Buyback Franken-set: Randoms

For tonight's Buyback Franken-set post, I simply reached into my backlog of buybacks and pulled ten singles completely at random.  Let's see how I did...

1987 Topps #16 - Pat Clements

A nice '87 Topps Pat Clements gets us rolling this evening.  Clements was in heavy use out of the Bucs' bullpen in 1987, making 55 appearances for the club, all of which came in relief.

Had a '73 Twin in the binder in slot 16.  Neither card is exactly a jaw-dropper.

I see no reason to make a change.

1975 Topps #244 - Bull Buckner

A nice buyback here, maybe my favorite of tonight's grouping.  If memory serves I picked this one up on Sportlots a long while ago now.  This one's got to make the binder, right?

Not so fast, as Billy Buckner draws a brutal match-up with the 1979 "We Are Family" World Series champions Pittsburgh.

Another great example of just how difficult it's getting to crack the franken-set a couple of years in here.

1988 Topps #698 - Brad Havens

The Dodgers dealt Brad Havens to the Indians just 9 appearances into the 1988 season, and he'd finish out the year with Cleveland.  While I enjoy the 1988 set generally speaking, I have no particular attachment to this card.

Havens is pitted against Juan Bernhardt of the Seattle Mariners.  Honestly, based on that sweet "trident logo" alone...

...I'm sticking with the Bernhardt.

1979 Topps #552 - Jose Morales

From 1979 Topps, we have Jose "Two Bat" Morales.  A bit of an under-rated contact hitter, albeit with little power, Jose swatted .314 for the Twins the year before this card was printed.  In over 1,400 career plate appearance, Morales was a .287 hitter.  Not too shabby at all.

Had a 1990 buyback in slot 552 of the franken-set binder previously.  You know what the deal is here.

Morales bumps his way into the franken-set binder, and Mike Smith becomes likely the first guy with a gold tooth in my 1990 Topps buyback set quest.

1983 Topps #199 - Marty Bystrom

For slot 199, we have a battle of Phillies pitchers.  Tonight's contender is Marty Bystrom, who went 6-6 in 1983, his last full season as a starter for Philadelphia.  He's pitted against...

...Willie Hernandez.  Willie won the Cy Young and MVP awards in 1984 (albeit with the Tigers), which makes this a pretty significant buyback if you ask me.

No contest there.  It was over before it started for poor Marty Bystrom.

1975 Topps #496 - Pepe Frias

Second '75 buyback of tonight's post, and it's a Montreal Expo!  In 70 plate appearances Pepe hit a career low .125 in 1975, ouch.  I'm surprised he had a job for '76 and beyond with numbers like that.

Airbrushed Juan Beniquez stands in Frias' way as the franken-set goes.

Pepe's in, airbrushed Juan Beniquez is out.

1988 Topps #358 - Rey Quinones

Rey Quinones had career best stats in 1988 for games played, at bats, runs scored, doubles, triples and home runs.  This one slides right into pocket 358, which was previously empty!

1973 Topps #75 - Vada Pinson

Really like this '73 Vada Pinson.  Vada's great league-leading offensive seasons of the '60s were a distant memory by this point, but I really enjoy the photograph Topps selected for this card.  Unfortunately Pinson runs up against a buzz saw with respect to the franken-set:

Easily one of my favorite buybacks to date, period.

George Scott all the way.

1989 Topps Traded #81T - Randy Milligan

Here we have Randy Milligan's 1989 Topps Traded card.  The Pirates traded Milligan to the Orioles in the 1988 off-season, thus his inclusion in the 1989 Traded set.  Unfortunately being a Traded card means...

...that Randy is not eligible for franken-set induction.  Off to the rejected box for Randy.

1989 Topps #390 - Darryl Strawberry All-Star

Last card for tonight, certainly a fun one.  That's a whole lot of blue right there, and Strawberry was a big name when I was coming up as a kid collector in the late '80s/early '90s.  Easy to see why Darryl was included in this 1989 Topps All-Star subset, as he really tore it up in 1988.  He led the league in home runs, slugging percentage and OPS that year.

Lou Piniella's 1974 release has been holding down slot 390 for quite a while.  I think it's time...

...for a changing of the guard.

Since this one is part of a completed page, here's a look...

...at what the page looked like before Strawberry battled his way in.

Here's the page now.  I like how the Strawberry and Hershiser cards at opposing corners offset each other.

Well, I wouldn't say I had the "magic touch", as I ended up with just one new number for the franken-set and one new buyback for my 1990 project out of this lot of ten.  Oh well, I enjoy all of the rejected buybacks as well.  I'm closing right in on 1,200 total buybacks since I began this project, crazy...

Franken-set Progress: 620/792 (78%)
1990 Topps Buyback Set: 84/792 (10%)
"Rejected" Buybacks: 489
Total Buybacks in Collection: 1,193