2011 Topps Archives "Wishlist": Players from the 80s and 90s

JayBee from bdj610's Topps Baseball Card Blog (here) has started a great series of posts regarding a "wishlist" of players to be featured on a 2011 Topps Archives set, commemorating the 60th anniversary of Topps. The conditions are that none of the players could have been featured in the 2001 Archives set--and I will add that players from the 2002 Archives set are also off limits--and that the players must be retired as of this year.

JayBee started with Mickey Mantle, who is a terrific selection to get things going. Given that my relative knowledge of baseball is limited to the past thirty years, I will provide a few suggestions from the 1980s and 1990s. From the 1980s, the most obvious addition to me is Alan Trammell. I have extolled Trammell's HOF worthiness before, so that does not bear repeating.


Other prominent stars of the 1980s that come to mind include Eric Davis, Rick Sutcliffe, Tim Raines, and Harold Baines. From the 1990s, there are several somewhat forgotten stars that warrant inclusion, including pitchers David Cone and Bret Saberhagen.


Cone's career gets overlooked because he did not win 200 games. But he was a tremendous big-game pitcher with five All Star appearances. Other players from the 1990s that I would consider include Terry Pendleton, Larry Walker, Mo Vaughn, and the Big Cat, Andres Galarraga.

Finally, I would lobby for inclusion of my two favorite "Francos", Julio and John.