rollie rollie rollie get your final tributes here!

i've been on a bit of a roll lately with the final tribute cards in my collection.  i'm working on moving them to their own binder and deconstructing many of my hall of famer player collections that i built from the late 1970's through the early 2000's.  i primarily collect final tribute cards (cards from the year following a players' retirement) of members of the 1978 topps dodgers, hall of famers, or other players i find interesting.  that leaves it wide open.  

today i have rollie fingers and his three final tribute cards.  of the three issued in 1986, i like the topps offering the best

here are the donruss

and fleer

cards of the man who retired with the most saves in the history of the game.  fingers eclipsed hoyt wilhelm's mark in 1980, and held the top spot until jeff reardon passed him in 1992.  today, fingers' 341 saves leaves him 10th on the all-time list.  he is also one of eight pitchers to win the cy young and mvp awards in the same season (fingers did it in 1981).

here's a look at his complete career stats, courtesy of fleer.  i think it is the best back of the three.

here's the back of the donruss card, which only gives us four seasons of stats, but does provide fingers' full name.

and here's the back of his topps card.  it has all the stats, but in small type which makes it tough to read.

when the 1984 sets came out, i was a bit confused.  since fingers had missed the entire 1983 season, i thought that he might not return, and when donruss failed to feature him in the base set (topps and fleer printed cards of fingers) and instead put him on that card with gaylord perry (who was retiring  after the '83 campaign) i was pretty sure that fingers was done as well.

instead, he returned from his injury, and we got two more seasons of that fantastic mustache and three real final tribute cards.