my favorite cards of the year - 1988 edition

i recently introduced my mini collection focusing on my favorite cards from each year that i've been a collector. the basic gist is that i wanted to create a space for the cards that i most appreciated having in my collection in the year that they were released. these were cards that i acquired in the year that they were issued, and that i considered to be my favorites at the time. i have disallowed (most) cards that are already in other mini collections in order to avoid having a mini collection consisting of more steve garvey, double plays, and dodger stadium cards.

in 1988 i graduated from high school and started college. i didn't have a whole lot of time for baseball cards, and only bought one box sometime during the summer. for the first time ever, i bought no boxes of fleer or donruss. my dad was following my lead, and didn't buy any boxes either. he did gift me the topps traded set for christmas, however, which had become a sort of tradition.

favorite non-dodger card: topps lou piniella

remember, these are cards that i liked in the year that they were released. i am pretty sure i did not own a 1988 score steve garvey card in 1988 as i don't think i even knew about score entering the market. piniella's card resonated with me because of his ring. i imagined piniella giving his squad a pep talk in spring training about "this is what you are working for" and "the ring is the thing". plus, i know he got that ring by beating my dodgers in either 1977 or 1978.

favorite dodger card: topps traded kirk gibson

what, did you expect tito landrum? this was pretty much a no-brainer among the dodger cards i acquired in 1988. i was so eager to see gibby on a dodger card even though i wasn't too excited about the topps card design in 1988. it's like a revamp of the 1966 design except with the angled text ribbon at the bottom instead of the top (and featuring the player name instead of the team name) and the horizontal text at the top instead of the bottom (and featuring the team name instead of the player name) and with more color. there was no position designation for the second year in a row, and i thought that was weird. anyway, you know the story - gibson willed the dodgers to the pennant and then hit a big home run in game 1 of the world series - and i wanted all of his dodger cards right away. 

up next, 2016. stay tuned!