A Dave Winfield Cardboard Tribute... (Part 2 of 2)

(Part 1 Here)

G'day again!

 We're on to part 2 of my Dave Winfield tribute, in cardboard form.

I had a great time last night creating the first post, and I imagine this one will be even more enjoyable, as we will be heading into the 70's.

Brown.

Mustard.

Psychedelia.

Who doesn't love 1970's Baseball Cards???

They're all to come soon, but for now lets focus on the 1990 cards.

Wow, we nearly have 2 cards from each set represented here - save for Leaf and Bowman. Even though the Blue Donruss card is from a semi-oddball issue, it still serves it's purpose as 'Donruss Update', to me.

That Upper Deck card in the top left is my favorite card in this group. You may not be able to see it here, but the look on Winfield's face is hilarious. Looks like he is picturing Big Stein's face on that baseball...

Next in line are my 1989 and 1988 cards.




For me, the 1988 Score card stands out the most. That dark purple seems to go really well with the Yankee uniforms, for some reason.

Donruss really seemed to love the style of photo it used for the 1989 Winfield card. Hitter... Close-Up... Awaiting pitch... in batting stance...! That pose appeared on a lot of great hitters' Donruss cards from 1986 to 1992.

Speaking of Donruss, I really love the 1988 Baseball's Best set. I think it's referred to by some in the collecting world as 'The Halloween Set', but my main attraction to the set is the glossy fronts (an exception, rather than the rule, in those days), and the full career stats on the backs.

Now we venture into Winfield's 5-year stretch of 100+ RBI seasons.



Unfortunately for myself, and most Dodger fans, these years were Winfield's Yankee years.

But weren't they explosive! Despite all the crap that occurred between Big Stein and Winfield, he still managed to produce runs by the bunch, year in and year out.

Looking at the 1987 Donruss Opening Day card, we see yet another close-up photo of a hitter in his batting stance... etc. A true Donruss staple!

That 1986 Topps design is maligned by many, and adored by few. I'm actually sitting on the fence with this one, but that Black & White design was extremely Yankee-friendly. They have the best looking cards in that set, I believe.

Here is a nice pile of Winfield cards from 1985 down to 1983. My favorite designs in this lot? 1985 Fleer, then 1985 Topps, then 1983 Topps. The two 1985 sets, for me, are two of the best sets from the 80's. Why? Team-Color-Codedness! To quote Barney Stinson, "It's a thing..."

Looks like Donruss stole their 'Superstar Hitter Pose' photograph idea from Fleer somwhere between 1984 and late 1985. I love that 1984 Fleer card. I really miss the old Fleer sets. These days, whenever I buy a complete set, I sort all of the cards into teams. Fleer negated the need to bother with that, by doing it themselves.

We have arrived at the earliest cards of Dave Winfield as a Yankee.

Nothing too spectacular here, although that Diamond King card is one of the first 26 we ever laid eyes on.

I wish Topps would bring back something they only did once - that is, issue the Traded or Update series as a numeric continuation of the main set. In 1981, the main set had 726 cards, and the 132-card Traded set was numbered 727-858. I want my 2013 set to go from 1-990, but hey, I'll settle for what they're doing now. At least they're actually still producing an update set. (1996-1998 Topps, I'm looking at you!)

Finally, we have reached the coolest stack of Dave Winfield cards I own : The Padres cards!

Now, obviously the 1974 card is one I cherish, but my favorite among the 10 cards here is the 1976 Topps card. Why? Team-Color-Codedness, yet again. My favorite 1970's set? I'm going to be really original here and say 1975.

Colors, colors and more colors!

There's not much that needs to be said here, since these cards are simply awesome.

But I will say this : Every single card that I have pictured here in the last 2 days is now living in Australia. I'd guess it's probably the largest Dave Winfield card collection in this country. At least I hope it is!

Thanks for reading,

Nick J

*Edit : Here's Dave's website : http://davewinfieldhof.com