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The 1984 Fleer Baseball Card Set
My baseball card addiction began in 1984. I picked up a few packs of 1984 Fleer cards at a Little League game, and I was hooked. Each pack contained 15 cards, along with a team logo sticker. I’d just started to appreciate the game of baseball, and the cards brought me closer to the game. The photography was excellent, but the numbers on the back of each card really captured my imagination. I needed to find out the meaning behind those numbers, along with all of the acronyms! I purchased a carrying case and sorted my cards by team. Eventually, I learned about the value (or potential value) of certain cards, and placed them in albums with protective pages, or hard plastic cases.
I collected baseball cards extensively between 1984-1991, and purchased older packs (1981-83) whenever I earned some extra cash. Features
The standard Fleer baseball card set from 1981-1990 consisted of 660 cards. The ’84 set is organized by teams, based on their position in the standings from the previous season. This method presents a great advantage for building complete sets of Fleer cards, when compared to the random ordering of their competitors’ sets.
Fleer also produced their first “Update” set (similar to the “Topps Traded” sets) in ’84, which proved to be a huge hit, due to the inclusion of the rookie cards for Roger Clemens and Kirby Puckett. The Dwight Gooden and Bret Saberhagen rookie cards also contributed to the initial success of the update set. Oddballs and Oddities
Glenn Hubbard (# 182) must have been auditioning for a future coaching job with the Diamondbacks. The card depicts Hubbard carrying a python on his shoulders.
Jay Johnstone (# 495) dons a Budweiser “umbrella” hat. Did You Know?
Fleer included interesting facts about some of the players on the bottom section of the card backs.
Chili Davis – “Nicknamed ‘Chili’ when a young boy because neighborhood friends thought hair looked like it had been cut with a chili bowl on his head.”
Doug Flynn – “Is a Country and Western singer and has appeared professionally with the Coal Miners, the backup band for Loretta Lynn.”
Dave LaPoint – “Is a collector of baseball cards.”
Lee Mazzilli – “Was ambidextrous in amateur baseball, but has thrown only right-handed since signing professionally in 1974.”
Randy Moffitt – “Sister is tennis star, Billie Jean King.”
Claudell Washington – “Has 3-homer games in both leagues, only others to do this were Babe Ruth and Johnny Mize.” Errors
There are no significant “error” cards in the 1984 Fleer baseball set. Rookie Cards
Don Mattingly, Juan Samuel, Kevin McReynolds, and Tony Fernandez highlight the list of players making their cardboard debuts in the ’84 Fleer set. Price Guide (Then and Now)
In the inaugural volume of the “Beckett Baseball Card Monthly Price Guide” (November 1984), the 1984 Fleer Baseball complete set listed for $14. Individual cards listing for at least one dollar included Don Mattingly (# 131, $2), Juan Samuel (# 47, $2), Darryl Strawberry (# 599, $1.75), and Kevin McReynolds (# 307, $1.50). The Mattingly card currently sells in the $20 range. References and Resources
http://www.beckett.com/search/ – term=1984 fleer baseball
http://www.tuffstuff.com/priceguides
http://www.baseballerrors.com/
About the Author
I am a New Jersey native with a passion for baseball, statistics, computers and video games who enjoys spending quality time with his family. “Hardball Retrospective”is available in paperback
and digital ( Kindle
) format at Amazon.com. Supplemental Statistics, Charts and Graphs
along with a discussion forum are offered at TuataraSoftware.com
.Don Daglow (Intellivision World Series Major League Baseball, Earl Weaver Baseball, Tony LaRussa Baseball) contributed the foreword for Hardball Retrospective. The foreword and preview of my book are accessible here
. “Hardball Retrospective – Addendum 2014 to 2016”supplements my research for Hardball Retrospective, providing retroactive standings based on Wins Above Replacement (WAR) and Win Shares (WS) for each “original” team over the past three seasons (2014-2016). Team totals from 2010 – 2013 are included for reference purposes. “Addendum” is available in paperback
and digital ( Kindle
) format at Amazon.com. “ Hardball Retroactive”,published in June 2018, is available in paperback
and digital ( Kindle
) format at Amazon.com. A cross-section of essays that I penned for Seamheads.com along with my Baseball Analytics blog spanning nearly a decade touching on subjects including “Taking the Extra Base”, “General Manager Scorecard”, “Worst Trades”, “BABIP By Location” and “Baseball Birthplaces and the Retro World Baseball Classic”. Rediscover your favorite hardball arcade and simulations in “Play Retro Baseball Video Games In Your Browser” or take a deep dive into every franchise’s minor league successes and failures in relation to their major league operations in “Minors vs. Majors”. “Hardball Architects”examines the trades, free agent acquisitions, draft picks and other transactions for the 30 Major League Baseball franchises, divided into a 2-volume set (American League and National League). All key moves are scrutinized for every team and Sabermetric principles are applied to the roster construction throughout the lifetime of the organization to encapsulate the hits and misses by front office executives. “Volume 1 – American League Teams” is available in paperback
and digital ( Kindle
) format at Amazon.com. “Volume 2 – National League Teams” is tentatively scheduled for publication in the spring of 2022.
