Operation Topps (1986) – Pack 1

So after much fanfare, I present to you the first pack of 1986 Topps.  This represents my first stepping stone to collecting every set from 1986 until 2008 by only using wax packs and trades (if necessary).  I received the first of 2 boxes of 1986 Topps yesterday.  Again the limit is two boxes, after that I am going to be asking for help.  If you are wondering why I chose 1986 to start with, it’s simple.  1986 is the first year of overproduction on baseball cards. It didn’t really end until 1992.  Also between 1986 and 1993 you can count on 2 hands the number of impact players in the sport (which also devalues the sets).  So incase you are wondering what a wax pack from 1986 looks like, here it is:

Just to let you know, you can all rest easy, I will not eat any of the stale gum.  I am very healthy right now and don’t need a bout with food poisoning.  If you want though, I can send you the gum and you can let me know if it’s any good.  Maybe even blog about your health as he slowly deteriorate from stale gum.  I think I will stick to my original format for this, I’m not going to rate the cards as I would normally, but I will do a pack rating from 0 – 5 stars, based purely on star power. So without further babbling, here is the first pack:

1. Pete Filson – P – Twins – 122 - I was going to try and do a comparison to today’s player, but I can’t think of any.  He was a spot starter with a short career.  He pitched for the Twins, White Sox, and Yankees (but I can’t remember him as a Yankee.

2. Mike Davis – OF- A’s – 165 – If you had to compare him to today’s players, he’d be a Corey Patterson or Terrance Long type player.  He had some solid seasons but nothing career defining.  This picture of the card is a great example of how popular aviator glasses were back then.  Although I don’t know whether Mike was an aviator or not, he looks goofy in the glasses.

3. Tom Waddell – P – Indians – 86 – Another spot starter.  He only pitched in the majors for 3 years, not a whole lot I can critique here.  He did have 15 saves, that’s not easy to do when you are mediocre.

4. Jeff Dedmon – P – Braves – 129 – Another middle reliever.  Maybe Topps could whittle out some of the middle relief guys, this is proof not everyone in baseball deserves a card.

5. Rob Wilfong – 2B – Angels – 658 – Compares to an Alex Cora / Pokey Reese kind of player.  Nothing spectacular just good enough to play in the bigs while you wait for your future star to make it to the pros.

6. Spike Owen – SS – Mariners – 248 – Definitely one of the best names in baseball at the time.  He played at U of Texas with Clemens and Calvin Schiraldi.  He had a career similar to Walt Weiss and Harold Reynolds.  I would put him as better than average but not “entrenched” at short stop for any team.

7. Eddie Murray – 1B – Orioles – 30 – This would be my first “star” player.  He was probably one of the best switch hitting players in baseball and one of the very few who racked up 3000 hits AND 500 home runs.  He was a first ballot HOFer in 2003.  An interesting fact is he won the home run crown in 1981 with 22 home runs.  Of course it was a strike shortened season, but I think that was the only time he ever did that in his career.

8. Dann Bilardello – Reds – C – 253 – Dann was a great player in A+ and AA, then the Reds threw him into the majors.  He wasn’t ready for the pitching, and never got used to it.  He moved up and down from the majors to AAA but never really made any impact.

9.  Derrel Thomas – SS/2B – Phillies – 158 – His career was kind of like SPike Owen’s.  Good enough to stick around, but never entrenched in one team.  Played for 15 seasons and never picked up an accolades.

10. Greg Pryor – 3B/2B – Royals – 773 – A former White Sox with absolutely no tools.  Again a great reason why not every player needs a card ni the set!

11. Scott Bradley – C/DH – Yankees – 481 – Never a full time player. But in a positive note, this is his rookie card (woohoo!). 

12. Fred Lynn – OF – Orioles – 55 – Fred won the rookie of the year award and the MVP in the same season.  If he was playing in this day and age and did that we would be looking at 500 dollar rookie cards.  In the end his career was more like a Paul O’Neil or a Shawn Green.  Played on some good Red Sox teams with Dwight Evans and Jim Rice.  Not a HOFer but definitely in the hall of very good! By the way, look at the cut job on this one:

13. Greg Booker – P – Padres – 429 – a very lightly used middle reliever, in 10 years, he logged 161 games and only 1 save.  Not exactly your prominent player.

14. Geno Petralli – C – Rangers – 296 – At first glance I thought of the NBC Hero Peter Petrelli, then I shook it out of my head and got back into the game!  Geno may have had a nice porn stache and lots of testosterone, but seriously lacked hitting talent and left the majors almost as fast as he got there. 

15. Bobby Meacham – SS – Yankees – 379 – Gum Card! Ewwww there’s a stain on the card.  I guess I’ll have to look to upgrade this one.  Since it looks like a used tissue.  Meacham as well as lot’s of other SS, kept the position warm for Jeter, then only 12.

 Overall this pack was a total loser.  The only big names were Lynn and Murray and that’s just not enough to power up a pack.  This is classic bad wax at it’s finest.  No one will disagree with me on this I’m sure of it.  I think the pack was one of the crappier ones I’ve opened, only garnering a pack ration of 1.0 out of 5.0 stars.  Definitely an uninspiring pack to say the least!  But it’s enough to get me started.  What is strange though is the feel of the card.  It’s so thin, nothing like the cards of today.  I think one thing we have to be happy for is a thicker card stock!  These cards are a lot more flimsy than I remembered.  Hope you enjoyed reading about pack one as much as I did reviewing it.  Until tomorrow, good night!