They always had pictures that were too small and had basic or no info on the backs. Thus the cards were pretty much useless for fans who liked to study stats or keep track of all the guys on their favorite teams (even if they ended up not sticking around long).
The worst part of those cards were when one of the players ended up becoming a superstar, making for quite the "rookie" shortcoming as far as collecting was concerned.
Today I post the first design of what will be a short thread on this blog: cards of future Hall of Famers who had their rookie cards in the 1970's on one of these multi-player issues.
I say "short thread" because there were only about six players that fit this criteria as far as I can tell: Gary Carter, Jim Rice, Carlton Fisk, Paul Molitor, Mike Schmidt and today's subject, Andre Dawson.
Dawson's actual rookie card from the 1977 set sucks, plain and simple. Sharing a card with three other players who didn't really set the Majors on fire makes for a forgettable piece of cardboard.
So let's jazz things up a bit by giving Dawson a dedicated "rookie card".
First off, let's remind ourselves what his actual issued rookie card (#473) looks like:
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| It doesn't get any more boring than this! |
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| Dawson on his way to "Rookie of the Year". |
Oh well, at least it's fun designing these decades later.
Dawson ran and slammed his way to a Hall of Fame induction in 2010 after a fabulous 21 year career with the Expos, Cubs, Red Sox and Marlins.
By the time he hung up the cleats he posted the following: 2774 hits, 438 homers, 1591 runs batted in and 314 stolen bases.
Throw in a Rookie of the Year award in 1977, an M.V.P. award in 1987, eight Gold Gloves and four Silver Slugger awards, and you see why he was such a force on the baseball diamond.
And let us not forget: if he didn't tear his knees up on that Montreal artificial turf, who knows WHAT he could have added to his final numbers.
Anyway, keep an eye out for the "dedicated rookie cards" of the remaining five players listed above in the future.