#7 - Todd Worrell Record Breaker

Ugh, another saves record? I'm ignoring it.

As for the card itself, it's pretty sharp, except for the fact that Topps felt the need to turn up the green on the entire background. Check out the lower left hand corner and you can see that the mound is...green! I assume this wasn't some weird spring training exhibition on St. Patrick's day and that Topps just wanted a lot of green on the card. I also wish they hadn't cut off his foot. I love the cards where you can see the player's entire body. But the photo captures a HUGE leg kick, killer '80s 'stache and a very stripey Cards uni. Love it.

#6 - Ruben Sierra Record Breaker

This is a pretty decent card. Nice photo (beautiful, powerful swing with a good shot of the shin guard before it was so popular-hate the guy standing between his legs though), semi-interesting fact (at 20, Sierra was the youngest player to hit HRs from both sides of the plate in a single game). Remember when Sierra was supposed to be a superstar? What happened to that guy? He had that rare blend of power and speed, then before he turned 30 he just stopped...being...good.

#5 - Dave Righetti Record Breaker

Ah, I see why Topps decided to call Davey Lopes "Dave." They didn't want Righetti to be the only record-breaking Dave.

In '86, Righetti set the single-season saves record of 46. That number has been exceeded several times since then, and in '08 K-Rod set the new record with 62. So I'll use this as an opportunity to complain about how overrated K-Rod is. Last year he saved 62 games...in only 68 and a third innings. That's a pretty amazing feat, and you guessed it, he had exactly zero saves of more than one inning. And the first time all year he was left out there to try to close one out for more than an inning, he got the loss in game 5 of the ALDS against the Sox. Yes, he had a pretty good ERA for a closer of 2.24, but he also has had a WHIP that has climbed the last three years, finishing at 1.288 last year. That is NOT good for a guy who's supposed to be an elite closer.

Let's take a look at the WHIPs of the other AL saves leaders in '08:

Joaquim Soria: 42 saves, 0.861 WHIP
Jonathan Papelbon: 41 saves, 0.952 WHIP
Joe Nathan: 39 saves, 0.901 WHIP
Mariano Rivera: 39 saves, 0.660!!! WHIP
BJ Ryan: 32 saves, 1.276 WHIP
George Sherrill: 31 saves, 1.500 WHIP
Bobby Jenks: 30 saves, 1.103 WHIP
Troy Percival: 28 saves, 1.226 WHIP

So the only top save guy with a worse WHIP was George Sherrill, who was only a closer out of necessity and finished the season with a 4.73 ERA. The Mets should be a little worried.

#4 - Dave Lopes Record Breakers

Brace yourself for a tangent here.

OK, first Dave Lopes? Not Davey? OK, Topps. But overall this is a great shot of Lopes...on the bench. Which actually makes sense considering he only had 255 ABs in the year he stole 25 bases. Now, that doesn't seem like a lot of ABs for a guy with that many swipes, but then I found the '70s As. I'm too young to have watched these teams, so someone will have to fill me in if they have any firsthand knowledge of how this team played, but WOW. In 1974, Herb Washington stole 29 bases and had ZERO ABs. Zero! The guy played in 92 games...and he never played the field!!! So he pinch ran in all those 92 games. And what's worse, he was caught stealing 16 times! That's a terrible %.

What's more, this was not an isolated year. Check out the 1975 team, 1976, etc. And it wasn't just one wacky manager's philosophy; they did this year after year. Am I the only one who finds this interesting?

#3 - Dwight Evans Record Breaker

Dewey! If you remember Dwight Evans at all, you remember his stance. He came up under the hitting tutelage of Walk Hriniak, who somehow managed to ruin the swing of about half of the Sox hitters in the 80s. But it did mean he looked nutty in the batter's box, putting all of his weight on his back foot, drooping the bat way back and basically breaking every rule of hitting, aesthetic and otherwise. There was a kid on one of my little league teams who use to stand in the dugout and stretch a piece of chewed gum into a long strand, then hold it back like a bat and pretend to be Dewey. I wonder where that kid is now.

Anyway, Evans homered on the first pitch of the SEASON in 1986. This has always confused me, because why on earth was Dwight Evans leading off? According to B-R, he led off for the first 34 games of 1986 and a good portion of '85. That makes no sense to me. Whatever speed he had was gone by the mid 80s, he struck out a ton, and he had the kind of power you'd want in the middle of the order. I guess he did walk a lot, but still. Not your typical leadoff guy.

#2 - Jim Deshaies Record Breaker

As you've probably picked up on, the set starts with all record breakers. Good, let's get these things out of the way and get to the real meat of the set.

Here we have the immortal, uh, I mean, forgettable Jim Deshaies. On Sept. 23, 1986, he struck out the first 8 hitters of the game. Of course the card doesn't say what team the Astros were playing, but checking B-R, I can see that it was LA. I was really hoping he pitched a lousy game after striking out all those guys, but I was wrong. He threw a 2-hit shutout and ended up with 10 Ks. Pretty damn good.

#1 - Roger Clemens Record Breaker

And we're off! The first card of the 1987 Topps set is a Roger Clemens Record Breaker commemorating the game when the Rocket K'd 20 Mariners. It's funny seeing such a svelt Clemens after we've had the fat 'roided Roger shoved down our throats the last couple years. Growing up a Sox fan, I can't imagine any athlete going from loved to hated as much as this guy.

Overall, I like the Record Breaker cards, but you'll notice that on some of them, "Record Breaker" is red and others it's yellow. Not sure why Topps did that. Luckily, the record breakers don't diverge too much from the regular design, which is the now legendary wood backgrounds. Doesn't get more classic than that, and as far as I'm concerned, it hasn't been duplicated. More on that later.