Wednesday, December 15, 2021

Return to 80s Week - Five Fleer cards from 1988

Fleer issued lots of small 44-card sets in the 1980s. Tony appeared in lots of them. 1988 was a particularly good year for both the sets and cards featuring Tony.

Card Number 886: Fleer Baseball's Best, 1988; #17

This set was divided into 'sluggers' and 'pitchers'. Tony was (obviously) a slugger.


The bright green and yellow of the border on the front is carried over onto the back, which is a little bit dull. But nobody bought these card sets to look at the backs. 


Card Number 887: Fleer Baseball's Exciting Stars, 1988; #17

This photo looks visually very similar to the one in the 'Baseball's Best' set. The Blue border with bold red stripe makes the card look quite different overall though.


The blue and red carry on over to the back of the card. This has pretty much the same information on it as the Baseball's Best card, but is marginally more interesting to look at.


Card number 888: Fleer Baseball's Hottest Stars, 1988; #15

Its stands to reason that if you are one of baseball's most exciting stars then you will be one of baseball's hottest stars too.

Tony is taking off for first base in this photo. That background looks very similar to the two previous cards in this post. 


The yellow and red border brings the heat to this card -suitable for one of baseball's hottest stars.

The cardback swaps the order of the white and pink stripes on the back of the Exciting Stars card - almost exactly! Just to mix things up, they also moved the biodata.


Card Number 889: Fleer League Leaders, 1988; #16

This says "League Leaders '88" but it featured the players who led the leagues in 1987.


A change of scenery for this card set, with Tony standing in front of the grottiest concrete wall backdrop imaginable. The paltry number of fans behind him seem uninterested in the game. This is one of those rare cards where closer cropping would have made the photo look a whole heap better. At least to remove the buttcheek of whoever is sitting on that plastic folding chair in the background.  

The back is pink and white again on the back, with some of blue-on-blue stripes from the front as well.


And finally...

Card Number 890: Fleer Record Setters, 1988; #17

As with the League Leaders, this set features players that set records in the previous season.


A real change of scenery this time, with Tony in the outfield!

The back has a big red bar and  grey stripes on the stats box for a change as well. 


And that's this blogpost's fifth and final Fleer card from 1988!

Total: 890 cards


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