Design
One of my favorite Topps designs of all-time, and in my opinion, the best from the 1980s. I know a lot of people rave and rant about 1987's wood borders, but this is much better. Maybe I am biased towards the sets from my childhood, but no matter where I am as a collector or what I am interested in collecting, the cards in the 1983 Topps set have always had a strong appeal to me.
I like the two photographs on the front of the card and the color schemes that Topps used around the edges of the card. I know there are some similarities to the 1963 set, but I like this version better. Every team has their own color scheme, which often has nothing to do with the actually team colors, but still looks good.
The back of the cards are nice too.
This might also be one of my favorite card backs. The stat lines are the same old same old, but the contrast between the orange and gray background and black print is easy on the eyes. It makes things easy to read. I also like that the highlights and facts on the back of the card focus on that player and their performance on the field, not something random which is the case with other Topps sets. Nothing like, "Tony Armas set a record for total bases in a Major League game", which is on the 1982 Topps Gene Richards card.
The silhouettes are a nice touch too.
Overall, I give this base set high marks. Again, personal favorite, and I know that there are plenty of other collectors who have differing opinions of this set ranging from indifferent to dislike.
The Super Veteran Bulls
One of the most recognizable subsets in the 1983 Topps set are the Super Veteran cards. The subset also has a strong connection to the early 1960s Durham Bulls, who were the Carolina League affiliate of the expansion Houston Colt .45s. Two notable Major Leaguers rolled through the Durham Athletic Park during the 1962 and 1963 seasons.
Rusty Staub appeared on the 1962 Bulls, winning the Carolina League MVP that season. He was in the Majors with the Colts the following year. During the 1983 season Staub was playing with the Mets, which was his second stint with that franchise. He was a good player for a long time, and not one that I place with just one team. Staub was a bench player at this point during his career, so especially neat that Topps gave him this card. Don't get many fourth outfielders and left-handed bats off the bench with subset cards. I love the old photo with the Colts.
Joe Morgan was on the Bulls in 1963, and for a long time was their only former player who was in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Oddly enough, the Durham Bulls had a former player in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, 1940s quarterback Ace Parker, before they had one in the Baseball Hall. The old photo of Morgan is fantastic. You get to see the front of his Colts jersey too. Morgan played for a bunch of teams at the end of his career, but was still a decent player. My interest in baseball and Morgan's career barely interested, so he's a player a mostly know about through others, reading, videos, etc. It's weird not seeing him on the Reds. No, I don't remember watching him play at all.
Topps re-did the Super Veteran subset in the 2014 Topps set. It was as disappointing as you can imagine. That old fashioned photo of Matt Holliday feels really inauthentic.
Just makes me sad.
This is really the only thing not to like about the 1983 Topps set. I am not sure how many times Topps has used the card designs from this set over the past decade, but I know it has at a minimum appeared in Topps Archives and as an insert set in a Topps base set. They are never as good as the original.
Best Cardinals Cards
I have two favorite Cardinals cards in this set. I have picked one in each of the other sets that I have featured in one of these posts, but none of those sets were almost 800 cards. One was a no-brainer, so let's talk about that one first.
There are three rookie cards that most collectors know in the 1983 Topps set, those are Sandberg, Gwynn, and Boggs. However, there is also a rookie card of Willie McGee.
He won more batting titles than Ryne Sandberg. He won more World Series rings than Sandberg and Gwynn. He won more MVP Awards than Wade Boggs and Tony Gwynn combined. Also, all three of those players might be in the Hall of Fame, but none of them won a batting title for the National League while playing in the American League.
Seriously, Willie was a good player. There is some weird contingent of Cardinals fans who thinks he should be in the Hall of Fame (no), and that the team should retire his number (no). If I made a list of really important must-own Cardinals rookie cards from the 1980s, this 1983 Topps Willie McGee card would definitely be on the list.
Second Cardinals card.
This was not my first Ozzie Smith card, that was likely a 1983 Fleer, but I still owned this card. Ozzie was easily the most likable player on the Cardinals when I first started collecting cards and following baseball. His cards were important to me as a six year old, and since he did not retire until I was in college, they have always remained important.
I like the action shot on the card. Not sure if this is a hit or not, but it looks like Ozzie has at least a chance to make it a close play. I like that there is another player talking to a fan in the background.
Favorite Former Durham Bulls
There were quite a few to choose from in this set, but I went with two members of the Bulls teams from the 1960s. First up, I will go with my second Rusty Staub card of the post.
I really like the action shots in the 1983 Topps set. I feel like many have a story to tell. The photo on this card shows Staub dropping his bat and heading to first base, but I have always thought that this was likely a routine fly ball. He looks a little disappointed in his expression with his eyes are up. Maybe I am wrong, but Rusty's face is saying flying out to right field. If you have this set, or even just a few cards, it's worth your time to flip through and look at the action shots.
Next up.
I had to go with the Greg Luzinski card.
He was on the 1969 Raleigh-Durham Phillies, which is what the Bulls changed their name to after they were forced to merge with the bankrupt Raleigh Pirates. They were also a Phillies affiliate, so there is that part of the name.
Raleigh is a city. Durham is a city. Raleigh-Durham is an airport.
Back to the Luzinski card.
"The Bull" was a feared power hitter who was paired with Mike Schmidt for the majority of his career, but his last few years were spent as a designated hitter with the White Sox. Greg Luzinski was out of shape, and did not really look like a professional athlete when this card was made. He could still hit though. Love the action shot of him wearing the softball style White Sox uniform. Not sure what happened in this at-bat, hard to tell, definitely a fly ball though.
He does look really annoyed in the portrait photo though.
Best Non-Cardinal/Non-Durham Bulls Card
I will just go ahead and tell that this card is my favorite in the set. It's even better than the Willie McGee card, which hurts a little to say out loud in public.
Simply put, this is one of the best rookie cards from the 1980s.
The spots are on my scanner. Little people were playing with it while I was working.
The picture is a little bit odd, but I think that's one of the reasons I like this card. This is clearly a Spring Training picture with Gwynn wearing the 53, which he never wore in a Major League game. Always love those pictures of great players and they're wearing some odd number. Albert Pujols is wearing jersey number 68 in several of his rookie cards. Same idea here.
I also miss those brown and yellow Padres uniforms. I am glad the team is switching back to this color scheme for the 2020 season.
Back of the card.
Gwynn was not in the Minors for very long, but did hit in all three stops. This is the one card where I would have actually liked the random fact box, so they could squeeze in that he played college basketball and was drafted by an NBA team. I am sure it is on another Topps Tony Gwynn card.
How Does It Compare?
You should already know.
Not sure we need a lot of discussion here. If I were just doing the Topps sets from my life time, this might be first overall. Really not much to think about, this is the best set I have written up on these posts.
I like the 83 set. Agree with a lot of your analysis. My favorite card is the Sandberg rookie, with my Cubs bias in plain view!
ReplyDeleteI have always been partial to the 83 Fleer in large part because of the powder blue uniform. The Cubs need to bring those back.
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ReplyDeleteThe 1983 Topps set is easily -- EASILY -- the best set issued that decade. If anyone says it's '87, then they are the ones who are clearly letting their childhood bias influence them. There is simply no comparison, for any set issued that decade. It can't compare to '83. It says something that Topps took a well-known design, from 1963, and improved on it so much. The photos are great in the '83 set -- it's the first Topps set in which the majority of the photos are action.
ReplyDeleteComplete agree 100% Night Owl.
DeleteThe 1983 Topps set was my favorite flagship design up until I fell in love with the 1956 set. It's still my 2nd favorite and the best of the decade. Back then, I had access to both Fleer and Topps, but struggled to find Donruss. I was fortunate enough to pull both Gwynn and McGee rookie cards as a kid.
ReplyDeleteI don’t think I have ever sat down and tried to rank all of the designs of the Topps sets, but at worst the 1983 set would be in my top 2 or 3. I might have to try that one day.
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