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Saturday, January 7, 2012

#3 - Record Breaker, Dwight Gooden


What a card: This card recognizes Dwight Gooden's record-setting 276 strikeouts in his rookie season, a record he still holds. I am assuming that if a rookie ever breaks Gooden's record, it will be absolute hysteria. The card-collecting world may hyperventilate itself out of business.

My observation on the front: Personally, I like this card a lot better than Gooden's base card in this set. I'll take action over a sour-looking face any time.

More opinion from me: I am guessing that this was one of the more sought-after cards in '85, as it's one of Gooden's first cards in a mainstream set. He appears in the '84 Topps Traded set and the '84 Fleer Update set, but those weren't as actively collected as the base set was back then.

Something you might know: Gooden passed Herb Score for the rookie record by whiffing the Pirates' Marvell Wynne in the sixth inning of a 2-0 victory on Sept. 12, 1984. It was his 246th strikeout of the season. It was also the first of back-to-back, 16-strikeout starts. Amazing.

Something you might not know: Gooden holds the major league and N.L. record for strikeouts as a rookie with 276, and Score holds the A.L. record for rookie-year strikeouts with 245. But Baltimore's Matt Kilroy holds the American Association rookie record with 513 in 1886.


My observation on the back: Ah, I see we have mention of a "new record" for rookies. Nobody sets an "old record." So let's just get rid of that "new" and call it a "record for rookies," shall we?

The blog wants to speak now: I've updated the music and ballgames tabs. Some stuff about Prince and Michael Jordan. They were kind of a big deal in '85.

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6 comments:

  1. thosebackpagesJanuary 7, 2012 at 1:13 AM

    rest assured, it was ALL about #620 in 1985 :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. jacobmrleyJanuary 7, 2012 at 2:17 AM

    I remember my buddy offered me 50 cents for this card when I pulled it with my 10 year old fingers back in 1985. That was more than a pack cost. I turned him down cold. That card still resides in my collection.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Play at the PlateJanuary 7, 2012 at 11:48 AM

    I still remember getting the base card and how excited I was to have it. I still have it somewhere.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousJanuary 8, 2012 at 11:28 PM

    This card was voted #32 in Topps vote of the top 60 cards of all time.

    ReplyDelete
  5. hiflewJanuary 13, 2012 at 9:01 AM

    In my area (and probably many others) the Gooden was the #2 most wanted rookie from this set. Any guesses as to #1?

    ReplyDelete
  6. MoltenLavaJuly 24, 2012 at 9:53 PM

    That is a great photo of Doc. But what's with the big white space between "DWIGHT GOODEN," and "METS"?

    ReplyDelete