Back to 1990, with DonRuss

One of the things I love about collecting cards of a player who played through the "junk wax" era is the sheer variety of baseball cards churned out by multiple manufacturers. DonRuss was a cheaper card brand, although it was part of the Leaf bubblegum company. It's still sort of in the baseball card game as it's one of Panini's brands now and they put out a couple of ranges as DonRuss.

Anyway, back in 1990, DonRuss cards had bright red borders and looked like this...

Card Number 22: DonRuss 1990, #86

For all the fuss over Upper Deck cards in 1990, DonRuss got it right here. The photo is Tony ready to thwack the ball. The thwacking is almost inevitable really as he only struck out between 21 and 22 times a season on average. (434 times in his career, which equates to 21.7 times per season.)

Tony's 'Career Highlights' on the back are already impressive. First National League player to win three straight batting titles since Stan Musial in the early 50s. Batted .370 in 1987, the highest in the National League since Stan Musial (again) back in 1948. The first player in history to steal 50 bases (actually 56) and bat .370 in the same season. Already setting records for the Padres. They also mention his injury in 1988, which should probably have been a lowlight not a highlight. 

Like Topps, DonRuss also included All Star cards in its set.

Card Number 23: DonRuss 1990, #705

A very similar card. Same anticipatory pose. Except on this one the green top of the dug out behind him is at head height. I would love to be able to identify the blurry lounging team mate stretching his legs out from the bench while Tony bats. Who is that guy? He looks relaxed.

DonRuss helpfully include the National League logo along with the words All Star as other markers to distinguish this from his base card.

In my former career in comms we had an unofficial policy of writing copy once and using it multiple times. My old manager used to say "You never buy a hammer just to hit one nail." I used to write with that in mind - rejigging the lines from the press release to use in a marketing letter, and then in web page copy, and then in an article for my employer's promotional magazine. But I would never just reuse the exact same copy. That would be almost as lazy as the copy and paste Career Highlights on the back of this card!

At least they changed the stats - those are Tony's stats from the 1989 All Star Game in Anaheim. Tony didn't have to travel very far from home to play in that game. It was his fifth All Star Game.

And there was a third DonRuss card for Tony in 1990 too.

Card Number 24: DonRuss Bonus MVPs, #BC-4

(I don't know how the  bonus cards were sold. The Trading Card Database says there were 26 cards in the set.)

I find this card slightly ironic, as Tony's main reason for thinking he wouldn't be a "First ballot selection" for the Hall of Fame was because he never won the MVP award bestowed by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. Yet here he is with MVP splashed all over the background of the card.

And there's the back of the card. It is exactly the same as his base card. I hope whoever wrote that Career Highlights blurb got paid three times for it!

Total: 24/394