Thursday, June 30, 2011

50 Houston Astros cards pack


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 Score - 61: Billy Hatcher; 245: Dave Smith

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 player

Didn't get 50 cards. I got 47 cards. About 3/4 of the cards from junk wax era. It was fun to go through.

2 comments:

  1. It's nice that they threw in a modern, legitimate insert card.

    FYI - The Bagwell is a Fleer Tradition card, actually.

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  2. 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.

    Sorry 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.

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