There was a lot of positive response
to the 1988 Fleer set of the 1987 World Series that I posted last week; I am going through the other years, too, and today we have the 1991 Fleer set of the 1990 World Series. It is nice, especially if you're a fan of the teams involved, to have such a commemoration; it's something of a letdown that Topps didn't have a World Series set that year.
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| Eric Davis. |
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| Billy Hatcher and Carney Lansford. |
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For all of these sets -- they're of the 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, and 1990 World Series -- Fleer goes with a red, white, and blue color scheme. This one is infinitely more subtle, though, compared to the set of the 1987 series, which featured bold red borders with blue bunting covered in white stars. Fleer must have seen the World Series as a patriotic American affair; it's too bad that Fleer didn't keep making them long enough to see the Blue Jays win in 1992 and 1993, so that we could see if they'd have any kind of Canadian modifications to the theme.
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| Jose Canseco. |
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| Rickey Henderson. |
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If I remember anything about the 1990 World Series, it's being shocked at how quick it was over. The A's seemed so dominant, but then the Reds squashed them like bugs. The Reds swept, with the scores 7-0, 5-4 (in 10 innings), 8-3, and 2-1. At least two of the games were close. The cards that feature the A's here give a sense of their talent, but the A's batted a collective .207 in the four games, to the Reds' .317. The Reds really shut down most of the A's power; Rickey Henderson was a bright spot, batting .333 with a home run and three walks.
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| Chris Sabo and Carney Lansford. |
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| Dave Stewart. |
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Dave Stewart lost two of the games for the A's, and the other two losses went to Mike Moore and Dennis Eckersley. On the positive side, the games were won for the Reds by Tom Browning, Rob Dibble, and twice by Jose Rijo. Randy Myers earned one save. Those Reds were known for their bullpen, the Nasty Boys, and they sure did shut down the A's. The starters shut down the A's, too. And the Reds' bats produced. Billy Hatcher, pictured above on one of the cards, had seven straight hits. Hatcher batted an incredible .750 in the series, going 9-for-12 with four doubles, a triple, and two walks. Eric Davis, Barry Larkin, Chris Sabo, and catcher Joe Oliver also turned in great perfomances. Davis, of course, hurt himself and wasn't able to be on the field for the final win and celebration. The team left town with him still in the hospital, unfortunately.
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| Jose Rijo. |
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| Reds celebrate! |
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Pitcher Jose Rijo was the World Series MVP, despite Billy Hatcher's superb performance. Rijo's performance was stellar, too, holding these A's to 1 earned run in 15.1 innings, to go 2-0 with a 0.59 World Series ERA. You'd think that they could have had Hatcher and Rijo share the MVP award, the way three Dodgers shared it in 1981.
There are three more of these to go, for the 1986, 1988, and 1989 World Series. I'll post them in the coming weeks. Thanks for reading!
I've never seen Fleer's 1990 WS cards (probably because I generally try to avoid '91 Fleer). Interesting how they got 8 cards out of a 4-game series.
ReplyDeleteThe other sets like this were 12 cards -- I've assumed they stepped down to 8 cards for this one because the series was so one-sided.
DeleteWe’re these part of the regular set or something separate?
ReplyDeleteThey're not part of the regular set, since they're numbered on their own (so for this set, they're numbered 1 through 8 of 8). I think the World Series sets were included in factory sets, although I'm not sure that they were in all factory sets. I have a 1990 Fleer factory set that doesn't seem to have the World Series cards. If you look on eBay, you can find some Fleer factory set boxes that say they have the World Series set as a bonus.
DeleteHow's the design on the card backs?
ReplyDeleteI'll make another post to show the backs too.
DeleteI have The 8 cards in good condition if anyone wants them
ReplyDelete