Complete sets from Scribbled Ink #2: 1992 Topps

As promised, today I'm showing off the other set I snagged in a trade with Paul of Scribbled Ink:  1992 Topps.  There's plenty more rookies, PC guys, and Tigers (mostly the latter two groups) to check out, so let's have a look:

The RC class for this year wasn't fantastic, but at least this trio was pretty good.  Ramirez put up Hall of Fame numbers and brought two titles (including the first one in forever) to Boston, but PEDs are what's largely holding up his enshrinement.  Floyd was a solid player known mostly as a Marlin, Expo, and Met, and was part of Florida's surprise '97 Series win.  And Green found plenty of success as a hitter, mostly with the Blue Jays and Dodgers, over a nice 15-year career.

Guys with RCs in this set that didn't make the cut but were at least somewhat notable include:  Brien Taylor (LOL), Brad Ausmus, Aaron Sele, Shawn Estes, and Pokey Reese.

A nice bunch of my player collection guys appear in this set as their careers overlapped around 1992.  Kamieniecki, Howe, and Larkin are three Michigan guys with plenty more on the way (including another Larkin).  Tram is one of three Tigers PC guys you'll get to see.  Gwynn's card (he only had one in this set) is new to me as is Ripken's All-Star subset appearance, and I actually scored one more in this set that I didn't previously own.

Abbott doesn't appear to have been an AL All-Star in '91 (or at least didn't participate in the game) but he did have a career year, winning 18 games and tossing 158 strikeouts (both career highs) and landing third in Cy Young voting with a 7.6 bWAR.  So I guess you could say he deserved a pair of cards in this set, as did fellow All-Star from the NL Barry Larkin.  Sweet Lou and Gibby (making a cameo from his season with the Royals) finish up the PC Tigers, and they bookend today's other new addition, a base card of Maddux that was released the same year he won his first of four straight Cy Youngs.

The horizontal photos tend to look quite nice on this design.  Ripken's regular base card is an instant classic of the Iron Man pictured with the monument of the Iron Horse at old Yankee Stadium, and as a reminder Cal had won his second AL MVP in '91.  Griffey gets a cool (if isolated) action shot from his second All-Star campaign.  And we finish up the PC group with a couple of Wolverines that became Reds that became 1990 World Series champs:  Chris Sabo and Hal Morris, also featuring cool photos.

Because I tagged so many players I didn't have room for one of my favorites, "1990s Tigers SUCKED", but boy did they ever.  I should mention, though, that at least the '91 Tigs went over .500 for the first time since 1988.  And at least there were still some guys I liked in this group.

Tettleton, one of my 90s favorites, was in his first of four seasons in Motown, and he bashed 30+ homers in each of his first three.  He put up almost 15.0 bWAR for the Tigers after being swapped for Jeff Robinson, who did next to nothing after the deal.

Brogna had a cup of coffee with the Tigers and put up a few 20-homer seasons during the steroid era, but he shares this four-player prospects card with the much better Ryan Klesko, a braves fixture.  And the bottom trio gets thumbs up from me:  former top closer Mike Henneman, another blog favorite in the versatile Tony Phillips, and the late Dave Bergman (a year before his sunset season).

Sparky was nearing the end of his Hall of Fame career but would hold on until the end of the 1995 season, going 1331-1248 and the '84 title in his 17 years in Detroit.  Fielder again led the league in homers and RBI (44 and 133, respectively) after bashing 51 long balls in 1990, his first season in Detroit, and he indeed earned an All-Star nod.  Deer was a strikeout machine as usual, and his 175 Ks almost eclipsed his batting average of .179.  Tanana went 13-12 in his penultimate season in Motown while Gullickson somehow won 20 games in his first of four years with the Tigers at the end of his career.

I seriously have no idea who Dan Gaekeler was and I watched this team quite a bit, but apparently he appeared in 31 games.  Like Brogna above, Pemberton shares his prospects card with a more notable player in Henry Rodriguez.  Former top prospect Pete Incaviglia signed with Detroit after half a decade with Texas and mostly served as a DH (with negative value, at that) in his only season with the team.  Walt "Terrible" Terrell went 12-14 so he wasn't the worst in his penultimate season.  And Fryman put up 21 HR and 3.2 bWAR in his first full season, a sign of the good things to come for his career.

I wasn't thrilled that the ineffective don Gleaton got his own scan but that's how the cards shook out this time.  Fortunately he left for the Pirates (eventually) after '91, his season year with the Tigers.

And that's it for 1992 Topps!  In terms of a set run from the year I was born, 1983, to the present, I now have every year except for '83 and '90 going up through 2010, though I may also decide to chase the Traded sets I'm missing as well.

I believe next on the agenda is a PWE trade and I'll try to get to that soon!