If I compiled a list of all the major-release movies from the late 1980s and then a separate list of my top five “most glaring nonviews,” I believe “Dead Poets Society” would be at the top of the shorter list.
I watched just about every movie that came out in the late ’80s, that’s what I was doing then, going out with the girlfriend, eating at restaurants and going to the movies. On a weekly basis. Somehow I missed “Dead Poets Society”.
No big deal. The movie is so well-known that I know the plot and the actors and many of the quoted phrases: “Seize the Day,” “O Captain, My Captain”. I’m not a movie watcher anymore so I’ll probably never go back and see it or anything else that’s on my top five misses.
While I was doing all that movie-watching in the late 1980s, Topps was creating cards that also referenced a captain. Two each, in fact. No, it wasn’t a Topps homage to the Walt Whitman poem. Topps included the MLB All-Star captains in its glossy sets issued during the 1980s.
A “captain” in a baseball context never seemed right to me. Captains were for football and hockey. I probably never heard of a baseball captain during my formative years as a fan. But I do remember when the All-Star Game selected a captain for each league’s team. It was always a retired MLB figure, usually a player, invited to the festivities.
Sometimes — but not all the time — Topps featured them in the All-Star sets that appeared in rack packs. Again, they didn’t seem to fit. They were old dudes, long-ago dudes, mixed in with fresh, young, top-of-their-game All-Stars. But today, they are a novelty to me, and I would like to get all of them.
This is a quick review of all the MLB All-Star captains. Picking captains for the All-Star Game started in the 1970s, long before the glossy sets. I’ll list the earlier ones and then get to the glossies:
1975: AL: Mickey Mantle; NL: Stan Musial
1976: AL: Bob Lemon; NL: Robin Roberts
1977: AL: Joe DiMaggio; NL: Willie Mays
1978: AL: Brooks Robinson; NL: Eddie Mathews
1979: AL: Lefty Gomez; NL: Carl Hubbell
1980: AL: Al Kaline; NL: Roy Campanella
1981: AL: Bob Feller; NL: Warren Spahn
1982: AL: Yogi Berra; NL: Duke Snider
1983: AL: Joe Cronin; NL: Ernie Banks
OK, this is where the glossies begin noting captains:
1984: AL: Hank Greenberg; NL: Willie McCovey
These appeared with the 1985 Topps set. The fact that they’re recognizing the 1984 All-Stars in the 1985 set makes sense — that’s what they always did in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s — but for some reason it throws me off with the All-Star glossies. I always want to put these cards with the 1984 set.
1985: AL: Harmon Killebrew; NL: Sandy Koufax
1986: AL: Charlie Gehringer; NL: Rusty Staub
Hey! Where are the pictures of the cards?? Well, Topps stopped recognizing the captains in the 1986 and 1987 sets. I’m not sure why it was dropped one year into the practice. But apparently they had second thoughts — or got complaints — because it resumed for the 1988 set.
1987: AL: Jim Hunter; NL: Billy Williams
Here is how little of a handle I have on what I own for these cards. I could swear I have the Billy Williams card, but I cannot find it anywhere. Meanwhile I didn’t know I had the Catfish card but turned it up while looking for Billy.
1988: AL: Bobby Doerr; NL: Willie Stargell
Showing both photographed together because this is the first year for which I have each. Makes sense since both appeared with the ubiquitous 1989 Topps set.
1989: AL: Carl Yastrzemski; NL: Don Drysdale
I don’t own the Yaz and I have many of the Drysdale card. Drysdale was gone just a few years later. Yaz is still clicking.
1990: AL: Al Lopez; NL: Juan Marichal
I’ve long been fascinated with the Lopez captain card just because he’s known mostly as a manager and seems even more unlikely in a glossy All-Star set. I keep imagining what kids thought pulling this card out of a rack pack.
Note that the Lopez and Marichal each feature the Topps 40th anniversary logo that was on all of its 1991 cards.
This is where the Topps glossy All-Stars — and the captains cards — ended. But MLB still kept picking All-Star captains for several more years.
1991: AL: Rod Carew; NL: Hank Aaron
1992: AL: Jimmie Reese; NL: Willie Mays (2nd selection)
1993: AL: Jim Palmer and Frank Robinson; NL: Bob Gibson
1994: AL: Phil Rizzuto; NL: Buck Leonard (Negro Leagues)
1995: AL: Nolan Ryan; NL: Fergie Jenkins
1996: AL: Earl Weaver; NL: Johnny Podres
1997: AL: Larry Doby; NL: Frank Robinson (first captain for both leagues)
1998: AL: Lee MacPhail; NL: Vera Clemente (Roberto Clemente’s wife)
1999: AL: Carlton Fisk; NL: Orlando Cepeda
2000: AL: Dave Winfield; NL: Dale Murphy
2001: AL: Kirby Puckett; NL: Ralph Branca and Bobby Thomson
2002: AL: Robin Yount; NL: Ozzie Smith
2003: AL: Luis Aparicio; NL: Gary Carter
2004: No captains
2005: No captains
2006: No captains
2007: AL: Al Kaline (2nd selection); NL: Willie Mays (3rd selection)
After 2007, MLB switched to “official spokesperson,” which was often a current ballplayer associated with the city where the game was being played or sometimes a retired player. That lasted until 2017 when it was changed to “All-Star ambassadors,” which is a group of current MLB players that does something — I don’t know what. Per usual, MLB tinkers too often with the All-Star Game.
So anyway, I need the Yaz, Marichal, Billy Williams (if I don’t find the one I think I have), Greenberg and McCovey cards.
Actually, I need all the All-Star glossies from 1984-91. There are so many that I don’t own of those easy-to-find cards.
Because I was watching movies at the time.