Tuesday, April 23, 2013

1987 Steve Carlton Giants Card

I like to buy repacks sold under the Fairfield name because there is almost always something of interesting hidden in them. Recently I purchased one of the 100-card packages. I may put up more the cards later but wanted to do a quick post about this one card.


A 1987 card featuring Steve Carlton as a Giant.

As I life-long Phillies fan, I have a lot of interest in Steve Carlton cards. Although he started with the Cardinals, he spent the bulk of his career with the Phillies. After the Phillies played for the Giants, the Indians, the White Sox and the Twins before finally nobody would sign him.

Carlton was released by the Phillies on June 24, 1986 and picked up by the Giants on July 4, 1986. He made 6 starts for the Giants, going 1-3 before they released him on August 7, 1986. The White Sox picked him up on August 12, 1986. He was 4-3 in 10 starts for them. He was signed by the Indians in April 1987 before being traded to the Twins later in the season.

Carlton's 1986 cards all show him as a Phillie and he did not appear in the 1986 Topps or Fleer update sets.

His 1987 cards show him with the White Sox with the Fleer and Topps update sets showing him as an Indian.  So I thought there were no cards of him as a Giant.  Then I come across this Star '87. Beckett does list two other cards with Carlton as a Giant, the 1987 Topps and O-Pee-Chee Wax Box Bottom cards.

I ofter see minor league cards produced by The Star Company from this era. I have a few major league cards of theirs from 1988 and 1992. All the cards feature the same basic design, no matter what year. It looks like they produced mini-sets of individual players. The Carlton is 13 of 14.

This repack also had Star '87 cards for Roger Clemens and Keith Hernandez.

Beckett.com does not list these cards and an Internet search didn't turn up anything useful on them.   

3 comments:

Josh D. said...

I bought one of the repack boxes recently and got that exact card. Along with a Keith Hernandez and a Tim Raines.

Nick said...

That's a great Carlton card, never seen that one before. I'm a big fan of cards of guys in short-term unis like that.

There's an '86 Donruss Highlights card that features Carlton as a Giant.

http://www.tradingcarddb.com/Images/Cards/Baseball/14202/14202-35Fr.jpg

One of his 2005 Donruss Champions cards does as well.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51BQtr2TLtL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

capewood said...

Nick, thanks. There are a few post-career cards featuring Carlton as a Giant. Beckett.com has a thumbnail of that Donruss Highlights card but I couldn't tell he was in a Giants uni.