1987 Donruss - Greg maddox

1987 was the year I became a serious collector. I would have been 8 years old at the beginning of that year. I had been getting baseball cards since I was 5, and I enjoyed getting them, but it wasn't until '87 that I started to understand and have a passion for the hobby. I remember waiting to get the first Topps packs in the spring, wondering what they would look like and being surprised by the woodgrain and the Future Stars. This was also the first year I got any Donruss cards. I remember spending time with my aunt. We were in Wheaton, I can't remember why, but she bought me several rack packs of Dunruss cards (each rack pack was like three regular packs). And then I think she bought me more the next time she went to the store. So many cards, I couldn't believe it.

Donruss had a design aesthetic all their own. Generally, it was not good. In this Greg Maddux Rated Rookie example you can see the black border, yellow stripes, and a brownish tiny baseball pattern. This was ugly, but not their ugliest. The 1990 Doruss cards have got to be among the worst designs of all-time. And the 1991s are right there with them.

Greg Maddux is one of the greatest pitchers ever. He was the kind of pitcher that lived off his wits more than his speed. He was known to have deliberately set up a batter with a pitch in a game early in the season, and then use that set-up later in the season when he faced that batter again. Maddox was drafted by the Cubs and then returned to the Cubs later in his career. But the peak of his career was with the Braves in the mid-90s.