Bad Wax

Player: Joe Carter

Set: 1984 Donruss

Card Number: 41

Why is These Cards are Must Have?: A lot of people don’t consider Joe Carter as a must have card.  Did you know that this is his only true rookie card?  I put this on here because he was one of my favorite players in the late 80s and early 90s. The Cubs did well by trading him, after all they got Sutcliffe, Fraizer, and Hassey.  I don’t think everyone realizes just how good Joe was (including me).  I was looking at his top 10 on Baseball-Reference and I now realize that he was a Hall of Very Good player.  His top comparison is Dale Murphy, and as we all know Dale is a borderline Hall of Famer.  Others on his list were also very good, guys like Sierra, Galarraga, Baylor, Rice, Cepeda, Santo, and Stargell.  That is some pretty heady company, a veritable who’s who of borderline Hall of Famers.  For Joe,even though he had 396 home runs, and nearly 1500 RBIs, the career 0.259 batting average is what will forever keep him out of the Hall of Fame. For me, he will always be remembered as a gamer, a guy you want up there with a game on the line.  His stats never jumped out at you, but you knew if he was up with the game on the line, he was going to do his best to make something happen, and that’s why he is on this list.

On a Scale of 1 to 10, How Must Have Are These Cards?: A 4, the Donruss 1984 set is one of my all time favorites.  It’s the year that they finally understood the card industry.  It’s the set that made Donruss better than Topps or Fleer.  It was the first year of the “Rated Rookie”, and Joe Carter was the first rated rookie worth having. You can find these cards for no more than a dollar on eBay (more if graded).