Friday, November 27, 2009

1989 Donruss

I'm still working my way through the box of baseball related stuff I bought at the church bazaar a few weeks ago. One of the things in there was a box of 1989 Donruss cards. This box had 24 39-card packs. That's 936 cards. I already had about 325 cards of the 658-card set. So I thought I had a good shot at completing the set. Think again. I'm still about 150 cards short. Many, many duplicates. I'm not really interested in completing the set but more interested in getting the cards of the players I collect from the set. There I did pretty well. I already had all the Phillies from the set. Now I have nearly all of the players I collect. The key card in this set is the Griffey rookie card which I already had. Now I have 3 more. In each pack were two of the Warren Spahn puzzle cards. I was able to complete the puzzle. When and if I can get my act together it will be the focus of a later post. Here are the cards of the players that I picked up that I collect, in alphabetical order.Robert Alomar in his second season, bunting. You don't see a lot of cards with players bunting.
I may now have every 1980's George Bell card and I don't even know why.
One of my favorite players.
Joe Carter in his pre-Phillie killer days.
Coleman stole 65 bases in 1989. There is a regular card of him in the set which is one of the few cards I'm missing.

I picked up Cone's regular card and Diamond King card. In those days, the Diamond Kings were a subset of the regular set, the first 25 cards or so.
The Hawk.
In 1989, I wasn't much interested in Lenny Dykstra until he was traded to the Phillies in June. I think I have most of his cards as a Met now.
Evans was in his 18th season in 1989. He hit 20 home runs and knocked in 100 rbis.
Glavine was in his 3rd season. He was 14-8.
This was Doc's least productive season so far in his career. He was only 9-4 in 19 games. But he's rebound in 1990 with a 19-7 record.
Goose was in his 18th season and fading fast, his glory days long behind him.
Tony lead the league in hits and batting average in 1989.
Rickey was hitting .247 with only 25 steals when the Yankees traded him to the A's in June. He responded by hitting .294 with 55 steals for Oakland.

Orel finished the season with 59 consecutive scoreless innings, a new record. baseball-reference.com doesn't keep this stat so I don't know if he extended it in 1990 or if he still holds the record.
I wasn't a Pete Incaviglia fan in 1989 but he will eventually play for both the Phillies and the Astros so I started collecting his earlier cards.
Randy Johnson's rookie card.
Another player I wasn't too interested in back in 1989 until he was traded to the Phillies in June. In June of 1989, the Phillies made two key trades which got them to the World Series in 1993, Kruk and Dykstra.
I think I got interested in McGee in the 1987 World Series when he hit .370 in a losing cause against the Twins.
Mark McGwire when he still more or less looked like a normal human being.
I hardly ever saw him play because he was in the American career but I always like Molitor. And I guess with good reason. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2004.
Tony was in his 3rd year with the Cardinals and thinks he looks really cool in red.
The Rock.
Another key pickup from this set.
Potential future HOFer. He retired in 2006 so too soon to know.
In his second season, Smoltz was 12-11.
In his 7th season, Strawberry was still a formidable force but 1989 was not his best year. His next two years will be good and then 1992 happens.
Another player I collect whose regular card from this set I do not have. And another future HOFer.

5 comments:

night owl said...

If you have a dupe of that "59 and counting" Hershiser card, I need it.

capewood said...

I already had one put away for you.

Anonymous said...

I don't believe Hershiser extended it in 1990, but I can't remember for sure. I think there was some controversy at the time as to whether it would "count" if he kept going in 1990. I don't believe anyone has come close to equaling the feat.

I might have the regular Coleman; next time I dig out my Cards cards I will see if I can find it.

And Ruben Sierra...potential HOF? I don't think I've ever heard anyone mention him in HOF discussions.

capewood said...

By potential, I guess I meant possibility in that he isn't past his years of eligibility. He does have 306 home runs which used to mean something. But baseball-reference.com in it's four HOF ratings doesn't rate his HOF chances very high and I won't argue with that.

As to a controversy over Hershiser. Bo Jackson shares a record for hitting 4 home runs in a row even though the 4th was hit after a stay on the disabled list. If that counts then if Hershiser kept his streak going into 1990, it should count.

Anonymous said...

There was a similar controversy with Benito Santiago when he ended the 1987 season with a hitting streak. I believe it was ruled that streaks can't carry over from season to season. If he did not play in a game (a la the Bo reference), that doesn't count against the streak because there was no actual game appearance. But streaks must be contained within a season.

I am going on middle school memory here, so it may be a bit skewed.