It's autumn. There's no more apt time than to show some Leaf cards. I've been patchy in my posting about Leaf, unlike other card makes where I've shown all the base cards in order. Today's post is just posting the ones I've somehow missed up to now.
Card Number 445: Leaf, 1990; #154
In 1988, Leaf cards were just DonRuss reprints. I don't think there was a set in 1989. Then in 1990, Leaf came back with a bit of a bang.
I've talked about the UD-boundary when the Upper Deck asteroid collided with the baseball card planet and basically wiped out the pre-existing fauna. The card sets that appear after that boundary soon take on the appearance of Upper Deck cards. This is one of the most obvious early transitional designs, with its white borders and a photo on the back.
I was curious who Tony was second to in 1990. I am relatively confident that the one player with a better career batting average than him at that point was Wade Boggs. Unlike Tony, Wade's batting average declined after 1990, with a few seasons below .300. His final career total when he retired in 1999 was a very respectable .328, which puts him 33rd on the all-time career average list.
Card Number 446: Leaf, 1997; #17
Fielding photo!
Just in case you wanted a batting photo, though, here is Tony in mid-swing in a full bleed photo on the back. Bonus point for having the year in the shiny foil set logo on the front.
There's a one year stats box and no room for any factoids. I'm a little bit disappointed this is card number 17 in the set instead of #19. So close!
Total: 446 cards
1990 Leaf is one of my favorite flagship sets of the 90's. I missed the boat on 1989 Upper Deck, so I overcompensated by busting a lot of 1990 Leaf. It's a good thing I worked at a card shop at the time otherwise I wouldn't have been able to afford the stuff.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I figured it was Boggs too, so I looked up his stats. He had a career batting average of .352 entering the 1990 season. That was 20 points higher than Gwynn! Insane, right?
Oooh, where did you find that stat? (And thanks for checking!)
DeleteI used Baseball Reference. If you open up the Wade Boggs page, then highlight his 1982 to 1989 stats it'll calculate the totals for you.
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