Wednesday, September 16, 2009

1987 Fleer Record Setters

While I was at the baseball card store last week I also bought a pack of 1987 Fleer Record Setters. This was a 44-card set produced by Fleer for the Ekcerd Drug Store chain. There were a number of these sorts of sets in the 1980s, mainly produced by Topps and Fleer. Off the top of my head I can think of sets made for Woolworth's, Ames Hardware Stores, Rite-Aid, and K-Mart.

A set called Record Setters makes me think that there should be a lot of good players in the set. Most records are set by good players. I'm really only looking at offensive records. So let's see what we have here.

Off to a good start with George Brett, although that may be more of a function that the cards are in alphabetical order. Brett was a great player and is in the Hall of Fame but as near as I can tell he holds no career or single season records.

#2 Chris Brown (Giants) - no records
#3 Jose Canseco - no records
#4 Roger Clemens. He currently holds the record for most Cy Young Awards with 7 but he only had 1 going into the 1987 season

#5 Alvin Davis (Mariners) - No records

#6 Shawon Dunston (Cubs) - No records

#7 Tony Fernandez (Blue Jays) - No records
#8 Carlton Fisk. Another future Hall of Famer, but no records. Those uniforms were really unattractive (meaning ugly).

#9 Gary Gaetti (Twins) - No records

#10 Gene Garber (Braves) - No records

#11 Rich Gedman (Red Sox) - No records (not even close)
#12 Dwight Gooden. In 1987 he was probably considered a likely candidate for the Hall of Fame but it didn't work out that way

#13 Ozzie Guillen (White Sox). 1985 Rookie of the Year and 2005 Manager of the Year but no records.

#14 Bill Gullickson (Reds) - No records

#15 Billy Hatcher (Astros) - No records
#16 Orel Hershiser. Another great player, but no records.

#17 Wally Joyner (Angels). He appeared in the All-Star game in his rookie season in 1986 but it was his only appearance. No records.

#18 Ray Knight (Mets) - No records

#19 Craig Lefferts (Giants) - No records
#20 Don Mattingly. Donny was a good player but never set any records and is unlikely to get into the Hall of Fame. This set does not feature a lot of great photography and this is one of the worst. It looks like he was sleeping off a bender in the dugout before the picture was taken.

#21 Kevin Mitchell (Mets). Kevin hadn't done too much by 1987. He'll have have a good year in 1989 but no records.

#22 Lloyd Moseby (Blue Jays). He was an All-Star in 1986 but I see no justification to include him in this set.
#23 Dale Murphy. A popular player and all-round nice guy, but no records.
#24 Eddie Murray. A great player and Hall of Famer but no records.
#25 Phil Niekro. Another Hall of Famer but no records. 1987 was Phil's last playing year.

#26 Ben Oglivie (Brewers). Ben retired after the 1986 season after a 16-year career but no records.

#27 Jesse Orosco (Mets) - No records

#28 Joe Orsulak (Pirates). Another future manager but no records.

#29 Larry Parrish (Rangers) - No records
#30 Tim Raines. 5th in career stolen bases but no records.

#31 Shane Reynolds (Phillies). Please don't make me laugh

#32 Dave Righetti (Yankees). We have a winner. Dave got 46 saves in 1986, which at the time set a single season record.
#33 Pete Rose. The biggest record breaker in the box. In 1987 Pete held the all time career records for at bats, plate appearances, hits, singles, times on base and outs made. And he still holds those records.

#34 Steve Sax - No records
#35 Mike Schmidt. Mike was a shoo in for the Hall of Fame but the only record I can find for him is single season salary in 1985 of $2,130,300. Sounds quaint today but it was a record in 1985.

#36 Mike Scot (Astros) - No records
#37 Don Sutton. The 5th Future Hall of Famer in the set but no records.

#38 Alan Trammell (Tigers) - No records
#39 John Tudor. A great career but no records

#40 Gary Ward (Rangers) - No records

#41 Lou Whitaker (Tigers) - No records

#42 Willie Wilson (Royals) - No records

#43 Todd Worrell (Cardinals). 1986 Rookie of the Year but no records

#4 Floyd Youmans (Expos). I guess they had to include someone else from the Expos.

4 comments:

night owl said...

I like this set quite a bit, but I'm not sure why. Just like the design I guess.

Also, I hold no records.

capewood said...

Me either.

--David said...

That is weird that they included players, and so many, that had no records at all... So, I wonder how they justified the set name and the players they picked...

I have a few records, but they're mostly 45's...

dancfuller said...

I'm doing a Carlton Fisk blog, and I just did this card today and came across your site. Neat article!

For the sake of completeness, as of 1987, Carlton Fisk did hold records for most innings caught, most at-bats and most plate appearances in an extra inning game due to a 25 inning game in 1984, but those are more "well, that happened" records than actual accomplishments. He actually still holds these records today, though the at-bats and plate appearance ones are shared with a number of other players. Long story short, I don't think this "Record Setter" card has that in mind, and it's just a "notable player" set, like detailed in your article. He probably held White Sox' "most [offensive stat] by catcher" records, but those also shouldn't count as "records" as opposed to "things that happened."


https://listoffisk.wordpress.com/2018/08/16/fleer-record-setters-1987-begging-the-question/