The 1980 Topps baseball card set is better than the average set of that era. To me it’s not great, but better than average. The design consists of a banner in the upper left corner with the player’s position. The upper right corner has the player’s name. The bottom right has another, larger banner with the team’s name. Each card also has a facsimile autograph of the player. The pictures are rather bland in my opinion with a mix of portraits and action shots. Some of the action shots are not well done. See the Mike Cubbage card (#503).

There are 726 cards in the 1980 Topps baseball card set including 27 Twins cards.

MOST OBSCURE PLAYER

My choice for most obscure Twins player in the 1980 Topps baseball set pitched for five seasons in Major League Baseball with two of those coming with the Twins. His son also played Major League Baseball and is a trivia answer/footnote in history. Mike Bacsik (#453) is my choice for most obscure Twin in this year’s set.

Right-handed pitcher Michael James Bacsik was drafted in the 55th round of the 1970 MLB draft by the Baltimore Orioles. He debuted with the Texas Rangers in June of 1975. He started three games in 1975, then never started another. He pitched only 73 games over five seasons with a career high of 31 games with the Twins in 1979. His career record was 8-6 with an ERA of 4.43. He pitched 172.2 innings and finished with a career WAR of -0.9.

Bacsik’s story gets interesting when we introduce his son, Michael Joseph Bacsik. Michael Jospeh also pitched in Major League Baseball. He was a left-handed pitcher with similar numbers to his father. He had a 10-13 career record over five seasons. He had a 5.46 ERA over 216.0 innings during the steroid era. His career WAR was -0.5. The younger Bacsik’s claim to fame is that he gave up the record-breaking 756th home run of Barry Bonds’s career. Wikipedia has a great note about this. While the son did give up number 756 to Bonds, the father was one of 30 pitchers to pitch to Hank Aaron after Aaron had achieved 755 home runs. The younger Bacsik would comment in 2007, "If my dad had been gracious enough to let Hank Aaron hit a home run, we both would have given up 756.”

Mike Bacsik the Twin, last pitched in Major League Baseball in 1980. He went to spring training in 1981 with Seattle but was released in late March.

THE BEST

Well Rod Carew was now gone to the Angels. The Twins were going downhill before bottoming out in 1982. There are just not a lot of great players or cards during that point in Twins History. There are no 1980 Topps Twins cards of any value. So, my choice for the best Twins card of this year is going to be that of Ken Landreaux in what was to be his lone All-Star season.

During 1980, Landreaux hit .281/.334/.417. He had 7 home runs and 62 RBIs. For the 1980 Twins, that performance was enough to be selected to the All-Star game. Unbelievably, his WAR was actually ninth among Twins batters who played more than 100 games that season. For those wondering, no, his first half numbers were not far superior to his second half. So why was he selected to the All-Star game? I suspect the notoriety of having a 31-game hitting streak in April and May was the main reason for his being named the Twins All-Star representative that season.

PERSONAL FAVORITE

My favorite 1980 Twins card in the Topps set is probably an unusual choice. It’s not a superstar or even a long-tenured Twin. It’s a card where I just simply like the picture. Behold the #218 card of Jose Morales.

Above we talked about the father and son Mike Bacsik tandem who both pitched in Major League Baseball. Here we have catcher Jose Manuel Morales who played for the Twins from 1978-1980, but he is not related to catcher Jose Guillermo Morales who played for the Twins from 2007-2010.

Anyway, the Morales 1980 Topps card. Love the picture. Red Hat. Two Bats. Collared shirt over a tee shirt under a jersey. Mustache, eyebrows, sideburns. There’s a lot to take in.

So that’s my review of the Minnesota Twins in the 1980 Topps baseball card set. There’s not a lot of big names for the Twins in this set. But I do think the design and style of 1980 cards may be the best since 1975.

What do you all think? I would love to see your opinions and comments below.

Go Twins.