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.
i had high expectations in 1985 after the seminal releases from donruss and fleer in 1984. topps wasn't too bad, either, but donruss really hit the ball out of the park. they won in 1985, too, with the black borders that easily outpaced fleer's gray borders and topps' kroy label text rectangles.
favorite non-dodger card: donruss dwight gooden box bottom
starting in 1982, my dad would buy a box each of fleer, topps, and donruss for us to open together. this was in addition to all the packs that i would buy with my allowance. at some point, we began buying two boxes of each as our primary goal was to complete each set. in 1985, i remember getting to the bottom of one of the donruss boxes before realizing that there were cards printed on the box. i hadn't flipped the box over, so i had no idea. one of those cards was this dwight gooden card that was way better than his card in the actual set. donruss had missed out in 1984 by not issuing a traded or update set like topps and fleer did, and so this was the first time we were going to see the phenom on a donruss card. with this card, i was not disappointed. you probably saw night owl's posts on the greatest 100 cards of the 80's, and he gave this card some much deserved love. i am happy to have recognized its greatness right away.
favorite non-dodger card: topps traded al oliver
i didn't know too much about how the dodgers planned to use al oliver when he was acquired in a trade with the phillies prior to the 1985 season. the dodgers had greg brock at first and early reports were that he was not suited to the outfield at that point in his career. however, he had not hit under .300 since 1975 and was only two years removed from leading the national league with a .331 batting average. i was excited. he began the season with a five-game hitting streak, but he then went cold. by may, he was relegated mostly to pinch-hitting, and in july, the dodger traded him to the blue jays. i was disappointed to learn that he homered in his first game with toronto, but mostly i was concerned that the midyear trade would mean that i would have no dodger cards of oliver as a result. i firmly anticipated seeing him as a blue jay in both the fleer update and topps traded sets, so i was a happy camper when i got the sets and saw this card (he was also a dodger in the fleer update set). it almost helped ease the pain of ozzie smith and jack clark. almost.
up next, 2004. stay tuned!
