My brother sent me a very cool set of baseball cards he bought on Ebay that were a variation of Topps cards from the 1988 pack (1987 season) marketed solely in Europe. They are pretty similar to the normal cards from that year but each has a rule of baseball explained on the back. The pack is 88 cards. I went through it tonight and figured out that in that there are 21 future Hall-of-Famers who were active that year, plus Bonds, McGwire, and Clemens. That seems like an insane # of HOFers all active at once.

1987 was an odd year.

the Twins were 34-26 after 60 games...and they would play .500 ball the rest of the season.

and win the World Series

yes they went 85-77 while Detroit (98-64) and Toronto (96-66) were dominant in the East, and Milwaukee started the year 13-0. There were such great gaudy offensive numbers that year.

Seven guys hit above .330, including three over .350 (Gwynn .370, Boggs .363, Molitor .353)
Five guys had 200+ hits

And Rob Deer's impossible dream of breaking Bobby Bonds' single-season strikeout record fell short by just 3 whiffs. Rob Deer, American hero, striking out 39% of his AB's that year.

Here I thought guys struck out a lot now.

Here are some of the recent big K% guys.
2017 Chris Davis - 37.2%
2017 Joey Gallo - 36.8%
2018 Chris Davis - 36.8%
2013 Chris Carter - 36.2%
2018 Joe Gallo - 35.9%

Eric Davis also put up one of the greatest fantasy seasons of all time. 37 HR/50 SB/100 RBI/120 R/.296.

W said:

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1987 was an odd year.

the Twins were 34-26 after 60 games...and they would play .500 ball the rest of the season.

and win the World Series

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...and were absolutely terrible on the road: 29-52. Weird season.

Corporal Punishment said:

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W said:

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1987 was an odd year.

the Twins were 34-26 after 60 games...and they would play .500 ball the rest of the season.

and win the World Series

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...and were absolutely terrible on the road: 29-52. Weird season.

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Which explains why the home team won each of the World Series games with the Twins beating the Cards 4-3. Cards had to play without Jack Clark throughout playoffs after he hit 35 HR in the regular season. He missed several games down the stretch, which cost him the MVP to Andre Dawson, who was on a last place Cubs team. Oddly Ozzie Smith was 2nd in the MVP vote despite not hitting a home run all year.

N. Ryan 8-16 w/ a 2.76 ERA
W. Boggs 24 Hrs & 89 RBI

The Texas Rangers, coming off the 1986 season where they finished 87-75 and competed for the West for the only time in the '80s finished in last place in 1987. However, they went 75-87 and were only ten games back of the first place Twins. they went 162-162 in 86-87, the best two year run of the '80s.

The east had proper losing teams. The Indians went 61-101 and the Orioles went 67-95. They Orioles started the '88 season 0-21.

Can you imagine the hot takes about Cal Ripken today?

"Orioles are 0-21, Cal Ripken, loser or victim? Coming up after the break."

I remember this:

I guess the NL lost the All-Star game that summer?

That was the first year after I got a Sports Illustrated subscription for Christmas. Great memory of that issue cover.

What I remember most about the home run binge everyone was on was that the Astros' first baseman Glenn Davis hit less than he had the year before, dropping from 31 to 27.

Pretty sure Wade Boggs hit zero the next year, which makes his 24 in 1987 even more hilarious.

CowtownAg06 said:

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Eric Davis also put up one of the greatest fantasy seasons of all time. 37 HR/50 SB/100 RBI/120 R/.296.

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Gunning down Bobby Bonilla in the 1990 NLCS after Billy Hatcher did some sort of jujitsu move trying to catch a ball.




Robbing Jack Clark of HRs in back-to-back games. Which is great, because Jack Clark sucked.

Corporal Punishment said:

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W said:

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1987 was an odd year.

the Twins were 34-26 after 60 games...and they would play .500 ball the rest of the season.

and win the World Series

---

...and were absolutely terrible on the road: 29-52. Weird season.

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The best part is that Atlanta did not win it!!!

West Point Aggie said:

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Corporal Punishment said:

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W said:

---

1987 was an odd year.

the Twins were 34-26 after 60 games...and they would play .500 ball the rest of the season.

and win the World Series

---

...and were absolutely terrible on the road: 29-52. Weird season.

---

The best part is that Atlanta did not win it!!!

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Your thinking about 1991. In 1987 the Braves went 69-92 and had some amazing attendance figures - dozens of home games with crowds of fewer than 10,000 people including this doozy against the Padres when 2,501 people showed up on a Wednesday night in September.