#13 - Nick Esasky

Finally, a player I actually liked! Esasky was a pretty productive player and seemed like a solid guy. He had his best season with the Red Sox in '89, hitting .277 with 30 homers and 108 RBI, but suffered from vertigo the next season, tragically ending his career.

Looking at the back, I may have to re-evaluate my assessment of his niceness, because, just like Jeff Sellers, he named his kid after himself. You're killing me, Nick!

Onto the card. Not bad. Decent photo, although I wish you could see a little more of his face. And the way his arms are shot, it makes it look like he has one big arm instead of two normal-sized ones. But overall, the action in the photo is just what you want on a great baseball card.

#12 - Jeff Sellers

According to the back, "Jeff and his wife have a son, Jeffrey Doyle, Jr." Here's a new rule. If you suck, you're not allowed to name your kid after yourself. I suppose that would eliminate nearly all legacy names as suckitude is really a prerequisite for having the stones to name your child that way.

Sellers started a few games for the Sox over a few years but didn't do...well...anything. So let's concentrate on the photo. First, we have another brand new Mizuno glove and a background that suggests spring training. It's a pretty bland card, and it's not helped by the squinty, confused look on Sellers' face. Maybe he just couldn't see! Yeah, that's it, he had lousy vision, but didn't realize it because Roger Dorn never played a trick on him that led to Lou Brown discovering Sellers' myopia. Dammit. He could have been the next Wild Thing. Not Mitch Williams, we'll get to him later.

#11 - Indians Leaders

Here is the first of the individual team cards. We'll start with Cleveland, who had a pretty decent year in '86, finished at 84-78, which was a lot better than most of their seasons in the '80s. I never understood the whole white fog thing that's going on with the team cards. Why? To make them seem like some sort of wonderful dream? OK, I can buy that, but who the hell is dreaming of an Indians mound conference? At least we get a shot of HOFer Phil Niekro, who is clearly older than the pitching coach.

On the back of these cards Topps listed the team leaders for a few relevant categories. On this particular one, I learned that Joe Carter had 200 hits in 1986! I actually didn't believe it, so I looked it up, only to find it was true. I'm still in disbelief about that. Joe Carter was a tremendously overrated hitter who struck out a ton, never walked, and ended his career with a .259 batting average and OPS+ of 105. He built his reputation on a few big hits and some decent power numbers. But you have to hand it to the guy, he did have a good '86. .302 with 29 homers, 121 RBI and a 130 OPS+. I won't mention that aside from that one season, he never had one when he reached even 175 hits.

#10 - Cecil Cooper

Ah, the first member of the Bob Ojeda "Stunk Until He Left the Red Sox" Association. Cooper did nothing for the Sox for 6 seasons, got traded to Milwaukee for George Scott and Bernie Carbo, then started a run of 7 straight seasons hitting over .300, 3 top-5 MVP finishes, led the league in RBI twice and he even started stealing bases. Jerk.

As for the card itself, the photo is absolutely hilarious. Check out the background. Clearly nobody wants any part of Coop. I don't blame them, he sorta looks like a mini Kareem Abdul-Jabaar, and no one likes Kareem.

#9 - Jay Tibbs

Alright, I had hoped we would get farther into the set than #9 before we found a guy I had no recollection of, but here we are. Jay Tibbs. But looking at the card, guess what? More stripes! And a nice look at the GIGANTIC 80s Expos logo. When I was a kid, I always thought the logo was a mashed together "elb" which never made any sense to me.

In the photo, Tibbs also has a nice brand spankin' new Mizuno glove, so I'm guessing this was taken in March. That guy on the grassy knoll to the right is also creeping me out. Maybe Tibbs just stiffed him an autograph.

#8 - Terry Pendleton

We all remember the MVP for Atlanta version of Pendleton, but here's a shot of the crappy .240 hitter with ZERO power version of TP. But this is actually a nice card. There's some nice symmetry between the catcher (gotta be Gary Carter, right?) and batter, and come to think of it, the fuzzy guy on deck, too. It's also another good example of the ridiculously stripey Cards' unis of the 80s. I hated those stupid striped waistbands, thank god they got rid of those.

I also just noticed something. In the Cards' jersey graphic/logo there are two cardinals. Which, when you think about it makes sense because the team is the St. Louis Cardinals (plural). Are there any other teams who used this strategy? The Red Sox have a secondary logo with two socks, but since the name is spelled with an "x" I don't think that counts. Anyone?

#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.