Saturday, December 15, 2012

1987 Topps Baseball Cello Pack

Greetings!

I hope everyone is ready to have a great weekend.  I'm sure my sister will, as she's off to celebrate her birthday today.  Anyway, Hot Stove season is well underway, and with that in mind, it's time to put up here one of the top "I can't believe this ain't here already?!?!?!?" packs...1987 Topps baseball!


Years ago, the Wifey bought me one of those Fairfield 30-pack clear cases for $15.  This thing came from that case.  But so did this cello pack!  Here's the unwrapped cello:


If you are wondering why I sat on this pack for so long, I have enlarged the Special Offer above.  Yep, 25 years ago today, the All Stars & Hot Prospects offer expired.  Wonder if anyone in Topps is marking this occasion.  Or if anyone out there was able to claim the offer.  Anyway, enough rambling...here's the pack:




#529 – Alvaro Espinoza
#310 – Frank Viola
#305 – John Franco
#32 – Tim Leary
 
The set consisted of 792 cards.  The big rookie cards were Barry Bonds, Bo Jackson, and Barry Larkin.  The Mark McGwire card was also highly sought after for some reason.




#404 – Doug Sisk
#582 – Bruce Berenyi
#129 – Rick Cerone
#196 – Randy O’Neal
 
Some collectors are think highly of the wood borders, and some do not.  I am one of the former, as this set is my intro to card collecting.  To me, wood borders just seemed to work on a baseball card.  The fonts also worked for me. 




#269 – Cliff Speck
#506 – Orioles Leaders
#596 – Steve Sax (All-Star)
#636 – Darren Daulton
  



#546 – Mike Morgan
#377 – John Henry Johnson
No # - 25+ year old gum
#11 of 22 – Fernando Valenzuela (1986 All-Star Commemorative Set)

Just had to scan the gum before I tossed it.  Couldn't risk having one of the kids come across it.  

I enjoyed the glossy All-Star inserts.  Perhaps Topps can bring it back and not have a third of the Update
set consist of All-Star cards.





#500 – Don Mattingly
#189 – Joe Hesketh
#246 – Jim Dwyer
#152 – Toby Harrah
  




#598 – Ozzie Smith (All-Star)
#672 – Chili Davis
#576 – Frank Pastore
#231 – Giants Leaders
 
Sorry, Frank's card seems to scream out, "I'm really a member of the grounds crew!"





#654 – Checklist (Cards 529-660)
#728 – Tippy Martinez
#161 – Steve Ontiveros
#497 – Dale Mohorcic





#235 – Alvin Davis
#163 – Kevin Gross
#258 – Steve Yeager
#95 – Oddibe McDowell
#307 – Lee Guetterman

And there's the rest of the cards.  This was a pretty Mariner and Twin-heavy pack.  Too bad there weren't many stars on those teams at the time.  Here's some sample card backs for you: 


I didn't realize that I got an extra card in the pack, assuming the All-Star card was part of the promised 31 cards.  Bonus for me!

Anyway, that's the pack. I was glad to contribute a pack from this set to the site and cross this one off the list.  Now the naysayers will have to say, "Yeah, it's a good site, but you don't have any '89 Upper Deck here."  I'll leave that to someone else.

Have a great weekend...thanks for reading!

2 comments:

Hackenbush said...

I was actually most intrigued by John Henry Johnson. First there's the name with it's multiple connotations. "My name is John Johnson, I live in Wisconsin, I work at the baseball park there." I paraphrase. Then he looks to me like Epstein from "Welcome Back, Kotter". Looking at his stats, he seems to have peaked in A ball posting a 27-4 record in 1976-77.

The Junior Junkie said...

That was a solid pack for '87 Topps. John Henry Johnson is an excellent porn name, and the picture on the card reinforces that. And what kid doesn't want a Timothy Leary card?

Keep up the great posts!