the best part of 1981 donruss

1981 donruss.  while i was pleased to have more cards to obtain back in 1981, i didn't quite know what to think of it.  strange card stock and powdery gum.  plus, all those photos from wrigley field.  bill russell

and bob welch

could have been standing next to each other ('classic combo' style) when their photos were taken.  similar photos, similar poses, similar backgrounds were abound in 1981 donruss.  in fact, you might recall the memory game post in which i made fun of the repetitive nature of many of the photos used in the set.

some folks, like jay johnstone,

were featured in the home whites at dodger stadium, so that was nice.  steve garvey was among the players who received two cards in the set, which i appreciated.
 
for me, though, the best part about 1981 donruss were the o-pee-chee like cards near the end of the set. cards like the bob owchinko

which used a cleveland photo with a pirates affiliation, even though owchinko wound up with the a's.  he was part of the offseason deal that sent bert blyleven from pittsburgh to cleveland, but wound up being traded to oakland right before the start of the season.

side note - i toyed with the idea of doing a 1981 donruss blog, largely because of the cards like this.  i decided to pass.  i haven't been able to manage the timeless teams blog for the last few months, so i don't see a 605-card set blog being a good idea.

the giants had a couple of players in cub uniforms - jesus figueroa

and jerry martin

were traded to san fran in december of 1980.

larry milbourne

who played the infield and shortstop, apparently, was dealt from seattle to new york in november of 1980.

donruss updated bruce sutter's team affiliation for the set after the december trade sent the future hall of famer to the cardinals

but the two guys the cubs got in exchange for him, leon durham and ken reitz, were both left as cardinals in the set.

dave edwards, one of three edwards brothers to play in the majors, went from the twins to the padres 

his brother mike was featured in the set, but marshall edwards didn't debut until april of 1981, so he was shut out of the 1981 donruss checklist.

jim essian chose the white sox in free agency

as did ron leflore

as with o-pee-chee cards, i like how the old and new team colors kind of clash on the essian card.  not as much clashing on the leflore card, which is unfortunate.

the cubs lost another player from their 1981 donruss team set, thanks to mike vail being traded to the reds

and donruss not putting hector cruz (the guy the cubs got back in the deal) in the set, even though he was featured in both the topps and fleer sets.

the last of these cards in the set belongs to fred stanley, who went from the yankees to the a's

in a trade for mike morgan.  stanley wound up facing his old mates in the 1981 postseason, but was on the losing end.  the second best thing about his card is that it shows the black armband that yankee players wore in honor of their teammate thurman munson, who died in a plane crash during the 1979 season.  i'll have a post about that tomorrow.

oh, one more thing.  the timeless teams blog returns to life tomorrow, too.