1989 TOPPS BASEBALL

BY JOEY SHIVER

In 1989, I was still a little new to the baseball card hobby. I had picked up a few cards here and there through middle school but I would say that my interest was reaching a peak that year as a 12 year-old. I was playing baseball every day, watching it on TV, and beginning to get a grasp on stats, divisional breakdowns, and strategy. Before that, cards were cool. But by 1989, I had reached a point where “I got it.”

During the mid-‘80s when I was piecing together a small collection of players that I had seen play on TBS or WGN, I didn’t really pay much attention to design. It was more about the player and team than what the card looked like. By 1988, Score made designs a little flashier. And then, in 1989, Upper Deck made cards look classy.