5 More Missing Topps Baseball Cards of the 1980s
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In the first installment of this series, Collectibles on SI looked at five of the biggest Topps "rookie cards that never were" from the 1980s. Picking up from there, here are five more cards collectors (and Topps!) wished existed during what was without a doubt the Hobby's "Decade of the Rookie Card."
RELATED: Five Missing Topps Cards of the 1980s
1982 Topps Traded Wade Boggs
A 1982 Topps Traded set with Cal Ripken, Ryne Sandberg (if only!), and Wade Boggs is almost too incredible to imagine, but there's no reason it couldn't have happened. In the case of the Chicken Man, he played in 104 games for Boston in 1982 and more or less a regular by late June. Naturally, production deadlines were a bit tighter than that, but Boggs wasn't just any rookie. He batted .335 at Pawtucket the year before with 41 doubles and looked the part of professional hitter from the day he stepped into the Fenway batter's box. Why not roll the dice!
RELATED: KITTLEMANIA - The Great Rookie Card Craze of 1983
1983 Topps Ron Kittle
Of all the cards profiled in this series, the 1983 Topps flagship Ron Kittle is easily the one of least interest to collectors today. Plus, anyone wanting a card of the bespectacled Rookie of the Year in a 1983 Topps design need only look as far as that year's Traded set. Still, this is a card that back in 1983 would have been an absolute game-changer. There was a reason Fleer wax was selling like hotcakes at card shows in 1983 while boxes of Topps gathered dust. Fleer had Ron Kittle. Topps didn't.
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1985 Topps Team USA Will Clark
One of the decade's most iconic cards, even today, is the 1985 Topps Team USA card of Mark McGwire. For some reason, however, the Olympic Team subset left out Big Mac's counterpart from across the Bay, Will Clark. It may seem like forever ago but there was a time that Big Mac and the Thrill were two of the hottest players in the game. Still, for collectors wanting a Team USA card of the Olympian, a quick check of the 1985 Topps Team USA checklist brought only bad news: The Thrill was gone!
1985 Topps Team USA Barry Larkin
While on the subject of the 1985 Topps Team USA cards, how great it would have been for that set to have included Hall of Famer Barry Larkin. While no such card was produced in 1985, collectors can at least imagine what one might have looked like, apart from the "bobbs" logo, thanks to Hobby legend and custom card aficionado Bob Lemke.
1989 Topps Ken Griffey, Jr.
If Topps had a time machine and could tweak just one checklist from long ago, the trading card giant might just set the dial for 1989. True, Junior had not yet played a major league game when the year's card sets began hitting store shelves, but that didn't stop Fleer, Donruss, and most famously Upper Deck from featuring the game's number one prospect in their flagship sets. The result was a Topps offering largely dead to collectors, not just then but now. True, Topps came through with a Griffey in its Traded set, but those cards came out far too late to satisfy a Hobby hungry for for the Kid's true rookie cards.
Jason A. Schwartz is a collectibles expert whose work can be found regularly at SABR Baseball Cards, Hobby News Daily, and 1939Bruins.com. His collection of Hank Aaron baseball cards and memorabilia is currently on exhibit at the Atlanta History Center, and his collectibles-themed artwork is on display at the Honus Wagner Museum and PNC Park.