Updating for 2015 – Hall of Famers in sets from the 80’s

About a year ago, Night Owl had a really good post about “the most Hall of Famers” in various sets.  This has always been something that intrigued me.  I count the number of Hall of Famers for every new set I start, and post about it in my overview.  So, since there are now 4 new Hall of Famers to account for, I need to go back and update those posts – and in doing so, I figured I might as well show a cumulative total here!  I’ve got to put Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, John Smoltz and Craig Biggio into the list!

First, the ground rules.  I include all Hall of Famers from the set.  That includes someone like Johnny Bench in the 1990 set.  He was in a Turn Back the Clock subset for his 1970 MVP season, but he’d have been retired at this point.  I also include managers who were Hall of Fame players (Frank Robinson in 1984 Topps, or my personal favorite – Yogi Berra as an Astro coach on their 1987 Topps team leader card), and would include player cards of guys who became Hall of Fame managers (1969 Topps Bobby Cox).

Pedro wasn’t in the baseball world until the 90’s – but the other 3 guys have cards in 1989.  There’s only one Topps set to update – 1989 – but I’ll walk through the entire decade for fun.

1980 Topps – 41 Hall of Famers

Johnny Bench, Bert Blyleven, George Brett, Rod Carew, Steve Carlton, Gary Carter, Andre Dawson, Dennis Eckersley, Rollie Fingers, Carlton Fisk, Goose Gossage, Rickey Henderson, Reggie Jackson, Fergie Jenkins, Willie McCovey, Paul Molitor, Joe Morgan, Eddie Murray, Jim Palmer, Phil Niekro, Tony Perez, Gaylord Perry, Jim Rice, Nolan Ryan, Mike Schmidt, Tom Seaver, Ozzie Smith, Willie Stargell, Bruce Sutter, Don Sutton, Dave Winfield, Carl Yastrzemski, Robin Yount, Earl Weaver (manager), Tommy LaSorda (manager), Dick Williams (manager), Sparky Anderson (manager), Joe Torre (manager), Bobby Cox (manager), Tony LaRussa (manager), Lou Brock (HL)

• Same as last year

1981 Topps – 40 Hall of Famers

McCovey and Brock were gone after retiring (-2), but Whitey Herzog got a manager card when he was hired by St. Louis (+1)

• Same as last year

1982 Topps – 33 Hall of Famers

There was no manager subset in 1982, which accounts for the big drop – Weaver, LaSorda, Williams, Anderson, Torre, Cox and LaRussa aren’t in this set (-8).  Cal Ripken Jr. is the new guy in this set (+1).

• Same as last year.

1983 Topps – 44 Hall of Famers

This is the peak of HOF-ers in my Lifetime Topps project.  The manager subset came back, which led to 9 new cards of Hall of Famers – Weaver, LaSorda, Williams, Sparky, Herzog, Cox, Torre, LaRussa and Frank Robinson.  Additionally, Wade Boggs, Ryne Sandberg and Tony Gwynn entered the fray (+12).  Willie Stargell retired and had his last card in 1982 (-1).

• Same as last year.

1984 Topps – 43 Hall of Famers

Earl Weaver had retired after the 1982 season, with no new Hall of Fame blood in this set (-1).  Bench, Perry and Yastrzemski were only included in a subset card.

• Same as last year.

1985 Topps – 39 Hall of Famers

Robinson was gone after his stint as the Giants manager was over, and Bench, Yaz, Perry, Palmer and Jenkins had also had their last card (-6).  Kirby Puckett’s rookie card is in this set, and Yogi Berra had a card for his second (and controversial) stint as Yankee manager (+2).  When I started this blog, Puckett was the most recent rookie card of any Hall of Famer!

• Same as last year.

1986 Topps – 39 Hall of Famers

Torre was fired as Braves manager in 1984 and was gone from this set.  Berra was gone as well, and Joe Morgan retired (-3).  But Earl Weaver was back as the O’s manager, and we had a Turn Back the Clock subset that got Willie Mays and Frank Robinson into the mix (+3).

• Same as last year.

1987 Topps – 37 Hall of Famers

Cox was no longer the Blue Jay skipper at this point, and Carew, Fingers and Tony Perez all retired. Robinson and Mays were gone from the TBC subset (-6)….

But Clemente and Yastrzemski replaced them.  Barry Larkin had his first card in this set, and Yogi Berra had the awesome TL card I mentioned earlier as coach of the Astros (+4)!

• Same as last year.

1988 Topps – 35 Hall of Famers

Mr. October, Lefty and Tom Terrific and Earl Weaver were all retired at this point.  Clemente, Yaz and Berra were gone from subsets (-7).  Maddux and Glavine had their first base Topps cards, and the subsets were a wash due to 3 new Cardinals – Bob Gibson and Stan Musial from the TBC subset, and Red Schoendienst is featured on the Cards Team Leader card (+5).  Phil Niekro made it only on the Record Breaker subset with his brother in this set.

• Same as last year.

1989 Topps – 36 Hall of Famers

Gone (-6):  Sutton, Niekro (RB), Williams (mgr), Schoendienst (TL), Musial (TBC), Gibson (TBC)

New (+7): Hank Aaron (TBC), Brock (TBC), Frank Robinson (back as a manager), Roberto Alomar RC, Randy Johnson RC, Craig Biggio RC, John Smoltz RC

• Last year, this set was 33, with the Big Unit, Biggio and Smoltz upping the ante as 2015 inductees.

I’ll update this for the 1990’s in the next post.