a long time ago, in an infield far far away...

doesn't this 1987 fleer all-star insert scream 'star wars'?

with the tapered font and the starry sky, i say yes.  it's much cooler looking than the blue and red backgrounds (i think) in the first go-around that fleer had with these in an earlier set.

saxy was indeed worthy of the selection back then, having matured into a fairly decent offensive second baseman.  plus, he was in fact named to the 1986 nl all-star squad - he was 1 for 1 with an rbi and a stolen base against charlie hough, who struck out 3 batters but only recorded two outs thanks to a passed ball on strike 3.  here's what fleer had to say in defense (pun intended) of their saxy selection.

huh.  they say that saxy's throwing problems were behind him (pun intended, again) by 1986.  that is largely true, at least for his tenure with the dodgers.  he had only 16 errors in 1986 and 14 in 1987 and 1988, his three best seasons in the field during his time in la.  he did even better in his three seasons with the yankees before making 20 miscues for the white sox in 1992 and being relegated to the outfield primarily for the rest of his career.  maybe perception is reality, and it really is impossible to make a second first impression.

still, there's no denying that there was a time when sax threw to first with the precision of an imperial stormtrooper.  i mean the ones that couldn't hit the side of a galactic cruiser with their lasers, not the ones that obi-wan refers to when he mentions that 'only imperial stormtroopers are so precise.'  based on the way they were depicted in the movie, i really don't think obi-wan knew what he was talking about.