Bad Wax Review - 1989 Topps Baseball
Wow in only my second pack, I pulled out actual wax! The 1989 Tops baseball pack, probably one of the last sets with no insert cards. Unremarkable package of blue background, with the typical baseball, topps logo and mentioning that it’s the REAL one! Which really could be debated. The best cards I can hope for are Randy Johnson RC, and John Smoltz RC. Here is what the pack looks like:
OK so without further ado, let’s open her up and see all 15 cards o’ crap! First off, there is stale gum in the pack and although preservatives are great, I don’t think this gum is edible, but I will keep it in case someone wants to buy this pack from me.
1. Bob Walk - P - Pirates - card 504 - Bob was the definition of mediocre player, I never remembered thinking any team would be instantly better with him on the team, what is sad is the only blurb Topps could put on the card was that he graduated high school, went to jounior college and that he is married with 2 sons. Let’s hope they are better pitchers than he was!
2. Mike Henneman - P Tigers - card 365 - I actually liked Henneman, he was always a closer on my fantasy team. He was’t a year to year all star but he was solid. What is odd though is that even though he was a reliever he was 11-3 one year with 7 saves and no starts. At this point in his career 2 years in the majors and already the Tiger closer.
3. Andy Allanson - C - Indians - Card 283 - Run out of baseball in 1995, this card represents the pinnacle of his career 0.323 BA 5 HR, 50 RBIs, 5 SB. You can bet I had him high on my radar for catchers in 1990, I was a sucker.
4. Dave Martinez - OF - Expo - Card 763 - Actually he played for 16 seasons with 10 teams. In fact one year he was traded 3 times and played for 4 teams. What I found amazing was he had 1500 hits, I guess if you play long enough you’ll get them.
5. Darryl Hamilton - OF - Brewers - Card 86 - Again not a horrible player he did play for 13 seasons. But funny story, he’s a Louisiana guy and after an argument with Bobby Valentine (then of the Mets) he placed a voodoo hex on the Mets franchise. Maybe we might have the Curse of the Hamilton here!
6. Atlee Hammaker - P - Giants - Card 572 - Besides having one of the most unusual first names of any baseball player (Jayhawk Ownes earns top spot there). In the 1983 All-Star game he let up 7 earned runs in 2/3 IP. If that wasn’t enough he should be remembered for one thing. In the 1987 NLCS he gave up a 3 run homerun to Jose Oquendo. which sent the Cardinals to the World Series. It wouldn’t have been so bad except in his entire career Oquendo hit 14 homeruns, and in 1987 he hit only one (off of Hammaker).
7. Jody Reed - SS - Red Sox - Card 734 - After garnering Rated Rookie Status he had a so so career mainly remembered as a doubles guy, he had one distinction of hitting into 2 triple plays in one game. He never really lived up to that Rated Rookie status, but then again not many did.
8. Orel Hershiser - P - Dodgers - Card 550 - Pretty Early on in Bulldog’s career, a much better pitcher and coach than TV personality. The one thing you knew for sure, he was never on steroids at 6′3″ 192lbs. Hopefully a future HOF member.
9. Rey Quinones - SS - Mariners - Card 246 - I actually got his autograph in 1987 when I went to a Mariners game. This is bcak when you could pick which seat you wanted since only 2000 people showed up for each game. The story I remember about him was that he left the Mariners for a few days to go to a funeral in Puerto Rico and it was a controversy. Judging his stats they didn’t miss much when he was away.
10. Cardinal leaders Card - Number 261 - Waste of cardboard, best offensive players were Ozzie Smith, Tom Brunansky, and Vince Coleman, best pitchers were Joe Magrane (U of Arizona alum yay!), and Jose DeLeon. DeLeon had 208 Ks that year which is amazing since he had such n unremarkable career.
11. Jay Buhner (RC) - OF - Mariners - Card 223 - Even has the Topps All-Star rookie cup which I loved seeing on a player’s card. Bones was the best, my worst day as a Yankee fan bar far is hearing the news Jay Buhner for Ken Phelps. Of course I don’t know if Buhner could have kept it up in NY as he did in Seattle, but even though he wasn’t a Yankee I always tried to have him on my team.
12. Cecil Espy - OF - Rangers - Card 221 - Another Topps All Star rookie cup card. All I remember is the guy had speed, not much else but he could steal some bases. Not a whole lot else and the speed didn’t translate to good defense either.
13. Steve Lombardozzi - 2B - Twins - Card 376 - The best thing about Steve is that his son Steve Jr might be a lot better than he was.
14. Jeff Hamilton - 3B - Dodgers - Card 736 - I got nothing, I don’t even remember him, all Topps had to say was that his dad was a pitcher in the Pirates farm. I believe that sums up his career.
15. Vince “Firecracker” Coleman - OF - Cardinals - Card 90 - This was back when Vince was on his way to the HOF. He had 4 solid seasons averaged over 100 SB for his first 4 seasons. Somewhere after this he broke down and never quite was the same player. The Firecracker incident was the end for him.
Overall not a bad pack, which is amazing because I never had luck with these cards. Now for the ratings (all are out of 5.0):
Initial cost when new - No price on pack but I believe it was $1.29 - 3.0 stars they didn’t know at the time that the set would be worthless. The price was fair for 15 cards.
Cards in Pack - 15 - 4.0 stars - Very good for the time but also it was the beginning of the end of +10 card packs.
Stars in Pack - 3 - Hershiser, Coleman, and Buhner - 4.0 stars - 20% of pack is stars, you can’t ask for more than that.
Becket Value of pack - $1 - So overall not too bad, plus you get the stale gum. 2.5 stars.
Design of card - too simple a design for Topps, this is where they started to give up on designs. 1.0 Stars see below:
Number of awful players - 7 of 15 (although the leaders card should be one too). Not too shabby!
Overall it gets a 2.9 stars out of 5.0 rating which isn’t too bad, this pack wouldn’t qualify as bad wax, more like OK wax. Please don’t forget to vote (see tab on top of site) as to whether I should try to get the best players autographs or the worst. Nominate a best and worst please. Once again I’m asking for a donation 1 dollar for the pack and one for shipping, paypal taken, please email me at chemgod1000@yahool.com or leave a comment.
Hershiser a HOFer? He had a great year in 1988, but I don’t think his career warrants serious HOF consideration. Neither did the voters. Bulldog only received 4.4% of the vote in 2007, taking him off the ballot for future elections. A player has to get at least 5% to remain on the ballot.
Also I don’t think packs cost that much in 1989, at least not Topps. I could be wrong, but I didn’t think Topps hit the $1 until sometime in the 1990s.
By the way, I love this blog!
Upon further reflection I think you’re right, he didn’t have enough good years (Hershiser) to be included in the hall of fame, he did though have one legendary year as you mentioned in 1988. His 1985 Topps rookie card is still one of my favorites (even though is worth almost nothing).
Thanks for the comments!
All the great cards from the 1980s are nearly worthless now (Hershiser, Eric Davis, Strawberry, Doc Gooden. I loved the 80s. And no, I don’t work for VH-1.