1981 Donruss Update

My 1981 Donruss page got a major upgrade after a recent trip to a dime box at The Batter's Box card shop. 

Here is the before:

Here is the after:

I added three Hall of Famers and one of my favorite players to the page. Jim Rice, Gary Carter, and Phil Niekro are all in the Hall and I already have this particular Murphy in my Murphy collection, so I added this one to the Donruss page. Like I said, these cards all came from a dime box.

At the same time I grabbed this 1981 Donruss Reggie Jackson card for a quarter. It doesn't make the Donruss page because I didn't already have it for my Reggie Jackson collection.

I am not very familiar with the 1981 Donruss set, but looking at the back of this card it appears to be a special card rather than his base card. With a little bit of research it looks like Reggie has three different cards in the 1981 Donruss set.

This card focuses on Reggie's Mr. October nickname and his World Series feats. It's interesting that 

The comment on the back "It's just too bad (for Reggie) the Yankees can't win the pennant every year." really stuck out to me. I just finished reading a book called They Bled Blue about the 1981 Los Angeles Dodgers. 

The Dodgers played the Yankees in the 1981 World Series and so Reggie was discussed in the book. Reggie did not play in the first 3 games of the 1981 World Series. Reggie was dealing with an injury, but felt he was ready to play in Game 1. There is speculation that George Steinbrenner wanted to show Reggie, who would become a free agent in the off season, that the Yankees didn't need him to win the World Series. The Yankees did win the first two games, but lost game 3. Reggie was inserted into the lineup for game 4 and would make his impact know by hitting a home run. It wasn't enough though as the Dodgers won the game along with games 5 and 6 to win their first World Series since 1965. 

Reggie would leave the Yankees to join the Angels and the Yankees would not make the postseason again until 1995 and would not win a World Series until 1996. The book I'm currently reading is called Chumps to Champs: How the Worst Teams in Yankees History Led to the 90's Dynasty. I've been reading a lot lately and have really been enjoying it. I love the history of baseball and I love taking what I read and finding cards that relate.