1988 was not a very good year for the majority of new baseball card products.
It was also not a very good year for the Cardinals because Jack Clark left the team for the Yankees.
He was the lone power hitter on the Cardinals during the mid 1980s, and probably really under appreciated as to how good of a player he was during his time with the team. His numbers with the Cardinals in 1987 were ridiculous, especially given the fact that he basically missed the last month of the season.
A quick rundown:
-35 Home Runs
-106 RBIs
-.459 On Base Percentage
-.597 Slugging Percentage
-1.055 POS
Yes, Andre Dawson was very good and won the MVP in the National League. I would like to think that if Jack Clark had played the month of September, he would have won the award instead. So, while Clark was off anchoring the middle of the Yankees lineup, Fleer put out a really nice card of him as a Cardinal as a part of their All-Star Team insert set.
The 1988 Fleer set is really boring, but this card is not. I like the contrasting dark and light green stripes, along with the All-Star Team heading up at the top of the card. The only thing odd here is what they did with Jack Clark's bat. They couldn't have it go all the way to the edge of the card? It just sort of disappears, makes the card look slightly odd.
I also like Clark's wristband and batting gloves. The little Cardinals logo on both make them look like they were purchased in the gift shop prior to a game. Tons of kids were probably running around St. Louis with that same sweatband and set of batting gloves.
Back of the card.
It just describes all the awesome things I said about Jack Clark up above. I will be nicer to 1988 the rest of the time I write these 1980s posts.
A song on my IPod from 1988, I will get the embed code right this week, is The Church's "Under The Milky Way". Underrated song from the 1980s.
Collation for these inserts were terrible. If my memory serves me right... I always pulled Higuera, Nokes, Clark, and Davis from my packs.
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