1990 Topps Batting Leaders

In 1990, Topps continued the set that came 1 card per pack K-Mart “Blister” pack – Batting Leaders.  The set depicts the top 22 players in lifetime career batting average at the end of the previous season – just like the set the year before.  Again, Wade Boggs and Tony Gwynn are the first two cards in the set.  The cards are printed on glossy stock and have a green border (in contrast to the red border from the year before) with a bat vertically across one of the sides.  A trophy cup saying “Top active career Batting Leaders” is in one of the lower corners.  Since the criteria is the same, the 2 sets have a very similar composition and numbering; they even use a number of the same photos.  Some guys like Dave Parker and Rickey Henderson changed teams; they at least got the team right for these guys.

The green 1990 cards go for a little bit less than the red cards from 1989.  I actually bought two of these blister packs of the 1990 cards on eBay.  This was a way for me to get a few more base cards and get 2 of these cards.  These are going to be 2 tough sets to collect – they’re fairly rare, and since they’re so old, you just don’t see many.  There are a few on eBay, but they aren’t listed at a price anywhere near what I’d consider fair.

9 Hall-of-Famers:     W. Boggs, T. Gwynn, K. Puckett, G. Brett, P. Molitor, J. Rice, R. Yount, E. Murray, R. Henderson,

I figured Lonnie Smith doesn’t get too many scans in my blog.  Here’s one for all his fans out there.