Of all the cards I have, this set reminds me of my brother the most. So I know I titled it “Taste the Rainbow”, but it isn’t because he likes Skittles. This was just the set that I remember building together with him. We each were building our own sets, even though at that time the idea of “set building” was not really what we were about. It was all about just collecting cards in general. And for this set we would help each other by sharing doubles and things like that.
We both worked for our Dad, basically doing manual labor and pouring concrete from 6 AM to 3 PM every day in the summer. Then we would get home and ride our bikes basically all the way across town to the only hobby show we had in town. When I think about that trip now, we were on roads I would never let my kid ride a bike on today. We spend out money and then try to split everything when we got home.
I honestly can’t say why this set. Other than maybe it was the one with packs in our price range. But it was fun. We are two years apart and always did a lot of stuff together and always got along really well. I’m sure that if I opened these packs with him he would have a great time.
Let’s see what he missed opening!
1989 Donruss
This is another set, a lot like 1990 Score, that I loved back in the day but these days wouldn’t really go for. I don’t think I loved it because of the design as I probably had no concept of design at the time. I would probably say it was because I was buying it with my own money. Maybe a little cognitive dissonance at work.
And like 1990 Score, these things are bright. That Eddie Murray card is almost neon. And that’s just Eddie’s uniform. “The Kid” card is interesting. I almost have no recollection of those “New York” script uniforms he’s wearing.
Kings and Pawns
As always the set starts off with Diamond Kings. Given what happened in the 1988 World Series, I’d say Kirk Gibson being a Diamond King is well deserved. They weren’t always, but when you have to pick someone from every team (like the All-Star Game), sometimes it can be slim pickins.
The Rated Rookie has always been a Donruss (and Leaf up to that point) thing. Tom Gordon and Sandy Alomar Jr. were the best of the lot that I opened. At the time Tom was not part of a father-son playing combo but he is now. Sandy was already one.
’89 Style Icons
Wow! These are some style icons.
OK, I don’t know how high Ron Washington is in this picture, but I’d probably say that has something to do with his look. His hair is slick to say the least. Brian Downing on the other hand is sporting the hat-on-top-of-hat look. The height of convenience in inning change style. Paul Kilgus on the other hand is showing off his chew as he pitches.
These were just some odd pictures I thought to pick out:
- Bill Doran is definitely watching that pitch go by. Let’s hope he is not watching it as closely as it appears he might be.
- Harold Baines is showing off an amazingly weird leg kick.
- Mike Greenwell is doing his his best Oscar Azocar impersonation (or maybe Oscar did his best Greenwell impersonation).
- And finally, Bo. Who the hell is telling him to bunt?
War-renSp-ahn
As always the Donruss puzzle pieces were in each pack. I think I’ll be conservative and I built 75% of 8 billion of these puzzles back in 1989. I don’t mean I built 6 billion. I mean I built 8 billion partial puzzles.
Packs and Players
As always I save some packs when I need them and some TTMs. The brightness started with the packs as you can see. And damn, that Larry Andersen card really worked out with the right colors on top didn’t it.
I liked opening these a lot. As it reminded me of my brother, I’m thinking maybe next time I have a set that reminds me of him, maybe I’ll ask him to open it with me and add his thoughts. Maybe that would be nice for something a little different.
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