Pack 87: Rick Burleson, Toby Harrah, Ron Oester, Juan Eichelberger, Rick Camp

Pack 88: AL All-Star George Brett, 1981 World Series Game 5, Gary Matthews, NL All-Star Gary Carter, Bert Blyleven

Pack 89: Greg Minton, AL All-Star Carlton Fisk, Lloyd Moseby, Ken Singleton, Ken Oberkfell

Pack 90: 1981 World Series Game 4, Gene Richards, Ray Knight, Burt Hooton, Cliff Johnson

Pack 91: Neil Allen, Luis Salazar, Jerry Reuss, Ozzie Smith, Fernando Valenzuela

Pack 92: Len Barker, Billy Martin Highlight, Omar Moreno, 1981 World Series Game 3, Ken Oberkfell

Pack 93: Ivan DeJesus, Bob Boone, Tony Armas, Jack Morris, Jim Palmer

Pack 94: Enos Cabell, Tommy John, 1981 World Series Game 6, Gary Lucas, Dave Concepcion

Pack 95: Dennis Leonard, Bob Boone, Tony Armas, Jack Clark, Willie Stargell

Pack 96: 1981 World Series Game 4, Gene Richards, Ray Knight, Burt Hooton, NL All-Star Dave Parker

Pack 97: Ivan DeJesus, Luis Salazar, Tony Armas, Jack Morris, Jim Palmer

Pack 98: Len Barker, Tim Blackwell, Omar Moreno, 1981 World Series Game 3, AL All-Star Dave Winfield

Pack 99: Hubie Brooks, Broderick Perkins, Andre Thornton, Roger Erickson, Chris Speier

Pack 100: Larry Herndon, George Foster, Dick Tidrow, Cesar Cedeno, Frank White


Notes. Well, that's all she wrote: With only 15/75 new stickers, my sticker album will be forever unfinished. And only 11 stickers short. So that means that within my box of 500 stickers, I only got 249 individual stickers (and 251 others). What I find most interesting about this is the idea of where certain stickers appeared within the box, and then how long it took to get a double, and then sometimes a triple, of that sticker [the Pack Pocket hypothesis, introduced in Sunday's post].

Highlight stickers seemed to appear in the first third of the box, World Series and League Leaders appeared in the last third, and All-Stars appeared throughout. Also, I completed the Red Sox team page before receiving a single Padre, and for a very long time was one Jim Palmer sticker from completing the Orioles team page, only then to receive two Palmers within a few packs of each other towards the end of the box.

Other Notes... This sticker of Omar Moreno has to be the worst sticker in the entire book. Why isn't he facing the camera? A sane person would not have known it was Moreno... I've been staring at the album cover for a while now and I'm convinced that a) the players obscured by the large "25¢" in the lower right corner are shown in team-less uniforms, which is bizarre, and b) Gary Carter's eyes are closed, which begs the question: Why didn't Topps use a photo of one of the World Series-winning LA Dodgers? Like Valenzuela mid-windup or Ron Cey picking his nose?... And speaking of Dodgers, like the other teams, there are only eight players on the team page: Ken Landreaux, Dusty Baker, Ron Cey, Steve Garvey, Pedro Guerrero, Fernando Valenzuela, Burt Hooton, and Jerry Reuss. OK, so most of them are star players, but because the team won the World Series, I would've thought that Topps would have given them a spread. Because how would you feel if you were Davey Lopes, Mike Scioscia or Bill Russell? Or even Tommy Lasorda, for that matter? If anyone deserved a sticker, it was Davey Lopes. The guy was traded after the 1981 season to the A's presumably because he was 36. But then he goes on to put up respectable numbers for six more seasons, including a great 1985 with the Cubs, where he steals 47 bases while getting caught only four times. I'm Davey Lopes! Gimme my damn sticker!

Final Notes. In the next few days I'm going to do a post outlining the entire box, just to see if there's any reason to the madness of opening 100 packs and not finishing the set.

The further I get into this checklist, the more I realize that this is actually a pretty easy set to put together. Dave over at Cardboard Junkie has been supplying the scans, in numerical order, and with his visual guide as a cheat sheet, you could put together the set for about $100. Not bad, considering it's supposed to be the 'perfect' set of the decade. Whether you want to invest the time is another matter entirely.

Speaking of time, here's the next fifty-card installment from The 792.

#301 - 350

301. Reggie Jackson In Action, 1982
302. Dodger Future Stars, 1981
303. Juan Berenguer, 1987
304. Mike Gallego (RC), 1986
305. Don Sutton, 1982
306. Dodger Leaders, 1984
307. Dave Sax, 1986
308. Jesus Vega, 1983
309. Mike Witt, 1985
310. Dave Parker, 1980
311. Rickey Henderson Turn Back the Clock, 1987
312. Reggie Jackson Turn Back the Clock, 1987
313. Gary Gray, 1983
314. Frank Pastore, 1986
315. Kirk Gibson (RC), 1981
316. Sammy Khalifa, 1986
317. Tom Nieto, 1988
318. Ted Simmons, 1985
319. Greg Swindell (RC), 1987
320. Barry Bonds (RC), 1987
I want to speak about the fact that not only was Bonds given a 2nd Tier number for his regular-issue rookie card, but in 1988 he was put on #450. That's just unheard of for a 2nd year player. Well, we can't call them inconsistent: The love affair between Topps and Bonds seems to have been a career-long infatuation.

321. Earl Weaver (MGR), 1986
322. John Smiley, 1989
Smiley always looked like he was wishing evil things on the photographer. He also resembled Jimbo from The Simpsons.

323. Bill Lee, 1982
324. Alejandro Pena (RC), 1984
325. Von Hayes, 1983
How come there isn't a well-known indie rock band called 'Von Hayes' yet?

326. Mark Gubicza, 1987
Or 'Gubicza'? "Hello, Cleveland! We're Gubicza and we've come to rock!"

327. Mark Lemke (RC), 1989
328. Twins Team, 1980
329. Kirby Puckett, 1986
330. Eric Davis, 1989
331. Alan Ashby, 1986
332. Lee Lacy, 1981
333. Willie Hernandez, 1985
334. Dave LaPoint, 1988
This card of LaPoint is in the Top 10 Greatest Achievements in the Field of Airbrushing.

335. Willie McCovey, 1980
336. Mariners Leaders, 1984
337. Pete Rose NL AS, 1982
338. Bob Owchinko, 1983
339. Mike Schmidt NL AS, 1982
340. Cal Ripken, Jr, 1986
341. Dwayne Murphy, 1981
342A.+B. George Foster NL AS, 1982
343. Gary Sheffield (RC), 1989
344. Gary Carter NL AS, 1982
This is a great card of Carter where he's sporting clown hair plastered underneath the bowl-cut Expos batting helmet.

345. Donnie Moore, 1986
346. Tom Seaver NL AS, 1982
My spellcheck doesn't recognize 'Seaver.' You'd think that there would be a few names Microsoft would've programmed in, like Seaver, DiMaggio, Ripken, Koufax, Clemente. Instead only names like Einstein, Rembrandt, and Gandhi make the cut. Not even Van Gogh. 'Blyleven' I understand, but 'Van Gogh'? Seriously?

347. Teddy Higuera (RC), 1986
348. Carmelo Martinez, 1987
349. Domingo Ramos, 1985
350. Will Clark, 1988

Don't you worry, there's plenty more where this came from.
More checklist from The 792 to come!