Fan Appreciation Day

So with the last day of the regular season upon us (kinda, sorta, well ok, not really...), I trekked out to U.S. Cellular Comiskey Park Field one last time. It was a nice day to catch a game. It would have been a nicer day to have caught soon-to-be Cy Young winner Cliff Lee, but he was scratched with a bent throat or something. 

It was Fan Appreciation Day, and boy did I leave feeling appreciated! To start off with, I got the ticket when the game I was supposed to see against the Tigers was rained out a few weeks ago, so I exchanged it for today. I originally got that Tigers game ticket for free too. 

So I traipsed up to Section 548 to watch the game. As has happened in the past, I spotted that Section 558 was completely empty, so I mosied on over to my catbird seat pictured below.

I've noticed this section is usually empty, and a front row seat over there is a thing of beauty (convenient). Room to spread out, being able to see the left field scoreboard, and just not having to sit with White Sox fans are just a few of the reasons I've come to enjoy Section 558 this year.

In the first inning I noticed that a couple of stadium workers were giving away prizes a couple of sections over. Ever on the lookout for some free stuff, I turned my Tigers cap backwards in case they noticed me sitting all by my lonesome. As luck would have it, I was noticed. The young girl came over and asked me if would I like a ticket to sit in a lower deck seat courtesy of U.S. Cellular. 

"Why sure," I told her, and she promptly gave me a gift bag full of the goodies pictured here. A very nice retro duffle bag and ball cap, plus a necklace!!! I knew that whole south side macho bullshit was just that, bullshit!

We got to ride down in the service elevator as VIP's, and I made it to my seat just as Paul Konerko's 2nd inning home run was landing about two sections away. Of course, our new seats were packed to the gills, and I even thought about taking my goody bag back up to my original seats, but what the hell, I was already down there.

There was a game played today, which the White Sox won 5-1 to force the Tigers to have to come to town tomorrow afternoon for the make up game that was rained out a few weeks ago. Amidst all the commotion in my new section, it was a little difficult to follow the game with the steady stream of people moving about. The worst part was sitting next to the little eight year old boy who never looked up from his video game he was playing the entire time. Some sort of race car business. Sad. At least it wasn't a soccer game.

But hey, it was a nice conclusion to my first season in Chicago. I made it to a whopping 17 MLB games this year. I wish I could make it to one more tomorrow, but c'est la vie. All in all it was a good time, and that's all I could ask for. Most of me would like to see the Tigers take it to the Sox tomorrow and knock them out of the playoffs, but the little bit of me that immensely enjoyed my trips to the Cell this year wouldn't mind if they didn't.

2008 Detroit Tigers Fantasy Camper of the Year

I have to give Leo Barbour another big shout out of thanks for including an autographed card of a Detroit Tigers Forum legend, Mr. Ed DeArmond. Over the past few years, "Mayor Jose" has given us great stories from his exploits at fantasy camp in Lakeland with the Tiger heroes from years gone by. One of the all-time greats of the Tiger Forum, and another great reason to come and sit for a spell and hear tales of the days of yore.

Unfortunately, the back of his card did not have enough room to tell the tale about him, so I will attempt to fill in the rest.

"Ed was the original fan of Carlos Perez, a huge Murphy Brown supporter, a big time Randy Smith advocate, a die-hard Nolan Richardson guy, and a staunch believer in Dontrelle Willis. A life-long devotee to Hillary Clinton, Avion Casion, and Mike Mussina, Ed loves eating at Cracker Barrel and is particularly fond of the Chickenchoker special with a side of Rabblerouser. His greatest sports memory is France's win in the 1998 World Cup matches."

Ed, I hope I did you justice. The indictments are coming down anytime now.....

1985 Donruss

After 4 years of fantastic cards from Donruss, they hit the wall in '85. With the exception of '93, Donruss would never again make cards as nice as those first four years. It's no surprise they went out of business. 

They do provide me with a great memory though. My grandmother was living with us at the time and these were the first cards to ever debut before Christmas. So I took the $20 bill I got from her and bought a box of these (for $12) that sat under our tree unwrapped. Everytime I would walk by the tree for the next two days and no one was looking, I would sneak a pack out and go to my room and open them. By Christmas morning I couldn't have had ten packs left in the box. 

So what did I spend the other $8 on?

Yeah, that's right. Bang your head! A $20 bill will drive you mad!!

The look on Señor Smoke's face says it all. 

The 1985 Donruss Detroit Tigers:

5 Lou Whitaker Diamond King

49 Lance Parrish

90 Chet Lemon

105 Milt Wilcox

125 Dave Rozema

171 Alan Trammell

212 Willie Hernandez

227 Darrell Evans

247 Howard Johnson

272 Juan Berenguer

293 Lou Whitaker

334 Dan Petry

349 Aurelio Lopez

369 Doug Bair

394 Marty Castillo

415 Jack Morris

456 Barbaro Garbey

471 Kirk Gibson

491 Scottie Earl

516 Rusty Kuntz

537 Dave Bergman

578 John Grubb

593 Tom Brookens

612 Ruppert Jones

'85 Donruss gave us the rookie card of Scottie Earl. '85 Donruss gave us the only card of Scottie Earl. Ever. So I guess that's something.

I guess.

1985 Fleer

I love these cards. But that's about all I can muster up about them though. I've already said all have to say about them in an earlier post. Look it up. I don't even have an uninteresting story to add here. I really don't. About the best I can do is make fun of the card of Sparky giving the sign that his cap was not on right. Or that photo of Gibby which was obviously taken five years earlier. 

I told you, I had nothing. 

The 1985 Fleer Detroit Tigers:

1 Doug Bair

2 Juan Berenguer

3 Dave Bergman

4 Tom Brookens

5 Marty Castillo

6 Darrell Evans

7 Barbaro Garbey

8 Kirk Gibson

9 John Grubb

10 Willie Hernandez

11 Larry Herndon

12 Howard Johnson

13 Ruppert Jones

14 Rusty Kuntz

15 Chet Lemon

16 Aurelio Lopez

17 Sid Monge

18 Jack Morris

19 Lance Parrish

20 Dan Petry

21 Dave Rozema

22 Bill Scherrer

23 Alan Trammell

24 Lou Whitaker

25 Milt Wilcox

628 Super Star Special Sparky Anderson

643 Super Star Special Jack Morris

645 Randy O'Neal

654 Team Checklist

The Update set doesn't offer up much more for discussion.

1985 Fleer Update Detroit Tigers

87U Chris Pittaro

98U Alex Sanchez

103U Nelson Simmons

118U Walt Terrell

Someone please feel free to add a comment about these.

Please.

1985 Topps

The '85 cards are even more nostalgic for me than the '84 cards, and here's the reason why. These guys are actually the championship team. With the '84 set containing guys like Enos Cabell and Wayne Krenchicki, it's just not the set than truly captures the team. However, the '85 cards have got them all, from Doug Baker to Bill Scherrer, these are the guys that brought home the trophy. The '85 cards are what I will always think of when I think of the guys from '84.

I loved these cards when they came out, but years later I think they are kind of vanilla from a design standpoint. Topps borrowed heavily from their '84 football release here. It wouldn't be first time they recycled a design, but since these are the World Series champs, I can let 'em slide this time.

The 1985 Detroit Tigers:

20 Chet Lemon

47 Dave Rozema

73 Rusty Kuntz

99 Milt Wilcox

126 Ruppert Jones

133 Father and Son Ray Boone

143 Father and Son Ossie Virgil

160 Lance Parrish

192 Howard Johnson

243 Barbaro Garbey

269 Doug Baker

307 Sparky Anderson

333 Willie Hernandez

368 Dave Bergman

408 Sid Monge

435 Dan Petry

461 Marty Castillo

480 Lou Whitaker

512 Tom Brookens

539 Aurelio Lopez

565 Kirk Gibson

586 Bill Scherrer

591 Larry Herndon

610 Jack Morris

643 Johnny Grubb

672 Juan Berenguer

690 Alan Trammell

708 Lance Parrish All-Star

744 Doug Bair

792 Darrell Evans

This would also be the first year that any Tigers would make the Glossy All-Star cards that were inserted into the rack packs, and what a nice group it was. At one time it seemed like I had over 5,000 '85 Topps cards, but yet I don't have the Greenberg Glossy. Go figure.

14 Lou Whitaker

18 Chet Lemon

20 Lance Parrish

22 Hank Greenberg

The Traded set was short and sweet with only two cards. Chris Pittaro, the most Sparky-hyped prospect since Dave Rucker, and Walt Terrell, who would be a solid pitcher for years to come.

91T Chris Pittaro

119T Walt Terrell

They are what they are. A nice looking set feature the best baseball team from 1984. That's good enough for me.

2008 Tigers Tickets

I would like to give a big thanks to my good friend Leo Barbour over at the Detroit Tigers Forum for passing along to me his 26 game tickets from 2008. If you're a Tigers fan and you've never checked out the forum, come stop by. It's been said that our forum is like a neighborhood bar, and Leo would be part-owner and proprietor. But knowing him as I do, he would wish me to stop right here with the accolades and get on to business.

These are one cool collectible. I've slowly come around to liking the 2008 Topps cards, so these are a no-brainer. They're too big for 6 pocket pages though, so I've got to figure out a cool way to display them.

I'm not going to bother posting a checklist, since all anyone would need to do is look up the Tigers home schedule. I am curious though as to how many different "cards" there are. Of the 26 tickets I have, there are 24 different. (May 8 and August 13 both picture the same Bonderman photo, May 5 and August 10 both have the same Polanco photo, although there are 3 other dates that picture different Bonderman photos) 

Thanks again Leo. This are very cool. 

Now I just have to hunt down tickets for the other 55 home games......

1984 Donruss

Unlike their Topps and Fleer counterparts, the '84 Donruss cards are one of the best sets ever produced. The design is simple, yet fresh. They were the first of the three company era where almost the entire card was the photograph, with an unobtrusive team and player name nestled in nicely at the bottom. Despite their scarcity, they were easy enough to find in the state of Michigan that summer too. 

My final yarn about 1984 will be about my only trip ever to a World Series game. I managed to put enough money away from my summer job to start my own savings account at the bank that summer. When the tickets went on sale that fall, I took the money out of the account and sent off for four tickets to Game 3 ALCS and four tickets to Game A of the World Series.

For those of you who don't remember, the Cubs making the post-season threw a wrench in the post season plans, since they were scheduled to host Games 1 and 2 if they made the World Series. Since they didn't have lights at Wrigley Field, MLB decided to swap the games if they made it to the Series. If they made it, the AL would gets games 1, 2, 6, and 7, and not the NL. As it was, Leon Durham pulled a Bill Buckner a full two years before Buckner would do it, making the whole thing moot anyway...

Well, I sent off for tickets, hoping for the best but not really expecting to get any. So imagine my surprise as I was walking home from school one late September afternoon to see my mom waiting outside the front door and waving an envelope. Sure enough, inside were four tickets to the ALCS game. A week later, she did the same when our Series tickets arrived.

Ok, on to the game. I still remember that night vividly today. The marquee out front of Tiger Stadium listed the three games the Tigers would play that weekend. Our seats were in dead centerfield and I remember being on sensory overload. Too often I had heard announcers talk about the buzz and electricity at World Series games and that night I realized that it was not a cliché. 

Milt Wilcox started for the Tigers. (He won the pennant clincher I was at the week before) Marty Castillo blasted a home run to left that I had a perfect view of. Chet Lemon caught a deep fly ball off the bat of Terry Kennedy right in front of us. And just like that, the Tigers had taken a 2-1 lead over the Padres. Less than 48 hours later the Tigers were World Champs. I'm getting goose bumps just thinking about it.

http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1984/B10120DET1984.htm

Where was I? Oh yes, the 1984 Donruss Detroit Tigers:

15 Lance Parrish Diamond King

49 Lance Parrish

90 John Grubb

105 Dan Petry

125 Juan Berenguer

150 John Wockenfuss

171 Chet Lemon

212 Howard Bailey

227 Lou Whitaker

247 Marty Castillo

272 Dave Rozema

293 Alan Trammell

334 Wayne Krenchicki

349 Larry Herndon

369 Doug Bair

394 Larry Pashnick

415 Jack Morris

456 Enos Cabell

471 Milt Wilcox

491 Mike Laga

516 Aurelio Lopez

578 Tom Brookens

593 Kirk Gibson

618 Glenn Wilson

And that wraps up the greatest summer of my youth. Thanks for the great memories guys.

1984 Fleer

Like the '84 Topps, it's hard to be objective about these because of the nostalgia associated with them. Also like '84 Topps, they are plain and mediocre. In hindsight they were a precursor to many of the Limited Edition 44 card box sets that Fleer would mass produce in the latter half of the 80's. At least the blue stripes on the cards were the same color as the blue in the Tigers logos. I can't imagine an A's or Reds fan being all that wild about these.

Sure, I'll be glad to tell another story from the wonderful summer of '84. I had just finished my 10th grade year at Anchor Bay High School. I got my first job that summer working for a landscaper making $3.50 an hour cash under the table to the tune of about $60 a week. I invested most of it in cassette tapes and baseball cards, but there was plenty left over for trips to Tigers games too. All total I went to twelve games in 1984. I was 0-8 on the season in August before finally seeing my first win, a blowout against the A's.

http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1984/B08200DET1984.htm

My brother, my buddies Jim and Gary from high school, and I regularly went to games that summer. But since none of us was old enough to drive, Jim's dad would tote us all to the games and drop us off and my dad would be waiting on Trumbell in front of the bleachers entrance for us after the games. I could go on for 1,000 more words about how much fun those nights were and the smile it brings to my face to think about them now all these years later, but I won't. Suffice it to say that if you were there, you know what I'm talking about.

Hey, enough already. Let's get on with the 1984 Fleer Detroit Tigers:

74 Glenn Abbott

75 Howard Bailey

76 Doug Bair

77 Juan Berenguer

78 Tom Brookens

79 Enos Cabell

80 Kirk Gibson

81 John Grubb

82 Larry Herndon

83 Wayne Krenchicki

84 Rick Leach

85 Chet Lemon

86 Aurelio Lopez

87 Jack Morris

88 Lance Parrish

89 Dan Petry

90 Dave Rozema

91 Alan Trammell

92 Lou Whitaker

93 Milt Wilcox

94 Glenn Wilson

95 John Wockenfuss

637 Super Star Special Lance Parrish

650 Team Checklist

Fleer introduced their first Update set in 1984. I have none of these, since they were very scarce and at one time you could bankroll your kid's college education cheaper than you could pick one up. But since the stars have all dimmed on the three rookie cards that made this so expensive (Clemens, Gooden, and Puckett) I may just try and hunt one down one of these days.

11U Dave Bergman

36U Darrell Evans

42U Barbaro Garbey

51U Willie Hernandez

59U Ruppert Jones

66U Rusty Kuntz

1984 Topps

Of course there's no way I can objective about these cards now, so I'll keep it brief. I wasn't wild about these. Mediocre is the best adjective I can use. Fortunately the nostalgia factor gives these a big boost. 

But what a summer it was. I've got a few tales of my own about Tigers baseball that summer and what better place to spin them. 

My uncle went to high school with Glenn Abbott in Arkansas. That summer my aunt and uncle's family came to visit us in New Baltimore. My dad got tickets for me, him, and my uncle to go catch a twi-night doubleheader against the California Angels. We were at the gates when they opened as my uncle was going to flag down Glenn and say hello to him.

Well my 15 year old mind extrapolated that into getting to go into the clubhouse and get autographs from all the players, hang out in Sparky's office and chat baseball with, you know, the works. Well we looked high and low for Glenn to no avail. We couldn't find him anywhere.

Dejected, we then proceded to see the Tigers lose both games to the Angels. What a lousy night. I was bummed out all the way home.

When I got up the next morning, my dad and uncle were sitting at the breakfast table. I still remember my dad telling me, "Well I know why we didn't see Abbott last night." 

He'd been released from the Tigers that day.

http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1984/08141984.htm

A few years ago I came across an Abbott rookie card. My uncle still talks to him to this day and got Glenn to autograph it for me. My uncle has told him the story of our visit to Tiger Stadium that day, and Glenn told him that I have a standing offer the next time I am in Arkansas to meet and get a picture with him and his replica World Series Trophy. You can bet that one day I will.

And now, the 1984 Topps Detroit Tigers:

14 Tom Brookens

24 John Martin

42 Johnny Grubb

65 Kirk Gibson

95 Aurelio Lopez

119 Johnny Wockenfuss

136 1983 Strikeout Leaders Jack Morris

147 Dan Petry

174 Juan Berenguer

195 Jack Morris

223 Wayne Krenchicki

259 Sparky Anderson

284 Howard Bailey

303 Marty Castillo

333 Larry Herndon

356 Glenn Abbott

371 Dave Gumpert

398 Lou Whiatker All-Star

427 Rick Leach

457 Dave Rozema

482 Enos Cabell

510 Alan Trammell

536 Glenn Wilson

588 Milt Wilcox

611 Chet Lemon

640 Lance Parrish

666 Detroit Tigers Team Card

695 Lou Whiatker

731 Lynn Jones

The Traded set from that year is obviously chock full of players that would contribute to the World Series championship, the biggest being Willie Hernandez. So it's somewhat of a shock that this is the only card I am missing from the set. For the life of me I can't recall why I would have all of the others, but not his. Oh well. 

11T Dave Bergman

36T Darrell Evans

41T Barbaro Garbey

51T Willie Hernandez

59T Ruppert Jones

66T Rusty Kuntz

80T Sid Monge

1983 Donruss

For reasons unknown, I didn't collect these too much back in '83. I really think Donruss took the great design of '82 and made it even better. But I just never collected these. In fact, I bought a complete set off of ebay about two years ago, and it was the first time that I saw many of the cards, and that's a shame because this is such a nice set.

I've only got a handful of Tigers though, and since most of my sets are in storage in a secured location somewhere in Tennessee, I can only post pics of the Tigers cards I have here with me in Chicago. Or else I'd post the cool Jack Morris Diamond King or the Ty Cobb Puzzle Card. But I do have the rookie card of Howard Johnson, the great Tigers third baseman of the future. (As well as that bitching Wockenfuss card.)

So anyway, the 1983 Donruss Detroit Tigers:

5 Jack Morris Diamond King

29 Pat Underwood

76 John Wockenfuss

81 Rick Leach

107 Jack Morris

133 Dave Rozema

155 Milt Wilcox

202 Enos Cabell

207 Alan Trammell

233 Larry Pashnick

259 Elias Sosa

281 Bill Fahey

328 Howard Johnson

333 Lou Whitaker

359 Dan Petry

385 Dave Tobik

407 Lance Parrish

454 Tom Brookens

459 Kirk Gibson

485 Mike Ivie

511 Chet Lemon

533 Sparky Anderson

580 Glenn Wilson

585 Larry Herndon

600 Jerry Udjur

641 Dave Rucker

653 Ty Cobb Puzzle Card

I particularly love the Larry Pashnick error card, you know, the one that actually has Michael McKean pictured.....

1983 Fleer

For such an unappealing set, I can remember collecting these by the boatload. There was a dollar store in our neighborhood in New Baltimore that sold cello packs of these. I can remember riding my bike up there and buying a pack or two of these just about every day that summer, yet I'm missing half the Tigers in this set. 

The beige borders and the brown backs sure made up for one odd looking card in '83. With all the "earth" colors that are the rage today, I could see something like this in '08, but in '83 it was flat out ugly. It's not a bad design. I like the use of the official team logo on the cards. It's not a bad set, even though they too omitted Aurelio Lopez. It's just flat out u-g-l-y. 

The 1983 Detroit Tigers:

327 Tom Brookens

328 Enos Cabell

329 Kirk Gibson

330 Larry Herndon

331 Mike Ivie

332 Howard Johnson

333 Lynn Jones

334 Rick Leach

335 Chet Lemon

336 Jack Morris

337 Lance Parrish

338 Larry Pashnick

339 Dan Petry

340 Dave Rozema

341 Dave Rucker

342 Elias Sosa

343 Dave Tobik

344 Alan Trammell

345 Jerry Turner

346 Jerry Udjer

347 Pat Underwood

348 Lou Whitaker

349 Milt Wilcox

350 Glenn Wilson

351 John Wockenfuss

653 Team Checklist

You look at the cards and try and find something else to say about them. (Although I would love to have one of those BP jerseys that Herndon is wearing......)

1983 Topps

I don't really know where to begin, so I'll just start yammering until I figure something out. 

This may be my favorite card set ever.

Ok, I'll start with that. This is hands down one of the best sets Topps ever produced. Hell, that anybody ever produced. The design pays homage to the '63 cards, yet improves upon it. Pretty much the entire set is made up of action shots. There's the nice little still shot in the bottom corner. The cards just radiate with color. 

There is also a great deal of sentimental value with these cards. This was the summer that my family moved to Michigan when I was a kid, and not long after became a Tiger fan for life. For the first time ever I lived somewhere that had a baseball team that I could go see and read about everyday. For this 14 year old kid, that was pretty much heaven. 

One of the all-time greats, the 1983 Detroit Tigers:

4 Record Breaker Lance Parrish

13 Larry Herndon

41 Jerry Turner

65 Jack Morris

95 Alan Trammell

119 Tom Brookens

147 Rick Leach

174 Jerry Udjur

196 Bill Fahey

225 Enos Cabell

261 Detroit Tigers Team Card

285 Lance Parrish

304 Dave Rucker

332 Glenn Wilson

373 Kevin Saucier

430 Kirk Gibson

457 Milt Wilcox

483 Lynn Jones

509 Lou Whitaker

536 Johnny Wockenfuss

562 Dave Rozema

588 Pat Underwood

613 Mike Ivie

636 Dan Petry

666 Sparky Anderson

691 Dave Tobik

727 Chet Lemon

753 Elias Sosa

My only disappointment with this set, and I understand why it's that way, is the omission of any Tigers from the cool Super Veteran subset. A neat subset featuring the greats of the game containing two pictures. The first was a sepia toned photo from very early in that players career and the second was a current photo depicting that player on his '83 team. 

As Milt Wilcox was pretty much the only veteran on the team, and nowhere near "Super", it's easy to see why no Tigers were included in the set. But it was one of the best subsets Topps would ever make, and it would never be used again. Too bad, because there are a slew of Tigers today that could make it a cool set. Hmmmm......

Topps added a new twist to the Traded set in 1983 by printing them on white cardboard stock in stead of the standard gray. (One day I'll get an answer as to why it took them nine more years to actually do this for the base set, especially when O-Pee-Chee was already doing it, but I won't hold my breath waiting for it.) The set inlcudes three key guys from the '84 team, so it's got that going for it too.

Another interesting thing of note is the inclusion of Aurelio Lopez in the set. Señor Smoke was acquired by the Tigers in a trade all right. December 4, 1978. It looks like Topps didn't include him in the base set because of his injury plagued '82, but when he came back strong in '83 they decided to add him to the "Traded" set. Hey, it's Topps. They don't need any excuses to do the stupid shit they do.....

1983 Topps Traded:

5T Doug Bair

38T Johnny Grubb

63T Aurelio Lopez

So why did I post a card of Johnny Grubb and not Lopez? Because Johnny makes the RobbyT all-time scrubs team, that's why. 

1982 Donruss

Ladies and Gentleman, your clear cut winner for the best looking card of 1982, Donruss. The photography was far and away the best of the year. A nice, clean innovative design with the ball and bat motif was one of the most elegant looking designs ever. In 1982, Donruss took the 1981 Fleer design one step further to produce a fantastic looking card.

In addition to finally issuing a Kirk Gibson card of their own, they gave us the first ever solo card of Sparky Anderson as the Tigers manger. This was also the first year of the Diamond Kings subset, an original subset featuring a Dick Perez painting of one player from each team. This was easily the most original subset ever produced to date. Hell, it may be the most original subset ever produced.

The 1982 Donruss Detroit Tigers:

29 Sparky Anderson

76 Alan Trammell

81 Champ Summers

107 Jack Morris

133 Dan Petry

155 Rick Peters

202 Tom Brookens

207 Al Cowens

233 Milt Wilcox

259 Dave Rozema

281 Lance Parrish

328 Richie Hebner

333 Stan Papi

359 Aurelio Lopez

385 Dan Schatzeder

407 Kirk Gibson

454 Lou Whitaker

459 John Wockenfuss

485 Kevin Saucier

511 Dave Tobik

542 Lynn Jones

583 Rick Leach

594 Steve Kemp

601 Mick Kelleher

602 Ron Jackson

This set was not without a flaw or two though. Apparently the typesetter and proofreader didn't bother to look at the back of Alan Trammel's card to see that it was actually spelled Trammell. Twice. Both his base card and Diamond King were issued with both spellings of his name, despite it being spelled "write" on the back. But hey, in a set this nice you can forgive them for giving Tiger fans a couple of early chase cards.

1982 Fleer

Fresh off of one of the nicest looking sets of all time, Fleer followed up in 1982 with.......these. It's hard to believe Fleer could produce many sets worse than this, because they did, but this was one of the absolute worst. Boring design, HORRIBLE photography, and equally bad register problems plagued this set. 

The 1982 Fleer Detroit Tigers:

263 Tom Brookens

264 George Cappuzello

265 Marty Castillo

266 Al Cowens

267 Kirk Gibson

268 Richie Hebner

269 Ron Jackson

270 Lynn Jones

271 Steve Kemp

272 Rick Leach

273 Aurelio Lopez

274 Jack Morris

275 Kevin Saucier

276 Lance Parrish

277 Rick Peters

278 Dan Petry

279 David Rozema

280 Stan Papi

281 Dan Schatzeder

282 Champ Summers

283 Alan Trammell

284 Lou Whitaker

285 Milt Wilcox

286 John Wockenfuss

652 Team Checklist

The only two things going for it were the powder blue backs and the only solo RC of Marty Castillo. But those weren't enough to save this lackluster set.

1982 Topps

In my opinion, this is probably one of my least favorite Topps sets of the 80's, but it just happens to have one of my favorite Tiger cards of all-time. More on that later.

I never was a fan of the design, although it's really not that bad. It certainly wasn't as bad as 1986 or 1987. Being that this was the first Topps issue of the 792 card set era, it's hard to complain about a team set that features 31 Tigers cards. After many years Topps finally got rid of the team photos on the team checklist card and replaced it with a cool combo of the Tigers batting and pitching leaders. I really liked that, and I wish Topps would combine their present day Classic Combos with the team checklist so that would free up a card that could be used for a prospect. (I can see why Kemp was traded though. Dude looks like he rolled straight out of the titty joint to take that picture.....)

The 1982 Topps Detroit Tigers:

39 Lou Whitaker

64 Lynn Jones

105 Kirk Gibson

133 Pat Underwood

137 George Cappuzello

165 Victory Leaders Jack Morris

184 Mick Kelleher

211 Dan Petry

238 Kevin Saucier

261 Tigers Future Stars Howard Bailey/Marty Castillo/Dave Rucker

266 Rick Leach

286 Bill Fahey

319 Dave Rozema

369 Champ Summers

391 Dave Tobik

423 Stan Papi

450 Jack Morris

475 Alan Trammell

488 Ron Jackson

504 Rick Peters

535 Lance Parrish

556 Jack Morris All-Star

575 Al Cowens

603 Rich Hebner

629 Johnny Wockenfuss

666 Detroit Tigers Team Card

670 Steve Kemp

691 Dan Schatzeder

728 Aurelio Lopez

753 Tom Brookens

784 Milt Wilcox

Topps had a subset of In Action cards which didn't include a single Tiger, which is made funnier by the fact that all of the base cards seem to picture Tigers standing around the batting cage. 

But they did give us the rookie card of my favorite Tigers scrubeenie of all-time, Marty Castillo. Marty hit a HR in Game 3 of the 1984 World Series, which to date is the only World Series game I have ever attended, and for that he will always be remembered by me. Plus, who can forget Sparky's famous quote, "If you don't like Dave Rucker, you don't like ice cream." 

Year two of the Traded sets offered us two of our key guys in 1984 (and the only action shot of the year):

15T Enos Cabell

43T Larry Herndon

45T Mike Ivie

62T Chet Lemon

112T Elias Sosa

121T Jerry Turner