … will tell.

And then there is the old man, trying to hang on with yet another team, or maybe lumbering into camp with his usual team but decidedly reduced from his prime. Gray hair, a paunchy belly, a gimpy gait, flat muscles, extended warm-up times … they’re all telltale signs of baseball’s old men.

Thing is, in order to reach old age in baseball — say, 38 or 40 or 42 — you have to be somebody in the first place.

Probably, you were an All-Star somewhere along the line. Certainly, you’ve collected a lot of playing time and shown your self to be dependable, and you’ve also piled up a lot of *something* along the way — hits, runs, wins, saves, strikeouts.

And, if you do find yourself among baseball’s geriatric crowd, there is a darn good chance you’re something even more … a superstar, likely, maybe even a Hall of Famer in waiting.

No matter which group you find yourself in, though, one common tie binds most of the guys who play the game for two decades or so: they have tasted some sort of postseason glory during their careers.

But, that’s not always the case.

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The roll of players who never made it to the World Series, in fact, could rival some of the best teams ever assembled — names like Ken Griffey Jr., Ryne Sandberg, Phil Niekro, Rod Carew, Frank Thomas, Ichiro Suzuki.

It’s a fascinating list of players, and served as the main inspiration for my decision to pick a card here on Day 31 of my 2019 Spring Training Baseball Card Challenge that shows a player who never won a World Series.

As compelling as all those guys are, though, no Fall Classic outsider tugs at the heartstrings quite like Mr. Cub, Hall of Famer Ernie Banks.

Banks served notice early on that he was something special, smacking 44 home runs in his second season in Chicago (1955) before pouring on the gas in 1958 and 1959 to cop the National League Most Valuable Player award each of those seasons.

The Cubbies weren’t much to look at in those days, though, losing 90, 81, 94, and 92 games in Banks’ first four full seasons. They did a bit better during his MVP campaigns, then bottomed out in 1962 and again in 1966, losing 103 games both years.

In ’67, though, Chicago climbed all the way to 87 wins and a third-place finish in the NL. Another third in 1968 led to optimism for 1969, and the Cubs looked like they might win the sparkling new NL East division for most of the summer. Of course, a late stumble, coupled with the surging and Amazin’ New York Mets left Banks and his teammates on the outside yet again.

And, as it turned out, that 1969 season would be Banks’ last as a full-time player.

In 1970, he was limited to 72 games and hit just 12 home runs, but the team did finish second again, winning 84 games.

That continued strong showing in the standings was enough to bring Banks back for one last run at October baseball, at the tender age of 40.

About the time Spring Training 1971 rolled to full steam, the first packs of 1971 Topps baseball cards hit store shelves. Collectors must have been taken aback by the black borders, but many were probably wowed by the photo on card backs. And, while there was no Banks card in that first series, astute fans surely realized he’d be there later on — and he was, apparently captured in mid-sentence on card #525.

As it turned out, that would be his final Topps card.

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Well, almost …

Because Topps likes to tinker, to test things out. And one of the things they tested out that summer was a ticket-shaped set called Baseball’s Greatest Moments, and you couldn’t very well talk about baseball’s greatest moments in 1971 without invoking Ernie Banks … so there he is on card #36.

Among the many great Banks moments Topps could have chosen to commemorate, they landed on his five grand slams — grand slammers, in 1971 Topps vernacular — in 1955.

The card is laid out in a horizontal format, with a color head shot on the left, and deckle-bordered black-and-white action shot showing Banks coming out of the batter’s box to the right. The back is a miniature above-the-fold newspaper with the five grand slams highlighted in the “article” title, with a cropped portion of the front action shot to the left of a block of descriptive text.

It’s a great card from a great, scarce test issue that honored one of the great players of the era — whether or not he ever made it to the World Series.

And, by pairing this card with Banks’ base card, Topps paid subtle homage to Ernie’s enthusiasm for the game — “Let’s play two!”.

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

Shiny and new was handled by hot shot draftees like David Nied and stars-in-waiting (or in-transition) like Andres Galarraga, Vinny Castilla, and Dante Bichette.

And purple uniforms that no one had ever seen before.

And a Major League team in Colorado.

And, believe it or not, real baseball cards featuring real images of real Rockies players in their real Rockies uniforms before the season was even over.

Like 1993 Topps card #591, featuring speedster Alex Cole.

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Now, by 1993, Cole wasn’t new in any sort of way since he’d been in the Majors since 1990 and would turn 28 in August. He was sorta shiny, though. I mean, just look at those shades on his Topps card — dude’s face is half high-shellac polymer.

And he was kinda flashy, too, as evidenced by his 40 stolen bases as a rookie with the Cleveland Indians.

But how would all that work in the mix with his new teammates? And how about the Rockies as a team — how would their concoction of newness and shininess and purpleness and thin air shape their fortunes?

Would they hit? Would they pitch? Would they field? Would they run? Would they win?

Well, yes, they’d do all of that, though not much of the winning. Their 67-95 record did leave them six games ahead of the non-expansion San Diego Padres, though, so the Rox didn’t finish last in the National League West.

Score!

And, well, they scored. And scored and scored. They’re still scoring.

We know now that offense plays well in the thin air. Pitching not so much.

Not all offense, though.

Not 1993 Alex Cole offense, for example.

On a team that finished fourth in the NL in runs scored and third in batting average, Cole hit a soft .256 and scored just 50 runs in 126 games.  His OPS+ was 64, not much to write home about as a starting center fielder for a new, exciting team.

(He did steal 30 bases, and that must have been exciting.)

It was good enough for a -0.5 WAR and a ticket out of town, as Cole signed with the Minnesota Twins for 1994.

As it turns out, Alex Cole could have probably played for the 2018 Colorado Rockies, too. At least at the end.

We didn’t really know what to expect from this year’s Rox, just like 25 years ago.

Sure, Colorado won 87 games in 2017 and appeared to be on the upswing, but they still play in the NL West. That’s where the mighty Los Angeles Dodgers roam, where the Arizona Diamondbacks are trying to build something, where the San Francisco Giants still think they’re entitled to a World Series title in even-numbered years.

These Rockies were plucky, though, and they pushed their win total to 91, good enough for a one-game playoff with LA for the division title. Colorado lost that one but still landed a Wild Card berth and a showdown with the upstart Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Division Series.

It promised to be a grab-your-popcorn-and-sit-back-to-watch-the-fireworks series.

And it was, for the Brewers. After a 3-2, 10-inning nail-biter in Game 1, Milwaukee completed the sweep with 4-0 and 6-0 victories, that last coming in Colorado.

On the series, Colorado slashed .146/.210/.188 as a team.

So … how does that shiny 1993 Topps Alex Cole card look now?

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They finished last in the old American League West with a 54-108 record, and they also finished last in the AL in batting (80 OPS+), pitching (85 ERA+), and fielding (.678 Defensive Efficiency and .972 fielding percentage).

Tough to win much at all when you tank all three phases of the game, and the 1979 A’s bore that out.

That’s not to say those A’s didn’t show some glimmers of hope.

For one thing, rookie Rickey Henderson appeared in 89 games and stole 33 bases.

Youngster Dwayne Murphy hit 11 home runs and posted a solid 116 OPS+.

Catcher Jeff Newman cranked up the power to smack 22 home runs in 143 games.

There were some young arms with potential, too, even if they posted ugly-ish numbers in 1979 …

Rick Langford, Mike Norris, Matt Keough, Steve McCatty, Brian Kingman, and John Henry Johnson all looked like they might be decent or better Big League starters … someday.

But there was no sugar-coating the abyss of that 1979 season in Oakland, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a better embodiment of those woes than second baseman Mike Edwards.

Edwards came to the A’s in a trade with the Pittsburgh Pirates at the outset of the 1978 season and proceeded to hit .273 with 27 stolen bases. The peripherals weren’t great, but it was as solid start.

e also tied the record for most unassisted double plays in a game (2) — see 1979 Topps number 201 for proof.

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But, man, 1979 was rough.

A slash line of .233/.263/.280 was “good” for a 51 OPS+ and -1.5 WAR. It wasn’t just batting struggles that killed Edwards, either, as a healthy portion  of that latter bit can be attributed to defensive misadventures.

So a year after he was honored with that Record Breaker card, Edwards celebrated his breakout (breakin?) 1979 season with a 1980 Topps card that pretty much sums up those A’s.

There is Edwards, one foot planted on second, both hands up in front of his shaded face, apparently waiting for a ball no one can see. Might just be one of those rare cases of a ground ball getting lost in the sun.

And, if we’re being honest here, it looks like there is at least as good a chance that Edwards will land on his can in the next frame as that he will find the magic ball.

Same as his A’s … they discovered the magic ball just 54 times and ended up on their cans 108 times.

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I thought of this card the other night when the 2018 A’s found themselves readying for battle against the New York Yankees in the AL Wild Card round. It seems like a low-rent district for the big-dollar Yanks, but fits Oakland pretty well.

Over the last couple of decades, the A’s have become legendary for exploiting little aspects of the game that others haven’t noticed yet and building that breach into a playoff spot every few years.

They’ve been at the forefront of the Sabermetrics movement thanks to General Manager Billy Beane, and they scrap for every bit of glory they can get.

These A’s — the 2018 version, that is — weren’t good enough to challenge the Houston Astros in the new AL West, but they were good enough to win 97 games and snag that Wild Card slot. Nothing to sneeze at.

So, playing with that house money, how did the A’s propose to take down New York?

Why, by deploying only relievers to face one of the greatest lineups in the sport. The Wild Card is a one-game, winner-take-all proposition, after all, and each reliever should be able to shut down any set of hitters for an inning or two.

It’s what they do for a living.

That plan held together about as long as Mike Edwards’ balance (in at least one imagined scenario) on that 1980 Topps card of his.

To be fair, Liam Hendriks did make eight starts this season. But, he also had 17 relief appearances and was used exclusively as a reliever from 2015-17.

He drew the Wild Card start, though, and gave up a two-run dinger to Aaron Judge in the bottom of the first. He’d make it through the frame without further damage, but his night was done.

Lou Trivino came on in the second and held the Yanks scoreless through the fourth, and Shawn Kelley did the same in the fifth. Then the wheels came off in the sixth, with New York roughing up Fernando Rodney and Blake Treinen for four more runs.

It was pretty much over by that point, and the Yanks rolled to a 7-2 victory.

The A’s fell hard, just like that imagined next frame for 1980 Topps Mike Edwards.

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

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

Dynasty Delayed

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

The result?

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

Well, almost …

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Crappy Cubbies

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Inauspicious Debut

The 1981 Donruss Kelleher?

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

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

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

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

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

1979 – Hit .571 against San Francisco pitching.

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

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

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

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Sorrow, because another incarnation of the Boys of Summer are gone for good.

Excitement, because the postseason looms.

Regret, because you didn’t see enough games this year, and you won’t be able to see any more until next spring.

But most of all, the end of a baseball season brings joy and reflection. A time to think about all that’s come before and all that lies ahead, and how wonderful it is to wrap yourself in the nostalgia of our sweet soap opera.

And what better way to dig into those good feelings than with a cardboard trip down memory lane?

After all, baseball cards give us special endings, too, right? I mean,  forever and a day, Topps has reserved prime real estate for prime movers in the game.

Those prime numbers include, of course, the first card in the set, and the century markers (#100, #200, etc.). But they also loop in the final pasteboard of each set, the one that sends us off into the oblivion of another winter.

Here, then, are the final Topps cards from each set of the 1980s, when our fields, and our hopes, were green and fresh.

Did they all merit their lofty last-card status? You can be the judge of that, but I’ll help you make the case …

1980 Topps Steve Yeager (#726)

If you look at just his lifetime stats, you might think Steve Yeager was just about the last guy you’d find on a prime baseball card property — .228 batting average, 102 home runs, 410 runs batted in, 14 stolen bases.

Doesn’t seem the stuff of legend, right?

But look deeper and you’ll see that Yeager was a key member of those great Los Angeles Dodgers teams of the 1970s, lining up as the regular catcher for a good hunk of his 15 years in the Major Leagues (the last of which he played for the Seattle Mariners in 1986).

During that time, Yeager logged plenty of post-season time, and he stepped up his game in October to .252 with five homers and 14 RBI in 38 NLCS and World Series appearances.

It didn’t hurt that Yeager was handling some tremendous Dodgers hurlers along the way, including 1979 NL Rookie of the Year Rick Sutcliffe and would fold in award-winners Steve Howe and Fernando Valenzuela in 1980 and 1981.

Those were heady times.

So, yeah, Yeager and his Dodger Blue look just fine on card #726 in 1980 Topps.

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1981 Topps Rick Monday (#726)

By 1981, Rick Monday‘s flag-saving All-Star days were well behind him, but he was still a well-loved figure for the fans of his various teams: Oakland A’s, Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Dodgers.

Monday still had some pop left in his 35-year-old bat, too, and would smack 29 home runs over the final four seasons of his career.

Like Yeager, Monday also tasted post-season glory with the Dodgers (and A’s), though his October results were not all that spectacular — .210, one homer, two RBI in 30 games.

For his career, Monday wound up with 241 homers among his more than 1600 hits — and, of course, one set-capper in 1981 Topps.

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1982 Topps Frank Tanana (#792)

Once upon a time, a young Frank Tanana provided the left-handed smoke to complement Nolan Ryan‘s righty fire in the California Angels rotation.

Indeed, the future looked bright for the phenom in the mid-1970s when he reeled off a string of top-5 Cy Young finishes.

Then came injuries, off-field-problems, sinking performance, and bouncing from team to team.

Tanana eventually became an accomplished pitcher — not just a thrower — for the Detroit Tigers in the 1980s. Before he got there, though, he made a one-year stop with the Boston Red Sox.

His 4-10, 4.01 ERA mark was good enough to wear out his BoSox welcome after one season  but also good enough to land him the last card in the 1982 Topps seet — somehow.

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1983 Topps Chris Chambliss (#792)

Chris Chambliss was one of the more understated members of the New York Yankees mini-dynasty of the late 1970s, but then, just about everyone seemed understated compared to Reggie Jackson and Billy Martin.

Chambliss was a rock at first base for those teams, though, and was always good for something along the lines of .280, 17 home runs, 80 RBI per year.

And, of course, he had a monster NLCS in 1976 to help the Yankees reach the World Series for the first time in over a decade.

By 1982, Chambliss was entering his third season for the fairly putrid Atlanta Braves. He’d continued his strong production, but the rest of the team had yet to take off.

That all changed in 1982 when Dale Murphy won the first of his two NL MVP awards and the Braves took the old National League West division crown.

For his part, Chambliss smacked 20 bombs, drove in 86, and hit .270.

The last card of the 1983 Topps set is a fine commemoration of that sweet season.

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1984 Topps Bill Russell (#792)

Bill Russell revolutionized the NBA with his wingspan and defensive …

Oh, sorry. Let me try again.

Bill Russell was the shortstop for the 1970s Dodgers teams that featured the longest-running intact infield to have a future ruined politician manning first base. Or something like that.

Russell was a light-hitting middle infielder, as was the style of the day, but he had some speed and a decent eye, so he got on base and scored some runs.

He was one of the better defenders of the era at short, too. And, well, Dodgers.

Considering that 1983 was Russell’s last year as a mostly regular SS and that LA won the NL West that summer, this last-card treatment in 1984 Topps seems just fine.

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1985 Topps Darrell Evans (#792)

The 1984 Detroit Tigers were one of the great teams of the modern era and walked virtually unchallenged through the regular season, the ALCS against the Kansas City Royals, and the World Series against the San Diego Padres.

That Tigers team was loaded with stars like Alan Trammell, Lou Whitaker, Jack Morris, Lance Parrish, and Kirk Gibson, not to mention Hall of Fame manager Sparky Anderson.

One of the chronically unsung heroes of that squad was first baseman Darrell Evans. Granted, the 37-year-old hit .232 with only 16 homers that summer, but he’d bounce back with 40 dingers in 1985.

Topps never lost faith in the first baseman with a solid but overlooked HOF case of his own — he landed on the final card of the 1985 set.

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1986 Topps Charles Hudson (#792)

The 1985 Philadelphia Phillies finished 75-87 and in fifth place in the National League East.

Twenty-six-year-old right-hander Charles Hudson made 26 starts among his 38 appearances. He finished the season at 8-13 with a 3.78 ERA, effectively ending his “prospect” status.

It was all an exercise in spectacular mediocrity, which I suppose made Hudson a strong candidate for a prime spot in the 1986 Topps set, the cardboard embodiment of spectacular mediocrity.

Topps bit and granted Hudson the last slot.

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1987 Topps Checklist (#792)

After a milquetoast offering in 1986, Topps cranked up the time machine and the design outrage factor to bring back woodgrain borders for the first time since 1962.

Generally, collectors loved or hated the cards, with the preponderance falling toward the former chasm.

It didn’t hurt any that the set was loaded with huge rookie cards of the day, guys like Wally Joyner, Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco, and … um … Tim Pyznarski.

So how did Topps cap off one of their capstone sets? Maybe with a member of the 1986 World Champion New York Mets? Or perhaps with one last rookie prospect?

Nah, they went with full-on collector hate — a checklist featuring cards #661-792.

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1988 Topps John Tudor (#792)

I’ll tell you what … John Tudor was the man!

In 1985.

That season, as the St. Louis Cardinals tore off toward a historic match-up with the Kansas City Royals in the World Series, Tudor went 21-8 with a stupid 1.93 ERA and 10 shutouts among his 14 complete games.

The next season, he “slipped” to 13-7, 2.82 ERA — very good but not spectacular.

In 1987, Tudor was limited to 16 starts but went 10-2 with a 3.84 ERA.

So, even with limited appearances after 1985, Topps’ decision to cap their 1988 set with Tudor wasn’t terrible.

It looked much better after  Tudor combined to go 10-8 with a nifty 2.32 ERA between the Cards and Dodgers that season.

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1989 Topps Rafael Santana (#792)

Rafael Santana came to the Major Leagues in 1983 with the St. Louis Cardinals, then signed as a free agent with the New York Mets before the 1984 season.

He was going to man shortstop for a decade or more as the Mets reeled off championship after championship. That didn’t quite pan out, but Santana was in the hole when the NYM took the World Series in 1986, led by stalwarts like Darryl Strawberry, Dwight Gooden, Lenny Dykstra, Gary Carter, and Keith Hernandez.

Santana was an old prospect, though, and the Mets traded the 29-year-old to the cross-town New York Yankees before the 1988 season. The “youngster” hit .240 with four homers, 38 RBI, and a single stolen base that summer.

But he was the Yanks’ starting shorstop, so, yeah, Topps made him their last card of the entire decade.

Inspiring.

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(Check out our other posts about baseball card values here.)

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