Wednesday, October 8, 2008

1986 Donruss


As usual, Donruss' photography was heads and shoulders above the competition. Year after year they had vibrant, colorful, and crisp pictures. But as would become a Donruss tradition, this was one ugly looking set. 

I remember buying these packs at Grand City by the bushel trying to pull a Jose Canseco RC. At one point I think I had 4-5 cards of each player in the whole set and only one Canseco card. Let me say now that I have hated that bastard a looooong time....


The 1986 Donruss Detroit Tigers:
1 Kirk Gibson Diamond King
49 Lou Whitaker
90 Chet Lemon
105 Jack Morris
125 Kirk Gibson
150 Chris Pittaro
171 Alan Trammell
212 Dan Petry
227 Willie Hernandez
247 Walt Terrell
272 Nelson Simmons
293 Aurelio Lopez
334 Lance Parrish
349 Barbaro Garbey
369 Darrell Evans
394 Randy O'Neal
415 Alejandro Sanchez
456 Bob Melvin
471 Dave Bergman
491 Frank Tanana
516 Bill Scherrer
537 Tom Brookens
578 Mike Laga
593 Larry Herndon
615 John Grubb


Donruss decided to jump into the mid-season boxed set frenzy in 1986 by issuing two different sets. The first was a short lived Highlights set (issued in 1986 an 1987 only) that contained a Jack Morris card. (With a picture obviously taken some time during his rookie year...) The second would become a Donruss staple for years to come, The Rookies, which contained an Eric King card. (Who we got in the deal that brought us Matt Nokes, and who we traded four years later for future White Sox GM Kenny Williams.)

Do not adjust your computer monitor. Yes, Donruss used even crappier colors than the blue they used for the base set.


1986 Donruss Highlights Detroit Tigers:
27 Jack Morris

1986 Donruss "The Rookies" Detroit Tigers:
27 Eric King


1986 was also the first year that box bottom cards made their debut. Donruss was the only company to feature any Tigers though. Your guess is as good as mine as to what "PC" stands for. 

PC4 Kirk Gibson
PC5 Willie Hernandez

The astute observer will have noticed that I have featured Aurelio Lopez as the top of all three 1986 checklists. This was the last year that he would appear as a Tiger on any baseball cards, and this past Sunday would've been his 60th birthday.

RIP SeƱor Smoke.

3 comments:

Spiff said...

PC might stand for "Package Card."

lookjona said...

1986 Donruss Action All-Stars
Year four, 60 cards, 3"x5", very similar design to base set.
11. Lou Whitaker
18. Jack Morris
42. Dan Petry
43. Willie Hernandez
45. Alan Trammell
58. Sparky Anderson

lookjona said...

1986 Donruss Pop-Ups
Getting closer to 3D...
11. Lou Whitaker
18. Jack Morris