Card of the Week: 1991 Topps Stadium Club #455 Jose DeLeon
Posted by Andy on September 9, 2010
As we've already seen, when Upper Deck came onto the baseball card scene in 1989, a lot of things changed. The UD cards were much higher quality with better photos, a high-gloss finish, and thicker card stock. The 1989 and 1990 sets completely sold out. Fans started paying much higher prices for packs of cards, plus the secondary markets for these cards exploded.
All of the other card manufacturers followed suit, coming out with higher-quality, higher-priced sets. Stadium Club was one of Topps' entries into this higher tier of baseball cards.
A few things to notice right away about the cards:
- Full bleed photos (going right to the edge)
- Full color, glossy backs instead of just 1 or 2 colors on matte cardboard
- The Stadium Club logo and 6 little arrows on the front are in foil (for no good reason...)
- You can't tell from the photos, but the card stock itself was much thicker than standard Topps issues at the time
The Stadium Club series was a favorite among many card collectors, including a younger version of me. The photos were full-bleed (better than what even Upper Deck was offering at the time) and there were really interesting stats on the back. Look at the back of DeLeon's card--it talks about his pitch selection breakdown against righties and lefties and even gives an extra tidbit about what he throws on 0-2 counts. For a card series that was complementary to Topps' main run, these were great card backs.
But I haven't yet mentioned the coolest thing about the cards--Topps showed a mini picture of each player's rookie card on the back. See below for DeLeon's 1984 Topps rookie card when he was with the Pirates. They would even show cards from Topps Traded sets when they were the rookie cards.
The inclusion of this photo tells you something about collecting at the time. Right around 1990 was when collectors began to get obsessed with rookie cards. They started to take on a premium value beyond just being the most valuable card for a given player. In the future (through the present) card companies started putting "rookie card" right on cards for all rookies, not just a select group of "rated rookies" or "future stars" as had been done for a while before then.
I chose a 1991 DeLeon card as my subject because of this unusual streak:
| Rk | Strk Start | End | Games | W | L | GS | CG | SHO | GF | SV | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | HBP | WP | BK | Tm | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jose DeLeon | 1991-08-23 | 1991-09-30 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13.2 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 7 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 1 | 0 | STL |
| 2 | Sergio Mitre | 2007-05-25 | 2007-06-05 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 16.2 | 15 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 18 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 1 | 0 | FLA |
| 3 | Roger Clemens | 2005-04-13 | 2005-04-23 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 21.0 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 23 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | HOU |
| 4 | Dustin Hermanson | 1997-08-22 | 1997-09-07 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 17.0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 15 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | MON |
| 5 | John Dopson | 1990-04-11 | 1990-04-22 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12.0 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 8 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | BOS |
| 6 | John Fulgham | 1980-05-17 | 1980-05-28 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 19.0 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 11 | 0 | 0.00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | STL |
| 7 | Whitey Ford | 1957-04-28 | 1957-05-21 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14.2 | 11 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 8 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | NYY |
| 8 | Whit Wyatt | 1942-04-22 | 1942-05-03 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10.2 | 14 | 8 | 0 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 0.00 | 0 | 1 | 0 | BRO |
| 9 | Freddie Fitzsimmo | 1941-08-18 | 1941-09-01 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 21.0 | 18 | 8 | 0 | 4 | 7 | 0 | 0.00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | BRO |
DeLeon has the longest streak since 1920 with no earned runs allowed in a game start without getting a win. Notice that he pitched only 13.2 innings over those 4 starts. In the second game of the streak, he left after fielding an inning-ending grounder, perhaps getting a minor injury. In the 4th game, he left after a line drive. The box score does not specify the location, but I would bet that DeLeon was injured then too.
I have long felt that DeLeon was an underrated pitcher because he lost 19 games in a season twice but was a much better pitcher than those loss totals would indicate. I've written about him before. See what I wrote about his 1988 Topps card, his 1988 Topps Traded card, and his 1988 Score Traded card.
September 9th, 2010 at 10:11 am
Awesome. In high school, he threw a one-hitter at my team. Of course, I got the only hit. One of the few things I remember from high school.
September 9th, 2010 at 10:28 am
What a fantastic post! Thank you!
September 9th, 2010 at 10:58 am
I always took those six little arrows around the logo to be flags, sitting outside the stadium.
September 9th, 2010 at 11:05 am
While I definitely love the higher-quality cards that came with the introduction of Upper Deck, there was something about the older "two-color, flat back" cards that I kind of miss these days. When I pull out the older cards there's something about the feel, even smell of them that evokes all kinds of childhood memories. I love how every now and then Topps will do a "throwback" set that mimics the old sets!
September 9th, 2010 at 11:08 am
Every now and then? They have several of such sets each year...T206, Allen & Ginter, National Chicle, plus their Heritage series...all out this year.
September 9th, 2010 at 11:23 am
The National Chicle set is a beautifully done set. I love the old look and feel of the cards, including the selection of older players in the sets.
DeLeon had bad timing. Leaving the Pirates just as they were starting to get good. Joining the Cardinals after their run in the 1980's. It's interesting to think what his career would have been had those been flipped.
September 9th, 2010 at 11:48 am
The best thing about the Stadium Club (the full bleed photo with sparse extraneous items on the front) is also what hampered them. It is hard to design significant differences from year to year when there is not much on the card to begin with.
1991 is the nicest of the TSC sets, and like you said, a perfect complement to the regular issue set. 1991 is right before the number of sets got completely ridiculous with each company putting out 5 - 10 different varieties. Also, like you said, it is in the start of the "Rookie Card" boom where companies would start to put out cards for 17 year-olds just to say they they have X players' rookie cards. And there is nothing worse than cards of teenage ball players with the kids in their street clothes. Some of them look like they were taken at their junior prom - bow-tie and all.
September 9th, 2010 at 11:49 am
sorry, forgot the link:
http://www.checkoutmycards.com/Cards/Baseball/1992/Topps/36/Scott_Ruffcorn_RC
September 9th, 2010 at 11:49 am
See? #7 is the kind of comment I like where each sentence starts with "Just like you said"...
(LOL)
September 9th, 2010 at 11:53 am
Did the front of the Stadium Club cards ever change all that much? Save for the player's name font, the front of this one looks quite similar to that of 1993 Stadium Club cards.
September 9th, 2010 at 11:54 am
#10, Tmckelv has it right in #7. Because Stadium Club had a look with so few features on the front, the cards were difficult to distinguish from different years. They did change a few things, but it wasn't nearly as obvious as the differences among the standard-issue sets.
September 9th, 2010 at 12:02 pm
Definitely on the short list of guys who could significantly benefit from a career do-over.
September 9th, 2010 at 12:04 pm
At least early in his career, the players he was traded for went on to do well with their new team...Bobby Bonilla and Lance Johnson moreso than Bobby Thigpen.
September 9th, 2010 at 12:17 pm
In general, if all you tell me about a pitcher is that he lost a lot of games in a season (say 17+) I usually figure it's a pretty good pitcher. Because nobody is going to lose 20 games on a good team -- a good team has other pitchers they can put in for somebody bad enough to lose 20 with good run support. And on a really bad team, losing 20 may not mean the pitcher was particularly bad. Probably not great, but probably not that bad either. In general, the guy with the high loss count, is a guy that somebody trusted enough to keep starting, despite the losses, which means usually either they were a good pitcher having a bad year, or their actual pitching stats (ERA+, WHIP, WAR, K|HR|BB/9, GB% LD%, etc.) were at least decent, and a neutralized record would probably be .500ish or better.
September 9th, 2010 at 12:29 pm
Of the 281 pitchers since 1901 to have a career ERA+ between 98 and 106 (DeLeon was at 102), DeLeon has the 8th worst W-L% (minimum 100 decisions and no more than 100 games finished), suggesting that he was really on some lousy teams and had a lot of bad luck:
Generated 9/9/2010.
September 9th, 2010 at 12:32 pm
I remember when that product first came out. Boxes were sold for over $200. I remember running into every retail store to buy the boxes for $30 and sell them to dealers for $100 apiece. The Nolan Ryan card with him pitching in a tux could easily fetch 30 to 50 bucks.
September 9th, 2010 at 1:13 pm
DeLeon's poor W-L record is even more remarkable considering the relative parity, for lack of a better word, during his career. There weren't too many horrible teams in that period, consistently finishing 50 games out of first.
I wondered if maybe he gave up a lot of unearned runs, but that doesn't seem to be the case. He had a nasty splitter but didn't throw too many wild pitches.
September 9th, 2010 at 1:25 pm
@ 14 unless the pitcher is on a Phillies team from the 30s and 40s, then he probably is pretty bad
I love the stadium club set, but I kinda hate that every kind of card after this point went this direction. One nice thing about the older full cardboard sets is you can easily flip through them with your fingers. You can't flip through the high glossy, photograph type cards without smudging up the front of them.
September 9th, 2010 at 1:36 pm
His 1984 Topps card shown on the back is pretty classic, it looks like he's pitching on a dirt road!
September 9th, 2010 at 3:25 pm
Andy,
nice post on the 88 score traded card...if you learn one thing about DeLeon from the front of his card, it is that he wears #48.
It is like a catch-22, we want card companies to provide some more nice info (like uniform numbers on the back of the card), but if they are going to bother they better get it right.
September 9th, 2010 at 4:33 pm
great memories, i remember first seeing them in a little bookstore in the mall, bought 2 packs at $5.95 each and pulled a frank thomas in the first pack and i think it was alex fernandez in the second pack.
September 9th, 2010 at 5:14 pm
Another great article. Well done. I could read these all day.
September 10th, 2010 at 3:33 pm
Ah, the memories. These sorts of cards were the beginning of the end for me 🙁
When you're ~12 and sports cards prices quadruple in a couple years and everything is full of holograms and foil, you move on to something else.
I sort of wish I hadn't stopped collecting cards, but I found other things to throw away my allowance on in the coming years.
Still, '89 was when my card collecting peaked. And while I liked the newer, prettier cards, I hated the prices.
September 12th, 2010 at 7:42 pm
First, I want to say something off-topic - I hang out at an online forum on a completely different subject where people are required to register to be able to post. New messages are pre-populated with our registered email addresses, but we are allowed to blank them out (but not allowed to blank out our user names) before messages are posted. I appreciate that we are no longer required to register here, and I understand why we still need to supply a name and email address each time. This is made simpler by the fact that my name and email are "remembered" (probably due to cookies) each time, so they are still pre-populated for me.
But this is both good and bad news. Sometimes, before I start my message, I forget that I'm not on that other site, and I blank out the pre-populated email address here. Once I finish my message and hit the Post button, though, I go to an error page that tells me I didn't supply the required material. This would be an OK reminder, except that, when I hit the Back button to go put it in, MY MESSAGE IS GONE!
This has happened to me twice now, including after I posted a message in this topic on the day the blog entry was made, September 9. Can something be done here to "save" already-composed messages so that if we forget to put in a required field, we can have the whole message back? Or is forgetting to enter one of these fields such a bad transgression that it is deemed to be a suitable punishment to make the person start the message all over again?
That said, I'll try to reconstruct the essence of what I said on Thursday:
DeLeon was a reliever and a sometimes sixth starter for the 1993 Phillies before being traded to the White Sox in August of that year for Bobby Thigpen. The Phillies had signed him late in the 1992 season after he had been cut by the Cardinals. He made three starts for the eventual NL champs in 1993, the most famous one being that doubleheader 2nd game against the Padres that started around 1:30 a.m. and ended about three hours later.