88 Topps Cards

Traded sets

2009-05-22T10:28:00.002-04:00

My current card blog is Traded Sets.

Click on "older posts" or the archive on the right to see posts from this blog.

Farewell from 88 Topps Cards

2008-11-14T08:30:00.001-05:00

That's all, folks!

We've reached the end of the line with this blog. Having gone through all 792 cards in the regular-issue set as well as all 132 cards in the traded set, we're done. We hit 1,090 posts starting with the Vince Coleman RB back on January 9th. I expect this to be my last post ever for this blog.

This has been an immensely fun experience for me, mostly because of all the support and great comments this blog has received. Among many others, I want to thank dayf from Cardboard Junkie, Ben Henry from The Baseball Card Blog, Steve from White Sox Cards, Kevin at Orioles Card "O" the Day, Scott from the 83 Fleer Project (from whom I got the idea for this blog), Blake at TwinsCards.com, and numerous other bloggers out there who supported the site. I also want to thank some of the great readers and bloggers who commented here often, including Luke, --David, thewritersjourney, indefenseofabsurdity, Johngy, Cliff (capewood), night owl, fogus, Matt S, Mike S, Jason C, Jamin, Chris D, Spike, Jeffrey W, Timberhill, Extra Innings, Splint, MMayes, Toronto Mike, ESchmut, Bo R, Uglee Card, jacobmrley, and of course Gary Thurman's entire family. If I haven't mentioned you specifically, it's not because I don't appreciate you.

Two notes going forward:

The fun continues over at 78 Topps Cards, so please bookmark or track the new blog.

I will continue to see any new comments made on this blog, and will respond if appropriate, so feel free to peruse all the back posts. This blog will stand for (hopefully) a long time as a testament to the 1988 Topps set.

One last big THANK YOU from me.

And just like that...

..it's over.

#750 Bo Jackson: The best card of 1988 Topps

2008-11-14T07:45:00.000-05:00

#750 Bo Jackson is the best card of 1988 Topps, as voted on by you, the readers.

The card won every poll quite easily. Nothing more to say about it, except thanks for all the voting!

#132T: Checklist 1T-132T

2008-11-14T07:30:00.000-05:00

IMPACT FACTOR N/A: It's a bit anti-climactic, but the very last card of this blog is...a checklist. However, I'll note one interesting thing. This is the only card I can think of (although there are probably more examples) which mentions itself in its own title. The checklist cards from the regular 1988 set (as well as this one from Kevin's Great 1965 Topps Project) mention themselves somewhere on the card, but this one actually mentions card #132T right in the title.

#131T Don Zimmer

2008-11-13T16:45:00.001-05:00

IMPACT FACTOR 4/10: Zimmer led the Cubs to a rare post-season appearance in 1989, although they got beaten in the NLCS by the Giants. Before then, they made the NLCS in 1984, which was their first post-season appearance since 1945. By comparison, they've made the playoffs 3 out of the last 6 seasons, including the last 2.

Zimmer has been involved in baseball for a long time and has been involved in many memorable moments, not the least of which was getting tackled by Pedro Martinez during a brawl between the Red Sox and the Yankees.

#130T Ted Wood

2008-11-13T14:45:00.000-05:00

IMPACT FACTOR 1/10: Wood had just a couple cups of coffee with the Giants in the majors.

#129T Glenn Wilson

2008-11-13T13:30:00.000-05:00

IMPACT FACTOR 3/10: Wilson, picked up in the trade mention on the back of the card, was unproductive for half a season in Seattle, but they then traded him to Pittsburgh for Darnell Coles, who was a little better. Coles himself was eventually traded for Tracey Jones, who was decent for parts of 2 seasons.

Still trying to trade...

2008-11-13T11:25:00.003-05:00

I didn't find any decent trades out there for parts of the Tiffany 1988 Topps Traded set. At this point, I'd settle for a batch of 1971 Topps cards if anybody is interested in that. Email me at 88topps at gmail dot com to discuss that or any other trade propositions you might have.

Otherwise I'm packing it up and putting it away!

#128T David Wells

2008-11-13T11:02:00.000-05:00

Here's the irony of this card:

Those of you who aren't familiar with David Wells will look at the above photo and think, "Gee, that guy is a little chubby," while those of us who are familiar with Wells look at the same photo and think, "Gee, I can't believe he was ever that skinny!"

This is another fantastic rookie card from the 88 Topps Traded set.

IMPACT FACTOR 4/10: Wells, along with Duane Ward, were the two unheralded members of the Blue Jays bullpen that led them to success in 1992 (and in Ward's case also in 1993.) Wells was a great reliever for the team and pitched wonderfully in the 1992 post-season.

Wells went on to have a very good career, winning more than 60% of his decisions, including a 20-win season in 2000 with Toronto during his second stint with the team. He appeared in a whopping 17 post-season series with the Blue Jays, Reds, Orioles, Yankees, Red Sox, and Padres. Sure, he was in the right place at the right time quite often, but in many cases, it was his own presence that made it the right place.

Wells was a colorful and often obnoxious player, but he was a damn tough competitor and made the most of his talent.

#127T Bob Welch

2008-11-13T07:30:00.001-05:00

IMPACT FACTOR 7/10: Welch came to the Athletics after many years with the Dodgers and did not disappoint. Although his W-L stats were inflated beyond what he deserved thanks to a great Oakland offense, he nevertheless pitched mostly very well in 7 seasons with Oakland, including his Cy Young winning season of 1990 with a 27-6 record. He also pitched quite well in numerous post-season starts for the A's, with the lone exception of a 1988 start against Boston.

#126T Walt Weiss

2008-11-12T15:07:00.000-05:00

IMPACT FACTOR 3/10: Weiss won the 1988 AL Rookie of the Year award, but was the best of a pretty weak pool of candidates. Although he was a capable shortstop, he was pretty poor on the offensive side of the ball and hit terribly in 5 out of 6 post-season series he appeared in with Oakland. In his entire career, Weiss ended up playing in 13 post-season series with Oakland, Colorado, and Atlanta and hit .190 with a .270 OBP. Oops.

#125T Ron Washington

2008-11-12T13:01:00.000-05:00

Wow, Wash has some serious bed-head in this photo.

IMPACT FACTOR 1/10: Washington played one partial season with the Indians toward the end of his playing career before beginning a successful coaching career in the majors. He's now the manager of the Texas Rangers.

#124T Robin Ventura

2008-11-12T11:02:00.000-05:00

Here's one of the other top rookie cards in this traded set. Overall, the Olympic players in this set did quite well for themselves.

IMPACT FACTOR 7/10: Ventura played 9 full seasons with the White Sox (plus a cup of coffee in 1989) and was one of the most important players in that franchise's return to excellence. Thanks to Wade Boggs, Ventura didn't make many all-star games, but Robin was one of the top power-hitting 3Bs in the game for a long stretch.

FINAL POLL: The best card of 1988 Topps

2008-11-12T09:23:00.002-05:00

Well, folks, it's been a long journey to get here.

We had 33 cards nominated by the readers. From our initial round of polls, we narrowed that down to 16 entrants into the tournament. After regionals, quarterfinals, and semifinals, we're down to just two cards.

Would you believe that to get to this point, the polls have had a total of 1,423 votes? That's not too shabby.

Personally, I'm sad that #300 Don Mattingly didn't make it here, but I can't argue with the readers.

Without further adieu, I present to you the final poll of the 88 Topps Cards blog. This one will find the best card of the 1988 Topps set, as determined by the readers of this blog.

88 Topps Cards

Traded sets

Farewell from 88 Topps Cards

#750 Bo Jackson: The best card of 1988 Topps

#132T: Checklist 1T-132T

#131T Don Zimmer

#130T Ted Wood

#129T Glenn Wilson

Still trying to trade...

#128T David Wells

#127T Bob Welch

#126T Walt Weiss

#125T Ron Washington

#124T Robin Ventura

FINAL POLL: The best card of 1988 Topps

#123T Willie Upshaw

#122T Jeff Treadway

#121T Dickie Thon

#120T Mickey Tettleton

#119T Scott Terry

#118T Pat Tabler

#117T Bill Swift

78 Topps is up and running!

#116T Todd Stottlemyre

Semifinals: Best card of 1988 Topps

#115T Kurt Stillwell

#114T Pete Stanicek

#113T Ed Sprague

#112T Jim Snyder

#111T Pete Smith

#110T Lee Smith

#109T Joe Slusarski

#108T Don Slaught

#107T Dave Silvestri

Round Two Poll: #4

#106T Scott Servais

Trade Me Anything for Books

Round Two Poll: #3

#105T Mike Schooler

#104T Calvin Schiraldi

Round Two Poll: #2

#103T Mackey Sasser

#102T Nelson Santovenia

Round Two Poll: #1

#101T Rafael Santana

Best card of 1988 Topps: Round Two

Get out and vote

#100T Luis Salazar

#99T Mark Salas

#98T Chris Sabo

Taking trade offers

Tournament poll #8

#97T Cookie Rojas

#96T Frank Robinson

Tournament poll #7

#95T Doug Robbins

#94T Luis Rivera

Tournament poll #6

#93T Earnie Riles

Tie poll!

#92T Jose Rijo

Tournament poll #5

#91T Dennis Rasmussen

#90T Rafael Ramirez

Tournament poll #4

#89T Ted Power

#88T Jim Poole

#87T Jeff Pico

Tournament poll #3

#86T Gary Pettis

Tournament poll #2

#84T Steve Peters

#85T Dan Petry

Tournament poll #1

Tournament of 16 best 1988 Topps cards

Poem

#83T Melido Perez

#82T Dan Pasqua

84 Topps cards

Reminder: round 1 of polls