Today I’m talking about the first non-Topps set in my blog series about baseball cards. Topps had a baseball card monopoly from 1956 to 1980. In the early 80s competitors were allowed into the baseball card world and Donruss and Fleer were the first two to jump in. This post is about a set I originally dismissed but have come to appreciate – 1983 Fleer.

The design of 1983 Fleer baseball is better than I originally thought in 1983. I have come to like the gray borders, the straightforward design, and the colorful team logo in the lower left corner. To the right of the logo, still on the bottom of the card are the player’s name and position. It’s an uncomplicated design that works for me. I also feel like the pictures are better than the late 70s Topps cards. I suppose that should be the case. The middle back of the card contains the player’s career statistics set against a white background. The top of the card has a brownish orange background with the player’s name, position, card number, and small head shot of the player. The back’s bottom has the same brown/orange background with the player’s biographical information and a “did you know” nugget of trivia.

There are 660 cards in the 1983 Fleer baseball card set including 24 Twins cards. The set has rookie cards of Hall of Famers Ryne Sandberg, Wade Boggs, and Tony Gwynn plus Twins greats Gary Gaetti and Frank Viola. The pictures are almost all portrait or head shots with very few action shots. The checklist organizes all teams in order of prior year finish then alphabetically by player. The St. Louis Cardinals, who won the prior year’s World Series are the first group, then their opponent in the fall classic, the Milwaukee Brewers, are the second team. The Twins players are the last regular cards in the set because of their horrendous 102-loss season in 1982. The only cards after the #628 for Al Williams are some SuperStar Specials cards and team checklists.

MOST OBSCURE PLAYER

After looking at all the cards in the set, I legitimately produced nine cards where I thought the player had an argument for the most obscure player in the set. I eventually narrowed that to one player, but three others are worth a quick mention.

• #624 Jesus Vega. Vega played three seasons, all with the Twins, and was not a particularly good ballplayer. The back up 1B/DH/corner outfielder had only 236 at bats in three seasons. He finished with a WAR of -1.1 and an OPS+ of 65.
• #619 Jeff Little. He played one of his two MLB seasons with the Twins. His statistics are not that terrible – 0.0 WAR, 3 wins in 55 innings, 101 ERA+. But he was done after his age 27 season, and I could not find a reason. Seems like he deserved a longer leash, but maybe he simply chose to move on with his life.
• #611 Lenny Faedo. Maybe Faedo wasn’t as obscure or bad as the others, but the 1978 first round draft pick finished his career with only 529 at bats and produced a WAR of -0.2 and 64 OPS+. He had only one year with more than 200 at bats.

Despite those three honorable mentions and their qualifications, I chose the #612 card of Terry Felton.

I just felt like I could not go through this period of Minnesota Twins history and not mention Mr. Felton. He owns a dubious Major League Baseball record. His 0-16 pitching record happens to be the most losses in MLB history without achieving a win. His ERA+ was 78 over parts of 4 seasons, all with the Twins. His career WAR was -1.9 and he pitched 138.1 innings. Felton’s BR Bullpen page on Baseball Reference indicates his big problems were a lack of control and too many home runs; that seems like a bad combination.

THE BEST

The best Twins card in the 1983 Fleer set is a combo card of a local Hall of Famer and a local youngster who would have his jersey number retired by the Twins years later. I nominate the #633 SuperStar Specials card – Mr. Vet and Mr. Rookie. It’s St. Paul’s Dave Winfield and Bloomgton’s Kent Hrbek.

I’ve said it before in this blog series and it applies here again – I really like combo cards. The completed careers of Winfield and Hrbek add up to 4,859 hits, 758 home runs, and 2,919 runs batted in. Those are impressive numbers from two local boys.

PERSONAL FAVORITE

For my personal favorite 1983 Fleer card, I’m going with two rookie cards from two fan favorites who contributed mightily to the 1987 World Series championship. The picture of one of those cards is gritty with pine tar and a 1980s mustache; the other is more pretty than gritty.

Yes, it’s the 1987 ALCS MVP (#613 Gary Gaetti) and the 1987 World Series MVP (#625 Frank Viola). We couldn’t have won it without these guys who were mere youngsters in 1983.

Does anyone know why Gaetti is shown wearing number 2? His Baseball Reference page confirms he never wore 2 at least in the regular season. It must have been in spring training, but I can’t find proof of that. Baseball Reference says John Castino wore #2 from 1979-84. It also says Glenn Adams wore #8 from 1977-81. So, I can understand that Gaetti might not have worn #8, in the minor leagues or spring training, until after 1981, but the card is from 1983. Even if we can find a reason he didn’t wear #8 in those years, Castino still had #2 until 1984. What’s the deal?

All these years later I look at the design and my opinion has changed. The design is better than I remember. I like it – both the front and the back. Just a nice, basic design. I originally disliked the design primarily because of the gray border, but it doesn’t seem to bother me today.

I’d love to see any of your thoughts and comments below.

Go Twins!