10 March 2013

mr. october got a final tribute, too

earlier today i showed the 'final tribute' cards of reggie smith.  i figured i would do the same for the 'other' reggie.  reggie jackson was the better known of the two players, thanks in large part to his time in new york and his success on the national stage as both a yankee and a member of the oakland a's.  he retired after the 1987 season with 563 home runs and 2584 hits (to go along with a record 2597 strikeouts).

only two of the four major card manufacturers gave reggie some love in their 1988 sets.  while topps and donruss passed on mr. october, fleer gave him a card
with his complete career stats on the back
and, as part of a complete career retrospective, score gave him a similar card
again with the full boat of major league statistics
when he retired, jackson was sixth on the all-time leader board in home runs, and trailed only babe ruth among left-handed batters. he also trailed only ruth and harmon killebrew in home runs by an american league player.  he's currently 13th on the all-time home run list, and should be safe there for at least a couple of years as albert pujols is the closest active player to 563, and he needs another 90 or so to get there.

even though he stuck his hip out and interfered in that world series play against the dodgers, reggie jackson deserved his due from the card companies in 1988, and i'm glad that at least fleer and score delivered.

1 comment:

unclemoe said...

Hadn't seen the Fleer one before. I like it.