1989 Topps

Gluttony! That's the first word that comes to my mind when I think about 1989. Why? Because it was the ramping up of the hobby. With the introduction of Upper Deck to the scene, things in the baseball card world would not be the same and we would be inundated with a plethora of selection from high end stock cards to inserts, short prints, game used memorabilia, to who knows what else in the years that followed. I'm a simple man and in 1989 I stuck with collecting Topps because I had done so in the past... and spending a dollar for a pack of cards from Upper Deck was a whole lot of crazy to me. I like the 89 Topps set because of a number of reasons: the white border, the curved name plate and photos, the deep colors on the card back. Overall, I think it was a big improvement over the 1988 Topps set. This was the final year for a Topps card for Pete Rose. It was also the year prior to the Reds going Wire to Wire in the 1990 season. While there are a number of Reds cards I like from this year, such as Barry Larkin and Eric Davis, the Chris Sabo card would have to be my all time favorite of this set. The way he's chucking his bat as he heads to first while tracking the ball through his signature glasses is just so sweet! It doesn't get much better than that.