Monday, October 20, 2008

1992 Topps


For the second year in a row, Topps produced an outstanding set. I personally prefer the '91's over these, but there were several improvements that put these right up there with them. First and foremost was changing to the all white card stock. For the first year ever, Topps cards flat out popped when you pulled them out of the packs. 

Another thing they did that I loved was bringing back the multi-player prospects cards. I don't know whether it's the fact that Trammell, Whitaker, Parrish, and Morris' rookie cards where all this way, or just the fact that it's cool to get four rookies on one card, (although with Bowman in full swing you didn't necessarily get four...) but whatever it is I like them. I'd like to see them used more today. But with the goofy rules involved now with rookie cards, I imagine they are a thing of the past.


The 1992 Topps Detroit Tigers:
29 Mickey Tettleton
120 Alan Trammell
126 Rico Brogna
143 Paul Gibson
167 Andy Allanson
198 Scott Aldred
221 Skeeter Barnes
272 Jerry Don Gleaton
293 Mike Henneman
319 Tony Phillips
354 Dave Bergman
381 Spark Anderson
397 Cecil Fielder All-Star
425 Cecil Fielder
441 Rob Deer
458 Frank Tanana
472 Rich Rowland
487 John Cerutti
508 Bill Gullickson
522 Milt Cuyler
537 Mark Leiter
570 Lou Whitaker
621 Dan Gakeler
656 Rudy Pemberton
665 Dave Haas
679 Pete Incaviglia
684 Trever Miller
685 Scott Livingstone
722 Walt Terrell
750 Travis Fryman


Topps also introduced the full-blown parallel set in '92 (I'm not counting the Desert Storm cards of '91, because...well....if you have to go to Iraq to get them then they aren't real parallels....) with not one but two variations of their base card. One version had gold foil over the player and team name and were randomly inserted in packs. The second version looked the same as the first, but had the word "Winner" in foil as well. You got these by playing some sort of scratch off game. A co-worker of mine at the time had these by the bushel as he would throw the game cards on a light table to see where the winning scratches were.

They issued their most popular traded set in years. Unfortunately I never got one. These babies were pricey before the Nomar Garciaparra card exploded into the stratosphere. But at least I have a Trever Miller Draft Pick card I can show.


21T Mark Carreon
24T Phil Clark
41T Danny Gladden
44T Rick Greene


I thought Topps and O-Pee-Chee had split ways in '91, and I was wrong. I only have this one card, but it is numbered the same as his Topps base card. Since it is a higher number than most OPC sets usually contain, I am going to assume that the entire set contains the same checklist as its Topps counterpart. 

1 comment:

lookjona said...

1992 Topps Debut '91
Third and final year for the Topps Debut sets.
42. Mike Dalton
59. Dan Gakeler
69. Dave Haas
71. Shawn Hare
99. John Kiely
111. Scott Livingstone
122. Rusty Meacham

1992 Topps McDonald's Baseball's Best
Actually not bad looking cards...some gold foil, large player photos, narrow black border. We only got one of 44 cards, but it's the first one.
1. Cecil Fielder

1991 Topps Kids
Just like the name suggests, a set of 132 cards aimed at younger collectors...wild colors and background designs, cartoon letters, some players' real heads on drawn bodies. For kids, or for LSD users.
75. Alan Trammell
76. Cecil Fielder
77. Lou Whitaker
78. Travis Fryman
79. Tony Phillips