1984 Topps Traded Roger Clemens

I grew up a Topps fan in the 1980s. You could find packs of Topps everywhere from convenience stores to car lots ... OK, I exaggerate, but only a little bit. When I was in the eighth grade, my class went on a trip to Washington, D.C., and one of my classmates was appalled that I spent money on Topps cards at a gift shop. (The rest of my dough went to a 1960s-style Washington Senators cap, navy blue with red stripes down the panel).

There was Fleer and Donruss for much of the 1980s, but ... they almost seemed like cards made with grown-ups in mind. They were hard (Donruss) or impossible (Fleer) to find at the retail level, and hobby stores weren't afraid to charge a buck or so per pack. And some of those sets ('86 Donruss, '88 Fleer) just looked expensive (oh, how we can laugh now).

And perhaps the stores had good reason to jack up the prices. For all its brilliance -- and I honestly think Topps' '80s sets have aged far, far better than their competitors -- Topps was pretty lackadaisical when it came to adding cards of the hot rookies, who were only the big reason behind the '80s hobby boom. Never was this more evident than in 1984, when Fleer's inaugural update set had the first cards of Roger Clemens and Kirby Puckett while Topps was caught with its pants down. No Clemens, no Puckett. 

Let's correct this wrong with an '84 Topps Clemens. The main photo is from the '84 Red Sox yearbook, which devotes a half-page to the Rocket even though he had yet to make his major league debut at the time of the book's printing.

One other thing: After his messy departure from the team in 1996, I'm glad to see Clemens and the Sox have smoothed things out and he's appearing at Sox functions. It's nice to see him "back in the fold," and hopefully his number will hang in right field someday with those of Williams, Yaz, Pedro and the rest. A plaque in Cooperstown wouldn't hurt, either. Yeah, I said it.

Welcome Aboard!

Hi, and welcome to the Lost Sox Drawer. This blog is going to take a coulda-shoulda-woulda of Red Sox cards and turn them into reality. 

Roger Clemens didn’t have a 1984 Topps Traded card, but he will now. Hawk Harrelson never had a good Topps Red Sox card, but that will be fixed here. Gary Gaetti’s glorious five-game stint with the Sox never produced a baseball card, but that blight on society will be corrected.

The cards featured here can be divided into roughly three categories:

Cards That Never Were: Think a 1982 Wade Boggs (he was on the Sox roster that whole year but was inexplicably left out of the Topps Traded set), a 1955 Topps Jimmy Piersall (he was an exclusive with Bowman, Topps’ main competitor from 1951-55) or a 1978 Hostess Fred Lynn (left out of a couple of the popular 1970s Hostess sets — perhaps he had endorsement deal with a competing bakery?).

New and Improved: Where sub-par cards of a Sox player get a badly-needed makeover. Think the 1975 Topps Fred Lynn and Jim Rice rookie cards (forced into a timeshare with three other rookies), a 1986 Topps Traded Tom Seaver (the legend gets a crappy airbrush job) or a 1968 Topps Hawk Harrelson (an old Washington Senators photo is used instead of a fresh Red Sox picture).

You Mean He Played for the Sox?!: For guys you may not have known suited up for the Red Sox. This includes veterans who were cut/demoted in spring training, players who were with the Sox for a week and were designated for assignment or minor leaguers who were dealt away and became stars elsewhere. Think Chris Bosio, Mark Prior, Gary Gaetti, Ryan Roberts, Jose Cruz Jr., Joe Oliver, Anibal Sanchez and Anthony Rizzo.

Of note: As we get into the 90s and 2000s, baseball card designs become more complicated, with fancy graphics and enough foil stamping to wrap up your leftovers. From 2001 onward, I find it easier to use the Topps Heritage designs for our lost Sox. Besides, Topps has been using the same damn design since 2009 for its base set anyway, so that’s no fun.

Another note: This could not have been possible without the Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book, which pretty much set the template for the modern baseball card blogosphere. Its unique blend of nostalgia, whimsy and snark has been often imitated, never duplicated … or is that often duplicated, never imitated? I could never get that right. 

One final thing: Don’t take anything I say too seriously. Have fun.

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Ted Williams wasn’t a leadoff batter, but he’ll be the first to the plate in this blog. Everyone’s done a fantasy 1952 Topps Williams (he was in Korea that year, and didn’t appear in any card sets), so I’ll throw my hat in the ring:

And here’s a 1949 Bowman. Some of baseball’s bigger stars (Williams, DiMaggio, Musial) weren’t in the early Bowman sets. Perhaps they asked for more money? We’ll probably never know. I love this picture, which is originally in color, so I had to downgrade it to make it adhere to '49 Bowman standards:

And if you’re a football fan, particularly New England college football, check out my other blog at gridiriongarb.blospot.com, in which I look at the history of the region’s college football uniforms. Give it a look-see.