So while spending some time looking through the binders of Jays cards that are actually somewhat organized, I actually found one team set that is complete and together in the binder.
Behold the completed '85 Donruss Blue Jays team set.
1985, what a great season for the Jays. It was the first time that they made the playoffs, finishing with a 99-62 record. They accomplished this without a 30 HR guy, nobody had 100 RBI's, and none of their regulars hit at least .300 (only Garth Iorg finished with a .300 average, but he had only 288 ABs). Dave Collins & Alfredo Griffin didn't appear for the Jays in '85, they were in Oakland as part of the trade that brought closer Bill Caudill to the Jays.
The pitching staff was the team's backbone, with a combined ERA of 3.31, four different pitchers with more than 10 wins, and 3 relievers with more than 10 saves (Henke, Caudill and Acker). With all the stops that Doyle Alexander had during his 19 year career, he won more games for the Blue Jays (46) than any other team.
It's very weird to look at the Jim Clancy card, because I can't recall if I have ever seen another card (or any picture for that matter) where big Jim doesn't have a mustache.
Jim Gott didn't even throw a pitch for the Jays in 1985, he played for the Giants. Roy Lee Jackson also didn't throw a pitch for the Jays that year, he played in San Diego. There were other semi-famous players that the Jays used during the '85 season that didn't appear here, such as Al Oliver, Buck Martinez and Cecil Fielder.
The crime in all this? I don't have my Jays collection organized well enough to show off more team sets such as this.
Maybe with the wife out of town for the next couple of days I may get some time to work on that little problem.....maybe
Thanks for reading, Robert
Do you collect 85 Leaf too? One of my favorite cards is the Dave Stieb Canadian Greats card from that set.
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