80s week: Young Superstar, Big Hitter

Tony's cards from the 1980s, as he was breaking on to the scene, are a great resource for building a picture of him as a player before he became the legendary figure of "Mr Padre". It's weird to think that at one point he was a hot rising star. In a strange way the hitting machine of the 1990s with his powerful mature physique has eclipsed those early days. I find it hard to imagine him as a young man.

And yet here he is, heralded as a young superstar.

Card Number 495: Kay-Bee Young Superstars of Baseball, 1986; #17 

Like the Fleer cards I posted about yesterday, these cards were sold in self-contained sets of 33 cards. They were made by Topps and sold exclusively in K.B. Toy Shops. (The little toy soldier logo is really cute!) 

You can tell these were a high quality product for Topps at the time because there was a photo on the back and a write up that is actually about the player.

The way they describe Tony's college career is a bit misleading. He attended university on a basketball scholarship and was allowed to play baseball after one of his high school contemporaries with a baseball scholarship badgered the baseball team's coach into asking him to play, and even then initially the basketball coach said no.

Although this card was manufactured by Topps, I regard it as an 'oddball'. Our second card today is also a Topps card, but one they manufactured for a bakery.

Card Number 496: Drake's Big Hitters, 1985; #14

As the card says, this was the fifth series of Drake's cards. It was also the final one with Topps. The sets produced for Drake's after that were produced through Michael Schechter Associates (MSA), who created a lot of 'oddball' sets. 

There were 44 cards in this set, which were included in Drake's products.

The back just tweaks the cardback from the Topps regular sets, except with the addition of the Drake's logo by the upper right corner of the stats box and the addition of Drake's Bakeries to the boilerplate text underneath the box. However, compared to the regular Topps set this cardback is much more readable.

This is the regular Topps cardback from 1985 which must be a nightmare for people who are colourblind.

(I mean, red on green? Seriously?)

So, here we are, almost at the end of 80s week. I've decided it's going to be an 8-day week with a bonus card tomorrow as well.

Total: 496 cards