Twins Nostalgia: What Is Your All-Time Favorite Twins Baseball Card?

[Dave Overlund]

Baseball fandom, for many, begins with a moment or two. Maybe you had the opportunity to meet a big league player and he became your hero. Maybe watching your dad play softball and then watching a ballgame on TV together is what brought you to the game. For some, the love of the game began and flourished with a pack of baseball cards. And maybe for you, like for me, there is a single card that exemplifies that love of the game. 

Baseball card collecting has become much more intense than it was in my childhood. Our biggest choice was whether to spend the 75 cents on a standard pack of Topps or spring for the $1.25 pack of glossy, flashy, hologram-y Upper Deck. Or, if we were really feeling fancy, we could go to KB Toys and splurge on a rack pack! 

I am going to sound like some kind of boomer here, but I can't keep up with the refractors, variations, jersey patches, etc... nor can I afford a box of cards from the local hobby shop at this point. So, with that being said, I have shifted my focus to trying to collect each and every Topps base-set Twins card in existence. 

No matter how many team sets I buy, or binders I fill with chronologically-cataloged cardboard Twins, my favorite card remains the same: 

The 1989 Topps Gary Gaetti card. 

Listen, I get it, it's a pretty unremarkable card for most people and it's worth MAYBE ten cents at the present time. 

However, for me it's about the memory associated with the card as opposed to its value. 

I can remember sitting on our rickety metal swing set as a seven-year-old when my dad returned from the store (to which he undoubtedly went to buy some dip). He handed me a pack of baseball cards, and I immediately began rifling through them looking for Jose Canseco, Cal Ripken, Kirby Puckett, and other superstars of the day, but mostly I was most stoked to get a Twins card. 

After flipping past Mike Moore, Jeffrey Leonard and other randoms from that '89 set, I saw it: a Gary Gaetti card. I excitedly showed it to my dad, who exclaimed "Wow! Not bad for a 75-cent pack of cards! Hang onto that one!"

And I have. It's the only card I would never trade or gamble with as a kid. Why Gary Gaetti? I don't know. He is a Twins Hall of Famer, won a World Series ring and has two cool nicknames in "G-Man" and "The Rat!"  Maybe it's some of this too... 

My latest mission has been to find autographed cards of the 1989 Topps set. I have acquired most of them in person, a couple off of Twins fan groups and one off of eBay of questionable quality. My white whale, of course, is a legit signed 1989 Topps Kirby Puckett. 

What is your favorite Twins card and why? What do you collect? Let us know in the comments! 

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[Seth Stohs]

I'm even older than you... I remember 33 cent packs and 50 cent packs. Ha! For me, it was 1985 Fleer Kirby Puckett. I had several Topps Puckett rookies, but the Fleer one was blue, and cool... And I couldn't find Fleer in town at that time... 

2nd: 1990 Score Chuck Knoblauch... LOVED these cards. I was into prospects way back then, but draft pick cards of all first rounders was cool. And those up-close mug shots were so cool. Score was bright and colorful, but I loved the simplicity of those draft pick cards. 

[AceWrigley]

Gimme the power baby.

[LewFordLives]

[big dog]

[big dog]

Just kidding.

[AceWrigley]

Ohhhhh, a Mickey Hatcher sighting. One of the great pranksters of all time. Don't let your pants out of your sight and keep an eye on your shoes. ?

[tarheeltwinsfan]

1988 Mark Davidson card, because he is a friend of mine.

[freshinthehouse]

I collected baseball cards from 87-91, and it's funny, while the twins were always my fav team (and Kirby my fav player) there is no one card that sticks out to me.  maybe the 87 topps Kirby?  I always loved that set.

I got back into collecting a bit during covid.  bought a few cards of buxton, lewis, kirilloff, larnach, etc.  I splurged on a 1/1 Royce Lewis card, so here's hoping he becomes a HOFer and i can buy a decent used car with that card lol.

[baul0010]

22 hours ago, Seth Stohs said:

I'm even older than you... I remember 33 cent packs and 50 cent packs. Ha! For me, it was 1985 Fleer Kirby Puckett. I had several Topps Puckett rookies, but the Fleer one was blue, and cool... And I couldn't find Fleer in town at that time... 

2nd: 1990 Score Chuck Knoblauch... LOVED these cards. I was into prospects way back then, but draft pick cards of all first rounders was cool. And those up-close mug shots were so cool. Score was bright and colorful, but I loved the simplicity of those draft pick cards. 

The first thought that popped into my head was Kirby Puckett in the powder blue uniform!

[Al from SoDak]

Did you ever complete your Topps Twins sets? I have about 2 dozen left to go, about half are 1960s high numbers. It's little hard for me to pay some of those prices...$25 for 1961 Jose Valdivielso, $40 for 1962 Joe Bonikowski, $20 for 1966 Dwight Siebler. I need a 1966 Twins team card and saw one this weekend, but couldn't get myself to agree to the dealer's price...$80.