Completed Set: 1984 Topps Baseball

 

The 1984 Topps baseball set is a special one for me. It's the first set of cards I remember collecting. The first wax packs I opened. The first sticks of gum I chewed. Here's a related memory:

 

Back in 1984, my dad was living in Manhattan while my sister and I lived on Long Island with our mom. Every other Friday evening, dad would drive out to the island in a maroon Honda Civic hatchback to pick up his two kids for a weekend in the big city. The trip back to Manhattan took about an hour (without traffic), and during those rides, my sister and I would excitedly share events from the previous two weeks with dad: schoolwork, teachers, friends, Little League games, softball games.

And for the year of 1984 in particular, there was even more to look forward to on those rides: 

A small brown paper bag tucked between the seats of the car, filled with packs of Topps baseball cards. 

After we caught up with dad, my sister and I would divide the packs evenly and start opening them. We were still too young to have a favorite player or an allegiance to one New York team over the other, but we both loved baseball. I remember that whenever we found a hometown player in those packs we’d call out “Mets!” or “Yankees!”, and dad would ask us which player we got. What a great time.

 

And to this day, whenever I see the bright blue "Mets" or dark purple "Yankees" text running down the left-hand side of a 1984 Topps card, I think of those car rides.

 

Fortunately, even without the personal nostalgia, the set design is quite memorable. Along with the instantly recognizable font choice for the team name, there's also the picture-in-picture effect and plenty of good-looking photos.

 

Let's go through some of them together.

 

 

You've got your share of classic "sunny day at the ballpark" poses. Combine that with some powder blue uniforms and sweet team logos and fonts, and you've got a happy 1980s card collector.

 

 

 

There are plenty of batting stance poses as well. Here, Ozzie Smith and Lloyd Moseby show off the all-star card design, while Gibby is looking like a stud in the batting cage.

 

But there are also many intriguing shots in the '84 Topps set—cards that come together to really enhance the anticipation and potential excitement that is the story of baseball. Check out this progression:

 

 

The pitcher looks in for the signs...

 

 

 

 The batter takes his stance...

 

 

The fielders prepare themselves...

Here's the wind-up...

 

And the pitch...

 

It's a hit!

 

And that's the essence of baseball, isn't it? It's definitely what you'd want to capture on at least some of the cards in your set, and 1984 Topps did well here.

They also did well to get some catchers into the action.

 

 

Stars of the era got some good action shots, too.

As did the rookies.

Let's look at some of the subsets now.

 

On the left you'll see an example of a league leaders card, which was standard Topps procedure. (Tim Raines had 90 stolen bases in 1983, while Rickey swiped 108. Who else misses those days?) Topps also created a card for each team's batting and pitching leaders, as shown on the right. Nolan Ryan is almost smiling there, which is quite a departure from the typical stare-down you see on his cards.

 

 

Interestingly, Topps also added an "Active Career Leaders" subset. It's a great little snapshot into the star power of the era, don't you think? I like how the career totals up to that point are listed right on the front, too.

Next up, we've got a manager card, along with two different highlight card designs. The card in the middle documents Henderson stealing 100+ bases for the third time in his young career. On the right, Topps paid tribute to three legends who'd retired at the end of the previous season.

 

 

Here's an example of a card back:

The color combination works very well. I have no problem reading that dark text against the light background. In addition, there's a nice big red number at the top left, an equally big player name at top center, and then an even bigger team logo top right. Well done all around.

Next up is an example of a checklist card from the set:

And finally, here are a couple of sweepstakes cards, inserted one per wax pack.

 

 

 

And that's 1984 Topps. 

 

Personal nostalgia aside, I think the design and photography are very solid. Some of the card colors do match up with the team colors a bit better than others, but overall it's bright, attractive, and kid friendly. And while some of the photos are a bit grainy, blurry, or faded, most are certainly nice and crisp. That doesn't sound like much of a compliment, but for the era, it was a pretty good showing.

 

I've actually completed this set for a second time recently, and it's just as special as the first set.

What are your thoughts on 1984 Topps? Favorite cards?

 

Share in the comment section, and thanks for reading!