If you have seen my previous posts in this series, you may have noticed a trend. I like simple, clean crisp designs in baseball cards. And the 1988 Topps design certainly fits my preference. However, I would say it’s good not great. Above average is what I would say about 1988 Topps. (Someday I need to define my rankings better. I feel like I say good or bad and like or dislike too often.)

The 1988 Topps design shows the team’s name in capital letters centered at the top and behind the player image. In the case of the Twins players, the team lettering is yellow. The Twins cards feature the player’s name in an orange diagonal banner in the lower right of the card. That’s it for the fronts. Quite simple. The backs have an orange background with card number, player name, position, and biographical information at the top. The central part of the back has the player’s career statistics. The bottom of the back has some player trivia unless the player statistics cover too many years.

The 1988 Topps base set has the same number of cards as 1986 and 1987 – 792 cards. The Topps Traded set has 132 cards, also the same as 1986 and 1987. There are 32 Twins cards in the base set. While the 1987 Topps Traded set had nine Twins cards, the 1988 Traded set has only one, that of the player who shall not be named. The base set has a rookie card of Hall of Fame starting pitcher Tom Glavine. Gene Larkin is probably the best Twins rookie card. The traded set has more key rookie cards than the base set with the best being that of Hall of Fame second baseman Roberto Alomar.

I feel like this set has fewer plain old head shots and a greater number of action pictures. I prefer it that way.

Please keep in mind that this article frequently mentions and provides details of the 1987 season. This is because 1988 baseball cards are mostly of 1987 players.

MOST OBSCURE PLAYER

In 1988, the Twins were, of course, coming off the 1987 World Series victory. Therefore, I don’t think there are many players in the 1988 Topps baseball card sets that qualify as obscure. I really only gave serious consideration for most obscure Twins player in 1988 Topps to back up catcher Tom Nieto and back up outfielder Mark Davidson. As you can see below, I chose Davidson (#19).

In 1987, bullpens were much smaller – many times only five pitchers deep. This allowed teams to employ more positional backups than they do today. For instance, the Twins carried three catchers for much of 1987, including Nieto. There was also enough room on the roster for two or three extra outfielders. In 1987, Davidson was one of those. Rosters today have only four bench players, so things in 1987 were much different. Anyway, Mark Davison was drafted in the 11th round of the 1982 Major League Baseball June Draft. He played three seasons for the Twins. In 1987 and 1988 he played 102 and 100 games, respectively. Those appearances were often as a defensive replacement late in games. He was a particularly good defensive outfielder. His statistics in three seasons with the Twins were .219/.283/.287. He hit two home runs and had 26 RBI. He also stole 14 bases. His WAR was -0.5 and his OPS+ was a paltry 54. The Twins traded Davidson to Houston during the 1989 season for Greg Johnson, who never panned out. Davidson played three nondescript seasons with the Astros.

In the 1987 postseason, Davidson got into three games with only one plate appearance. In game 3 of the American League Championship series, he appeared as a pinch runner for Sal Butera in the 7th inning and was thrown out at home on a fielder’s choice. That was the Twins lone loss in that series. He later appeared as a defensive replacement in game 1 of the World Series, a 10-1 Twins win. His last game action of the 1987 postseason was a game 4 loss at St. Louis. He pinch hit in the 9th inning for the pitcher. He flew out to center field in a 7-2 loss to the Cardinals.

THE BEST

I don’t always select the most valuable Twins card in any set as the best, but in the 1988 Topps set I just like the Kirby Puckett base card (#120). He shows a stance where he is ready and poised to do something awesome.

In 1988, Kirby would go on to the lead the American League in hits with 234. He was 3rd in voting for the Most Valuable Player behind José Canseco and Mike Greenwell.

PERSONAL FAVORITE

For the 1988 Topps set, I am going to cheat and select two cards as my personal co-favorite cards. I love card number 609, the Twins Team Leader card because it shows a couple of my favorite players, Gary Gaetti and Ken Hrbek. But better yet, the back has records some of the important statistics of the 1987 World Series winners. Every name, a Twins legend.

My second co-favorite card of 1988 is the unique record breaker card featuring Hall of Famer Phil Niekro and Joe Niekro commemorating the pair breaking the record for pitching wins for a set of brothers. It is noteworthy that the Niekro brothers broke a record held by another former Twin, Jim Perry, and his Hall of Fame brother, Gaylord Perry.

These sets of brothers ended up with remarkably similar statistics. One of each set up brothers made the Hall of Fame (Phil and Gaylord). The Hall of Famers ended up within four wins of each other and their brothers finished separated by only six wins. The Niekros career win total was 539 versus 529 for the Perrys.

• Phil Niekro         318 wins
• Joe Niekro          221 wins
• Gaylord Perry   314 wins
• Jim Perry             215 wins

The Perrys each won a Cy Young Award (Gaylord won two but Jim’s came with the Twins in 1970). Having said all that, Joe Niekro was the only one to win a World Series and that was with the Twins in 1987!

What are your favorite Topps cards from 1988? I’d love to see your opinions, thoughts, or comments below.

Go Twins!