1992 Donruss

I like to refer to these as Donruss' comeback set. Ok, I have never actually referred to these as Donruss' comeback set, but I would like to. Donruss leapt ahead of most of their competition in base sets in 1992. You can tell that desktop publishing was really starting to take off around this time. The gradiated blue borders (green on The Rookies of course...) really are a nice, simple touch to these. 

Donruss also figured out that the gold foil worked much better as an accentuation on their Diamond King inserts, which were the best looking DK's every produced. The cards are printed on a nice thick white card stock with a glossy finish. While this is not one of my favorite Donruss issues, it at least showed that they were done appealing to kids with their base set. Consider this a springboard to some of the fantastic cards they produced in the mid-90's.

The 1992 Donruss Detroit Tigers:

42 Andy Allanson

85 Mickey Tettleton

111 Frank Tanana

131 BIll Gullickson

164 Alan Trammell

206 Cecil Fielder

232 Milt Cuyler

253 Mike Henneman

285 Milt Cuyler

328 Tony Phillips

349 Travis Fryman

375 Paul Gibson

443 Lloyd Moseby

486 Scott Aldred

512 Mark Salas

532 Rob Deer

565 Walt Terrell

607 Jerry Don Gleaton

633 Mark Leiter

675 Scott Livingstone

709 John Cerutti

749 Skeeter Barnes

DK-25 Tony Phillips Diamond King

This was the last year of The Rookies as we would know them. If that didn't make you shed a tear, perhaps the list of Tigers will do so:

17 Rico Brogna

33 John Doherty

44 Buddy Groom

48 Shawn Hare

62 Kurt Knudsen

1991 Donruss

The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round, the wheels on the bus go.....ah, screw it. Donruss hit rock bottom in '91 with these turds. They hijacked the '86 design and released these in two series with two different color schemes so we could swear at them twice. This is one of those cases where the cards themselves say more than I ever could. The Cecil Fielder Diamond King card is not even worth showing.

The 1991 Donruss Detroit Tigers:

3 Cecil Fielder Diamond King

40 Milt Cuyler

65 Mark Salas

76 Mike Henneman

118 Alan Trammell

133 Lance McCullers

174 Lou Whitaker

188 Lloyd Moseby

230 Mike Heath

245 Jeff Robinson

286 Tony Phillips

301 Chet Lemon

342 Dave Bergman

353 Paul Gibson

397 Cecil Fielder MVP

422 Scott Aldred

451 Cecil Fielder

492 Jack Morris

508 Frank Tanana

549 Steve Searcy

563 John Shelby

605 Clay Parker

620 Edwin Nunez

661 Jerry Don Gleaton

675 Dan Petry

717 Walt Terrell

728 Gary Ward

729 Rob Deer

768 Travis Fryman

Donruss added their MVP insert cards to the base set in '91, and replaced them with Highlights insert cards, which weren't really insert cards either. They were just numbered like they were.

BC-5 Cecil Fielder

They continued with their Rookies box set, this time fooling us by making them red instead of green. Which makes me wonder. Series 1 had blue fronts and blue backs. Series 2 had green fronts and green backs. The Rookies had red fronts and......slightly different green backs? I don't know, and I don't care. Hell, we didn't even get the good Leiter brother.

6 Milt Cuyler

29 Mark Leiter

53 Rusty Meacham

The one saving grace is that this would be the end of the crappy era for Donruss. They would come up with some nicer cards in the years to follow, but good god are these awful.

EDIT: Thanks to my new friend and Tiger collector Jon for telling me about one I have missed.

1991 Donruss Grand Slammers:

7 Cecil Fielder

1990 Donruss

I vividly remember paying $18 a box for these monstrosities. (and I bought two boxes...) To this day I still have trouble reading the names on the front. Donruss continued their descent into the pre-school market with what are commonly referred to as the "Christmas Cards." 

I can't believe I spent $36 on these, and I didn't even get a whole set. (this was $36 in 1990 to boot!) $36 today will buy 2/3 of a tank of gas for my Toyota Camry, 3 pair of boxer shorts at Casual Male XL, or dinner for two at Chili's with a tip. Personally, I'm leaning towards going commando and going to Chili's.....

The 1990 Donruss Detroit Tigers:

16 Lou Whitaker Diamond King

38 Brian DuBois

60 Chet Lemon

62 Doyle Alexander

90 Alan Trammell

178 Matt Nokes

180 Frank Tanana

209 Mike Heath

296 Mike Henneman

298 Lou Whitaker

327 Frank Williams

415 Kevin Ritz

417 Jeff Robinson

445 Dave Bergman

533 Mike Brumley

535 Doug Strange

563 Edwin Nunez

599 Rick Schu

610 Guillermo Hernandez

621 Gary Ward

636 Tracy Jones

639 Jack Morris

657 Paul Gibson

661 Gary Pettis

696 Scott Lusader

For the third year in a row, Donruss gave us the lame MVP "insert" set. Luckily, for the third year in a row it was Alan Trammell. I guess that's something.

BC-26 Alan Trammell

I don't have this Rookies card, but I'm guessing it's green.

4 Brian Dubois

I do however have this blue card of Cecil Fielder. Judging by the back, I am assuming it's a Baseball's Best issue. I am also assuming there should be more, but given how bad this team was, I'm not betting on it.

133 Cecil Fielder

1989 Donruss

Now we are finally getting to some nice cards. Oh wait, no we aren't. I've still got to do '89 Donruss. It's almost impossible to believe these aren't the worst Donruss set. My only guess is that two guys did different designs for these, and then flipped a coin to see who got to do the top and bottom and who got to do the sides. As it turns out, nobody won.

I mean you've got rainbow colors with no relation to the teams pictures combined with awful black and blacker bars down the sides. These look like something Yahoo would let you create when making an avatar. Not even a Tigers card of one of my all-time favorites (Fred Lynn) can save this horrible mess.

The 1989 Donruss Detroit Tigers:

18 Jeff Robinson DK

29 Steve Searcy

60 Gary Pettis

62 Guillermo Hernandez

90 Frank Tanana

116 Matt Nokes

153 Ted Power

178 Doyle Alexander

180 Alan Trammell

209 Chet Lemon

234 Jack Morris

271 Mike Heath

296 Walt Terrell

298 Lou Whitaker

327 Mike Henneman

352 Luis Salazar

389 Dave Bergman

415 Jim Walewander

417 Pat Sheridan

445 Paul Gibson

470 Jeff Robinson

508 Tom Brookens

533 Darrell Evans

535 Eric King

563 Fred Lynn

BC-17 Alan Trammell MVP

The Donruss Rookies weren't much better:

17 Torey Lovullo

39 Mike Brumley

Donruss introduced their Traded set in 1989. Still no winners here:

9T Chris Brown

17T Ken Williams

50T Charles Hudson

As bad as these were, they would still be no match for what Donruss would release the year after.....

1988 Donruss

1988 was the year that Donruss decided to take full advantage of the card collecting explosion that was starting around this time. I am convinced of three things regarding 1988 Donruss. One, this mother is as ugly as it gets. (only because I'm only up to 1988. Donruss would stake this claim many, many, many times in the years to follow...) Two, there were so many cards produced that year that the energy crisis could be solved for the next three generations by rounding all these babies up and burning them. And three, if you think I'm kidding about number two, go to ebay and do a search for "1988 Donruss set." There is never a bid on a single set, simply because no one is willing to pay the $8 shipping for one, even if it was being given away for FREE. (In fact, a quick check of ebay right this second shows that there is a lot of EIGHT complete factory sets that has received a bid of 99 cents. That's right, 99 cents for 5,280 cards.....)

The 1988 Donruss Detroit Tigers

4 Alan Trammell Diamond King

50 Eric King

91 Walt Terrell

107 Tom Brookens

127 Jack Morris

152 Matt Nokes

173 Lou Whitaker

215 Chet Lemon

230 Alan Trammell

250 Darrell Evans

275 Kirk Gibson

296 Jeff Robinson

338 Mike Heath

353 Larry Herndon

373 Dave Bergman

398 Willie Hernandez

420 Mike Henneman

461 Frank Tanana

476 Dan Petry

496 Bill Madlock

522 Pat Sheridan

543 Jim Morrison

584 Doyle Alexander

599 Mark Thurmond

615 Scott Lusader

Donruss also introduced their first "insert" cards in 1988, but really all they are is a 26 card MVP subset. They weren't any harder to pull than any other card. They are the same crappy design on the same crappy stock. I dunno what the "BC" designation is supposed to stand for in a subset of MVPs, but I don't really care.....

BC-11 Alan Trammell

The Rookies entry was:

19 Paul Gibson

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.............................................

1987 Donruss

Ok, these aren't horrible, but they're just sort of........ugh. I can't put my finger on it, but........still...........ugh. Damn, I don't even have any more good stories about 1987. (Unless you count New Year's Eve at Sue Kajawa's house, and that story isn't even appropriate for this blog.....) So let me finish this up.

The 1987 Donruss Detroit Tigers:

13 Jack Morris Diamond King

47 Bruce Fields

50 Kirk Gibson

91 Lance Parrish

107 Lou Whitaker

127 Alan Trammell

152 Frank Tanana

173 Jack Morris

215 Dave Collins

230 Darnell Coles

250 Eric King

275 Walt Terrell

296 Tom Brookens

338 Dwight Lowry

353 Chet Lemon

373 Dan Petry

398 Darrell Evans

420 Dave Bergman

461 Chuck Cary

476 Johnny Grubb

496 Mike Heath

522 Willie Hernandez

543 Mark Thurmond

584 Randy O'Neal

Donruss did "The Rookies" set again, with the SAME ugly ass green borders. We were introduced to the original rollercoaster though, Mike Henneman. Ugh.

12 Matt Nokes

13 Jeff Robinson

32 Mike Henneman

There were also Highlight cards again.

51 Alan Trammell

52 Doyle Alexander

Try as I might I can't come up with anything better than the party at Sue Kajawa's, but Christ what a party that was. She may still be grounded, 21 years later....

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 Señor Smoke.