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.
No comments:
Post a Comment