Oversized in My Collection: 1986 Donruss All-Stars (Part 2 of 6)

This Saturday we're continuing with showing the entire set of 1986 Donruss oversized All-Stars; I showed cards 1-10 last week, and we have 11-20 this week.

Previously in this series: 1986 Donruss All-Stars Part 1 (1-10).

#11.  Lou Whitaker.

The first 18 cards are the starters, in the order of the lineup.  At #10 we had Rickey Henderson, a natural choice to bat leadoff for the AL.  Batting second was Lou Whitaker of the Tigers.  The 1986 All-Star set is based on the 1985 All-Star game which is influenced by the 1984 World Series, and Whitaker is one of two World Champion Detroit Tigers in the starting lineup (along with starting pitcher Jack Morris below).  The NL starting lineup, by contrast, had a whopping 5 of the NL pennant-winning San Diego Padres.

If you check you'll see that, with Morris' recent selection for the Hall of Fame, Whitaker is the only AL starter not in the Hall.  I hope that will be remedied in the near future!  The NL, by contrast, hardly had any Hall-of-Famers in its lineup (just Tony Gwynn and Ozzie Smith), but the NL won the game 6-1 anyway.  In the game, Whitaker went 0-for-2, flying out to right field both times he was up.

#12.  George Brett.

Batting third for the AL was third baseman George Brett, making his 10th of 13 consecutive All-Star appearances.  Brett went 0-for-1 in 3 plate appearances with one walk, and drove in the AL's only run with a sacrifice fly to score Rickey Henderson in the 1st inning.  I like that you can see his name on his uniform as G. Brett; I'm guessing the first initial is an artifact of his brother Ken having once played with him on the Royals.

#13.  Eddie Murray.

Batting cleanup for the AL was slugger Eddie Murray of Baltimore.  No one on the AL team had a good night, really, and that included Murray, who went 0-for-3.  This was the 6th of Murray's 8 career All-Star appearances.

#14.  Cal Ripken, Jr.

I sometimes wonder why the early 90s Orioles teams didn't do better, with players like Ripken, Brady Anderson, and Mike Mussina.  But the early 80s teams, with Ripken, Murray, and an aging Jim Palmer, did win the 1983 World Series.  In the game, Ripken went 1-for-3, with a single off Nolan Ryan in the 6th inning.

#15.  Dave Winfield.

Dave Winfield is probably my favorite player that I don't have a specific player collection for.  Winfield was a 12-time All-Star, and in 1985 also won one of his 7 Gold Gloves and one of his 6 Silver Sluggers.  He went 1-for-3 in the game, with a single off Nolan Ryan in the 5th inning.

#16.  Jim Rice.

Jim Rice is from Anderson, SC, where my wife and I once lived for three years, so I like him for that reason in addition to appreciating his career record.  Like most of the AL players, he didn't do much in this game, going 0-for-3 in 4 plate appearances, drawing a walk from Fernando Valenzuela in the 7th inning.

#17.  Carlton Fisk.

Batting eighth is the catcher, Carlton Fisk, of the White Sox, wearing that classic Sox uniform.  Fisk went 0-for-2 before being replaced.  His appearance in 1985 was the next-to-last of his 11 All-Star selections, with his last time being near the end of his long career in 1991.

If you look closely at the bottom of the Fisk card, you can see a production defect.  Rather than the card being completely flat, there is some crimping along the bottom edge.  The only other cards I've seen this on are a couple of my Cracker Jack Topps micro cards, which I did show in an earlier post (you can see the crimping much more clearly there, but it's the same type of thing as here).  I wonder if there was some kind of challenge to producing cards in non-standard sizes that led to these defects.

#18.  Jack Morris.

Closing out the starting lineup for the AL, we have pitcher Jack Morris batting 9th.  Morris never made it to bat, though, having been pulled in favor of Jimmy Key in the top of the 3rd inning.  Morris was the losing pitcher, having given up two runs (both earned) in 2-2/3 innings pitched, in what ended up being the AL's 6-1 loss to the NL.

#19.  Jose Cruz.

After the starters, the cards still appear in the order of the lineup.  If you remember card #1, it was Tony Gwynn, because he batted first for the NL.  Cruz was substituted in the 2nd inning for Tony Gwynn, so he took the first spot in the lineup, and he's the next card.  Cruz had three plate appearances, going 0-for-1 with 2 walks and a stolen base.  Then, he was replaced in the lineup with Tim Raines in the 9th inning, so Tim Raines is our next card.  This was the second and final All-Star appearance for Cruz in his career.

#20.  Tim Raines.

At #20 is Tim Raines, who was making the fifth of his seven consecutive All-Star appearances.  Raines, in his one plate appearance in the 9th inning, was walked by Dan Petry, moved to second when Petry also walked Jack Clark, and then scored when Willie McGee hit a ground-rule double.  That was the last run of the game, putting the NL up 6-1.

Next Saturday, we'll continue to relive the 1985 All-Star game by featuring cards 21-30 from the set!