1981 Donruss

Ok, so these were the red headed step child in 1981. These cards were printed on stock so crappy that you can take a card and fold it from the top to the bottom without creasing the card.

But looking back, these were all right. Starting from 1981, Donruss had the best four year run of anybody. They improved every year from 1981 to 1984, and who does that sound like?

So it's hard to bag on these too much. Their gum was awful though. It is a good thing that they included puzzles instead of gum after this issue. The Babe Ruth puzzle was much tastier than the gum from these.

The 1981 Donruss Detroit Tigers:

5 Alan Trammell

6 Tom Brookens

7 Duffy Dyer

8 Mark Fidrych

9 Dave Rozema

10 Ricky Peters

125 Richie Hebner

126 Mark Wagner

127 Jack Morris

128 Dan Petry

129 Bruce Robbins

130 Champ Summers

245 John Wockenfuss

246 Stan Papi

247 Milt Wilcox

248 Dan Schatzeder

249 Steve Kemp

250 Jim Lentine

365 Lou Whitaker

366 Lance Parrish

367 Tim Corcoran

368 Pat Underwood

369 Al Cowens

370 Sparky Anderson

And with that, I'm calling it a night. All around though, 1981 was a damn fine year for baseball cards. I don't know that there was ever another year where all three companies collectively issued such great cards.