Best Set Countdown: #7 – 1987 Donruss

It really is incredible, but all three major issue sets from 1987 are remarkable, top 10 sets. Why is that? Seriously, there’s usually one lousy set per year, no matter how strong the potential ingredients (see 1985 Fleer or 1989 Score). But it’s like the planets aligned and somehow Donruss, Fleer and Topps each managed to turn out one of their better-designed, stronger-checklisted sets of the decade. It wasn’t exactly like the companies peaked in 1987 (each had a set as strong or stronger before ’87)—it was more like the swan song of the decade. By the time Upper Deck bowed in 1989, the hobby was their oyster.

But back to the set at hand. 1987 was one of the very few sets in the decade where Donruss couldn’t find a way to fuck it up. The design is attractive, if a little derivative of 1985 with the black border (though they did subtract the blood-red
three-dimensional striping for a single thick stripe of gray baseballs, which could’ve been either an homage to the 1982 design, or just a design anomaly seeing as how it actually featured a symbol of the game; either way it was the third-most literal design of any Donruss set of the decade, behind the one-two punch of 1982 and 1983, the ‘Hey-I’m-a-fuckin’-baseball-card-here’s-
a-ball-and-or-glove-to-prove-it’ years).

Besides the design, this set doesn’t fall victim to the Major Rookie/Pile of Commons illness that plagues the 1986 Donruss and Fleer sets; in fact, 1987 Donruss may be one of the few major-issue sets of the decade where there are as many stars and meaningful rookies as commons. Ok, that can’t possibly be true, but there are literally tons of great cards in this set. I really don’t want to unfold the list I made of all the great rookies from 1987, partly because I don’t remember which pants pocket it’s in, but mostly because I know it almost by heart.

And it’s a long one, with much historical and cultural weight. So while I’m not nailing it to the door of a gigantic German church, no one can deny the names on it reformed baseball, for good and bad. Here’s just a sample: Barry Larkin, Rafael Palmeiro, BJ Surhoff, Dan Plesac, Doug Drabek, Kal Daniels, John Cangelosi. A normal set, like 1982 Donruss, had one rookie wave; Cal Ripken and George Bell and Steve Sax and Lee Smith all were good during the same time and their cards got hot and then either stayed hot or didn’t. Better sets, like 1986 Topps, had two rookie waves: Vince Coleman and Lenny Dykstra (first wave) and Cecil Fielder (second wave) peaked at different times, so collectors kept coming back to the set over the years. But those pale in comparison to the three major issues from 1987. I don’t really know how many rookie waves there have been from this Donruss set. Or, actually, maybe it was just one massive wave, like a venerable tidal wave made up of hyped rookies, unhyped rookies, big stars, little stars, role player rookies, no name rookies and guys with one card.

1987 was a watershed year: every team had at least one major rookie, except for maybe the Dodgers (though I’m sure a name will come to me by the end of this post). Here’s a handy list, broken down by team, of the rookies from the Great Rookie Crop of ’87:

Red Sox
Mike Greenwell
Ellis Burks*
Pat Dodson (the only one worthy of Rated Rookie and Future Star)

Angels
Wally Joyner
Chuck Finley
Devon White

Astros
Jim Deshaies

Rangers
Pete Incaviglia
Ruben Sierra
Kevin Brown
Mitch Williams
Bobby Witt
Oddibe McDowell
Mike Stanley


Brewers
BJ Surhoff
Dan Plesac
Chris Bosio

Yankees
Doug Drabek
Bob Tewksbury

Giants
Will Clark
Robby Thompson
Matt Williams*



A’s
Mark McGwire
Jose Canseco (honorary)
Terry Steinbach

Pirates
Bobby Bonilla
Barry Bonds
John Cangelosi
John Smiley*

Indians
Greg Swindell
Andy Allanson
Cory Snyder


Reds
Kal Daniels
Barry Larkin

Tigers
Mike Henneman*
Matt Nokes*

Cubs
Greg Maddux
Rafael Palmeiro
Jamie Moyer

White Sox
Ron Karkovice
Bobby Thigpen


Mets
Randy Myers
Rick Aguilera
Kevin Mitchell
Kevin Elster
Dave Magadan

Cardinals
Todd Worrell
Joe Magrane
Spanky LaValliere

Royals
Bo Jackson
Kevin Seitzer
David Cone

Phillies
Bruce Ruffin


Twins
Mark Portugal

Blue Jays
Fred McGriff*

Expos
Andres Galarraga*

Padres
Benito Santiago
John Kruk
Bip Roberts

*Player had rookie in update/rookie/traded set. Well, except for Galarraga and McGriff (RR, 1986 Donruss). McGriff’s first Topps and Fleer cards were in update/traded sets in 1987. Galarraga’s first Topps card was in the regular set.

These players shaped the league for the next fifteen-plus years. And what’s incredible is that they all came up at around the same time through nearly 20 different organizations. Only 4 teams aren’t represented on this list: the Braves, Mariners, Dodgers and Orioles, but all four were poised for major breakout stars in the next 3 to 5 years.

Every set benefited from this cache of rookies, but the reason that Fleer and Topps rank higher than Donruss is because Donruss didn’t know what to do with all of them. Okay, now let’s say you’re Mr. Donruss (and your wife, Mrs. Leaf, always seems to be a puzzle you can’t quite put together…get it? Puzzle? She’s a puzzle? Just like Clemente and Snider and Ruth and Gehrig and Yaz? And you can’t figure her out cause you keep getting the same goddamn pieces every time you open a lousy pack of cards? Wait a minute—if your name was Mr. Donruss and you somehow got into McGill University and met Ms. Leaf and you two got married, would that make you Mr. & Mrs. Donruss-Leaf? And would your kids have dual citizenship? And would Mrs. Donruss-Leaf wake up every morning and look in the mirror and wish to God that she hadn’t danced with you at McGill’s annual Under-the-Sea Dance, but with Mr. Topps instead? And if one of your kids somehow met a down-and-out Mr. Score on the street and he convinced the kid to take a trip back in time to when you and Mr. Donruss first met, would Mr. Donruss disappear right in front of your eyes and Mr. Topps take his place? Or would Mr. Donruss be replaced by your own kid, so that you somehow got married and had kids with one of your own kids? Because that’s pretty fuckin’ sick, Mrs. Donruss-Leaf, if I may say so myself.)

But seriously, let’s say you’re Mr. Donruss. You have a system to your sets, where you have a limited number of Rated Rookie spots, and you know going in that 1987 will be a particularly strong year. You’d probably want to get as many of the star rookies in as Rated Rookies as possible, right? But you need enough other good rookies to keep the rest of the set afloat, so you’ll need to spread them out a little bit too.

Here’s the actual Rated Rookie checklist for 1987:

28. BJ Surhoff
29. Randy Myers
30. Ken Gerhart
31. Benito Santiago
32. Greg Swindell
33. Mike Birkbeck
34. Terry Steinbach
35. Bo Jackson
36. Greg Maddux
37. Jim Lindeman
38. Devon White
39. Eric Bell
40. Willie Fraser
41. Jerry Browne
42. Chris James
43. Rafael Palmeiro
44. Pat Dodson
45. Duane Ward
46. Mark McGwire

That’s a 52.63% success rate. Not bad, but there’s definitely room for improvement (pulling a Jerry Browne or Chris James RR is not very enticing, especially when kids were paying upwards of $2 for a pack). What could have made this set one of the best of the decade was if Gerhart, Birkbeck, Lindeman, Bell, Fraser, Browne, James, Dodson and Ward were replaced. My Rated Rookies would be as follows:

28. BJ Surhoff
29. Randy Myers
30. Kevin Seitzer
31. Benito Santiago
32. Greg Swindell
33. Barry Bonds
34. Terry Steinbach
35. Bo Jackson
36. Greg Maddux
37. Mike Greenwell
38. Devon White
39. Barry Larkin
40. Ruben Sierra
41. Will Clark
42. Bruce Ruffin (because you always have to include a shitty Phillie)
43. Rafael Palmeiro
44. Todd Worrell
45. Doug Drabek
46. Mark McGwire

I’ll admit, Donruss would never guess a perfect 100% on rookies panning out like this, but the great thing about this set is that even with 19 star RR’s there are enough other rookies to hold up the rest of the set. Also, another interesting point: Canseco’s RR in 1986 was I believe the first time that the major rookie from the set was a Rated Rookie. Mattingly wasn’t a RR in 1984 (Joe Carter was), and neither Clemens, Gooden or Puckett were in 1985. So it’s not entirely surprising that neither Will Clark nor Barry Bonds were RRs, but if they had it would’ve been more on pace with the post-Canseco world. It’s weird, to be honest with you: in 1988 and 1989 it’s almost like Donruss got bored with the set after the Rated Rookies (Alomar and Grace were RRs in ’88, and Sheffield, Griffey and Johnson were in 1989). The Glavine in the 1988 set and the Smoltz and Schilling rookies in the 1989 set are not enough to balance out their respective sets. This could be another reason why these sets aren’t so hot.

To recap:

• 1987 was a banner year
• Enough quality rookies to fill a prison bus (including guys with names like ‘Spanky’ and ‘Wild Thing’)
• Donruss didn’t know how to drive said prison bus (Topps and Fleer did)
• Mr. Donruss-Leaf loves Mrs. Donruss-Leaf, who loves Mr. Topps and would even rather be married to one of her own kids (possible after a series of crazy, madcap time-traveling escapades with Mr. Score) than go on one more day with Mr. Donruss-Leaf.