1989 Topps #391 Andre Dawson (All-Star)

1989 Topps:

1. #593 Drew Hall
2. #539 Barry Jones
3. #723 Rafael Belliard
4. #43 Guillermo Hernandez
5. #391 Andre Dawson (All-Star)
6. #254 Tom Lasorda (Manager)
7. #692 Steve Ontiveros
8. #626 Jeff Reed
9. #276 Paul Kilgus
10. #165 Mike Dunne
11. #213 Rene Gonzales
12. #314 Bobby Valentine (Manager)
13. #130 Gerald Perry
14. #410 Jack Clark
15. #671 Jim Gantner

“Was NL Player of Week, May 2-8, 1988.  Batted .391 (9-for 23) with 2 Doubles, 3 HR, 9 RBI & .517 On-Base Pct.”

Nicknamed “The Hawk”, Andre Dawson had a 21-year career spanning 1976-1996.  He is one of those borderline Hall of Famers who has been on the ballot for a number of years, but never quite got enough votes.  He is on the 2009 ballot.

Matt Wieters – C

Bowie Baysox (Baltimore Orioles)

After only one season of professional baseball, Matt Wieters is already making waves in baseball as one of the hottest prospects around.  He was drafted 5th overall in the 2007 Amateur Draft (1st was David Price of 2008 World Series fame) and immediately went to work for the Honolulu Sharks of the Hawaii Winter Baseball league (batting .283 with 1 HR).

In 2008, Matt batted .345 with 15 HR for the A+ Frederick Keys.  This performance prompted a mid-season promotion to the AA Bowie Baysox, where he did even better, hitting .365 with 12 HR.

Matt Wieters seems to only be getting better as he gains experience.  He is Baseball America’s 2008 Minor League Player of the Year.  With the Orioles recently trading their catcher Ramon Hernandez away to the Reds for Ryan Freel and a couple infield prospects, Matt Wieters is likely to be given a chance to be the Orioles starting catcher for the upcoming 2009 season.

1989 Topps #662 Lou Brock (Turn Back the Clock)

1989 Topps:

1. #662 Lou Brock (Turn Back the Clock)
2. #599 Tom Candiotti
3. #735 Roger McDowell
4. #111 Cincinnati Reds (Team Leaders)
5. #258 Checklist 133-264 (Checklist)
6. #543 Damon Berryhill (Topps All-Star Rookie)
7. #546 Mark Williamson
8. #98 Larry Sheets
9. #224 Tony LaRussa (Manager)
10. #503 Al Newman
11. #253 Jose Alvarez
12. #518 Bruce Ruffin
13. #684 Dave Johnson (Manager)
14. #268 Keith Miller (Rookie)
15. #251 John Dopson

TEN YEARS AGO

1979 — Three brother combinations achieved notoriety on the mound in 1979… When Braves’ Phil Niekro and Astros’ Joe Niekro tied for NL lead with 21 Wins, it marked the first time two brothers reached 20 Victories in the same league in the same season… Astros’ Ken Forsch authored the campaign’s only No-Hitter by victimizing the Braves, April 7.  He thus shared distinction with 188 pitchers before him including his brother, Cardinal’s Bob Forsch, who spun No-Hitter vs. Phillies, April 16, 1978.  However, they were the only brother combination ever to have achieved feat… A baseball first occurred at Toronto, May 31, when Tigers’ Pat Underwood made his major league debut with his brother, Blue Jays’ Tom Underwood, pitching for the opposition… The most outstanding individual achievement of 1979 occurred as Cardinals’ Lou Brock set a major league record with his 938th Stolen Base, September 23.  The Theft gave him one more than Hall-of-Famer Billy Hamilton whose career spanned 1888-1901.  Lou recorded 2 Stolen Bases in a game 135 times, 3 Stolen Bases in a game 19 times and 4 Stolen Bases in a game 3 times (August 29, 1969, September 6, 1971 and September 1, 1974).

Not sure what was the point of Topps writing all that prose about the Niekros and the Forsches before mentioning Lou Brock near the bottom.

I looked at Brock’s career stats and found it interesting that he only batted .257 while playing for the Cubs at the beginning of his career 1961-1964.  He also only stole 1 base for every 3.5 games played with the Cubs.  However, his career took off when he was traded to the Cardinals, where he would spend the rest of his career 1964-1979.

With the Cardinals, Lou Brock batted .297 and stole a base once every 2.7 games on average.  In case you’re wondering, Rickey Henderson batted .279 during his career, but stole a base on average every 2.2 games.

1989 Topps #200 George Brett

1989 Topps:

1. #667 Dave Schmidt
2. #392 Andy Van Slyke (All-Star)
3. #385 Von Hayes
4. #9 Tim Teufel
5. #275 Danny Tartabull
6. #324 Bob Milacki (Rookie)
7. #200 George Brett
8. #47 Carney Lansford
9. #325 Jesse Barfield
10. #252 Billy Hatcher
11. #79 Scott Bankhead
12. #299 Steve Ellsworth (Rookie)
13. #685 Jeff Treadway
14. #15 Robby Thompson
15. #514 Chet Lemon

George Brett played his entire 21-year career with the Kansas City Royals, 1973-1993.  He was inducted to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999 and was a 13-time All-Star selection.

1989 Topps #335 Dave Righetti

1989 Topps:

1. #728 Charlie Puleo
2. #170 Tony Fernandez
3. #335 Dave Righetti
4. #721 Ron Tingley
5. #44 Jim Snyder (Manager)
6. #553 Luis Salazar
7. #293 Glenn Wilson
8. #447 Donell Nixon
9. #156 Dave Gallagher
10. #149 Doug Dascenzo (Rookie)
11. #756 Scott Medvin (Rookie)
12. #653 Tommy Barrett (Rookie)
13. #690 Doug Jones
14. #231 San Diego Padres (Team Leaders)
15. #631 Dave Bergman

“Dave was an All-League pitcher at Pioneer (San Jose) High School where he also played basketball.  Attended San Jose City College where he excelled on the mound.”

Rags had an exceptional career as a starting pitcher, and then later was converted to an exceptional relief pitcher.  As a starter, he won the Rookie of the Year award and pitched a no-hitter.  As a reliever, he was Rolaids Relief Man of the Year twice and also All-Star twice.

1989 Topps Box

1989 Topps had 36 packs per box and 15 bubble gum cards per pack (as well as 1 stick of gum).  The box top featured Jose Canseco, with Kirk Gibson, Gregg Jefferies, and Mike Greenwell featured on the sides.  Suggested retail price per pack was 45¢.

The set has 792 cards.  Tiffany versions were released only in factory set form.

Each box had four box-bottom cards:

SAVE THIS BOX!

Attention Retailer:  There are 4 of a Limited Edition of 16 exclusive Baseball Cards printed on the bottom of this box (inside & out).  Stock Topps Baseball Cards and collect the full Set; or save them for your customers who collect Limited Edition Sets.

1989 Topps wax pack

Set #1:

• A. George Brett
• B. Bill Buckner
• C. Darrell Evans
• D. Rich Gossage

Set #2

• E. Greg Gross
• F. Rickey Henderson
• G. Keith Hernandez
• H. Tom Lasorda

Set #3

• I. Jim Rice
• J. Cal Ripken
• K. Nolan Ryan
• L. Mike Schmidt

Set #4

• M. Bruce Sutter
• N. Don Sutton
• O. Kent Tekulve
• P. Dave Winfield

EXCLUSIVE CARDS ON BOX BOTTOM!

My particular box is Set #2

1989 Topps cards, front and back

Key rookies in this set in this set include Craig Biggio, Gary Sheffield, John Smoltz, Jim Abbott, and Randy Johnson.  Other key cards include Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, Nolan Ryan, and Roger Clemens.

There are also numerous error cards in the set that are still in demand.  These include George Brett 33, Roger Clemens 778, Brian Holton corrected, and Paul Gibson P1.

2007 Topps Generation Now #GN310 Hanley Ramirez

2007 Topps series 2:

1. #503 Jeff Cirillo
2. #640 Kei Igawa (Rookie)
3. #364 Conor Jackson
4. #408 Kevin Millar
5. #343 Shin-Soo Choo
6. Generation Now #GN310 Hanley Ramirez
7. Red Back #633 Juan Perez (Rookie)
8. Red Back #627 Andy Cannizaro (Rookie)
9. #526 Derek Lowe
10. #620 Garrett Atkins

Geez, they have 51 of these Hanley Ramirez Generation Now cards?

I got a bunch of rookies in this pack.  Since these are 2007 cards, I can’t check and see how the players ended their careers, but I can see what they’ve been up to in 2008.

Kei Igawa

Spent most of 2008 playing on the AAA Scranton-Wilkes Barre Yankees, where he went 14-6 with a 3.45 ERA.  Was called up to the Yankees in May, where he struggled through only 4 innings, giving up 13 hits and 6 runs while striking out nobody.

Juan Perez

The Pirates released Perez in March 2008, and he then signed a contract with the AAA Indianapolis Indians where he pitched the rest of the season with some success.  In AAA ball he struck out 35 batters in less than 23 innings.

Andy Cannizaro

Andy Cannizaro had one plate appearance for the Tampa Bay Rays in 2008 (and nothing spectacular happened during that appearance).  He played most of the season with the AAA Durham Bulls batting only .240 with 1 HR.  In August, he was traded to the Indians and assigned to the AAA Buffalo Bisons, where he performed much better, hitting .321 with 3 HR.

2007 Topps Hit Parade #HP1 Barry Bonds

2007 Topps series 2:

1. #562 Jamie Moyer
2. #652 Josh Johnson/Miguel Olivo (Classic Combos)
3. #340 Roger Clemens
4. #532 Jose Vidro
5. Hit Parade #HP1 Barry Bonds
6. Generation Now #GN296 Justin Verlander
7. Red Back #414 Brandon Phillips
8. Red Back #379 Chris Young
9. #427 Randy Wolf
10. #415 Aaron Cook

Steroids or not, there’s no denying that Barry Bonds has more home runs than anyone else.  Maybe they should make a separate league where every player is jacked up on steroids and performance enhancing drugs.  That might be interesting to watch.

Ugh, I cringe when I see big numbers on a card now.  It means that the card is probably one of them “mirror” cards where they print hundreds of the same card with the same picture, but with different numbers.

I’ve gotten quite a few different types of inserts over the past few days.  Let’s see if I missed any…

• Generation Now 1:4 CHECK
• MVP in NYC 1:5 CHECK
• Topps Stars 1:9 NOT YET
• Trading Places 1:9 CHECK
• Hit Parade 1:9 CHECK
• Mantle HR History 1:9 NOT YET
• The Streak 1:9 CHECK
• The Streak before the Streak 1:9 CHECK
• *Gold Parallel 1:11 NOT YET
• Opening Day 1:12 CHECK
• Distinguished Service 1:12 CHECK
• Mantle Story 1:18 NOT YET
• Base Variation 1:30 NOT YET
• 1st Day Edition 1:36 NOT YET
• AROD Road to 500 Continuity 1:36 NOT YET

Perhaps the next pack (and final for the week) will yield a Topps Stars, Mantle HR History (actually I hope not), Gold Parallel, Mantle Story (ugh), Base Variation, 1st Day Edition, or AROD Road to 500 (please don’t).  We’ll find out tomorrow.