I was on my way to Pittsburgh last week when I had a layover at Houston International. Being an Astros fan I picked this up at one of gift shops. (Hometown Favorites - Terminal B). Jeff Bagwell 2001 Topps Heritage is on top. I divided this up through sets.
1981 Topps - 62: Heep, Knicely, Sprowl; 190: Cesar Cedeno - Cedeno was the star of the team in the 70s. 81 happens to be his last season with the team. Heep, Nicely, and Sprowl all had journeyman career. Funny thing Topps includes the same three players as Astros Future Stars in 1982 set.
1981 Donruss - 144: Denny Walling
1981 Fleer - 69: Bruce Bochy - even current World Series winning manager played with the Astros.
1983 Topps - 692: Denny Walling
1983 Fleer - 466: Dave Smith
1984 Fleer - 240: Mike Scott
1984 Topps - 752: Phil Garner - would become manager two decades later
1985 Topps - 353: Julio Solano
1986 Topps - 476: Ron Mathis; 590: Bob Knepper
1987 Donruss - 410: Kevin Bass; 508: Danny Darwin
1988 Donruss - 85: Jim Deshaies; 209: Craig Reynolds; 261: Billy Hatcher; 358: Danny Darwin
1988 Fleer - 453: Dave Meads
1988 Topps - 24: Jim Deshaises; 342: Larry Andersen; 557: Craig Reynolds; 643: Rocky Childress
1989 Star - 18: David Silvestri - minor league card; never played a game with the Astros
1989 Donruss - 325: Kevin Bass
1990 Donruss - 359: Larry Andersen - Astros fans like to thank whoever the GM of the Boston Red Sox at the time for taking Andersen and sending Jeff Bagwell to Houston.
1990 Topps - a whole pile of them. I think I got 1/3 the team set so far. The players: Craig Biggio, Terry Puhl, Eric Anthony, Mark Portugal, Glenn Wilson, Glenn Davis, and Bill Gullickson
1991 Fleer - 521: Gerald Young
1991 Upper Deck - 250: Mark Portugal - a pitcher batting
1992 Fleer Ultra - 496: Scott Servais; 497 - Ed Taubensee
1993 Donruss - 272: Pete Harnish
1994 Score - 400: Eric Anthony
1998 Bowman - 332: John Halama - played 6 games with the Astros in 98
2001 Topps Heritage - 243: Jeff Bagwell - Astros legend and future Hall of Famer
2002 Topps - 104: Daryle Ward
2007 Topps - 362: Chris Burke (red letters), 390: Roy Oswalt - worst Topps design of the decade. Still miss Roy.
2008 Topps Update - UH25: Lance Berkman - still miss Lance
2008 Upper Deck Series 1 - HC38: Carlos Lee - more like unmovable overpaid playerDidn't get 50 cards. I got 47 cards. About 3/4 of the cards from junk wax era. It was fun to go through.
It's nice that they threw in a modern, legitimate insert card.
ReplyDeleteFYI - The Bagwell is a Fleer Tradition card, actually.
Wow. I was in the same airport twice last week. Of course, I was trying to leap concourses in a single bound in order to make impossibly short connections. So, I didn't get much of a chance to stop n' shop, and maybe find these guy's friends.
ReplyDeleteSorry you got stiffed three cards. Just sucky and lazy on their part. It's not like anything was getting sweeter with age.
At least as easy stuff goes, I think you did pretty well getting plenty in the early 80s. Everybody seems to have a different definition of the "junk wax era", and I make mine starting in 87, and extending at least through 1995. I worked a card shop in that era, and 1987 is the first year I can remember that nobody had any trouble getting product at any time. It was hard to come by 1984 Donruss or 1986 Fleer from time to time back then.
Seems like you did pretty good avoiding much of the 1991 sweet spot of true junk with that sucker's bet.