5 Traded Cards Burned Through Winter

HOW many days until Spring Training again?

As far as the baseball calendar goes, days don’t get much darker than they are right now.

With the World Series long behind us and even 2022’s individual awards already gathering dust, we’re left to pine for the start of Spring Training, with still more than two months and untold mountains of snow and tribulations between here and there.

Back in the old days, though, when I was cutting my hobby chops, we also had one last shot of “new” baseball cards to help us kindle the old hotstove — the year-end Traded (and later Update and “The Rookies” sets).

You could always count on those stocking-stuffer-sized beauties to deliver some long-awaited cards and help tide you over until the the days started growing longer again.

Here are a few of the Traded cards that helped keep the blizzards at bay during my early years in the hobby.

1983 Topps Traded Darryl Strawberry (#108T)

Strawberry and Ron Kittle lit up the summer of 1983, the first year I followed baseball from start to finish. But Kittle somehow landed on a 1983 Fleer card, so collectors at least had something to chase there.

Strawberry, though?

We drooled at the thought of seeing the Mets’ young slugger on a 1983 Topps card, and the Traded beauty that T.C.G. unleashed that fall was even more stunning than we had dreamed it could be.

1984 Topps Traded Dwight Gooden (#42T)

As amazing as Kittle and, especially, Strawberry had been in 1983, there was something nearly mythical about Dwight Gooden and the season he put together in 1984.

Here was a teenager who was mowing down MLB hitters at record levels, and I couldn’t even get a look at the guy — the newspapers, sports segments on the nightly news, and magazines that at least I had access to almost never gave up an image of the phenom.

So, yeah, the 1984 Topps Traded Gooden felt like a forbidden fruit when I finally got my chubby, sweaty little mitts on it. (Fleer Update was interesting, and all, but Topps was still The Real One.)

1985 Topps Traded Vince Coleman (#24T)

After the gaudy, all-time seasons of rookies in 1983 and 1984, the 1985 campaign felt a little hollow in terms of first-year guys. Ozzie Guillen was the best rookie in the American League sort of by default. So we had to talk ourselves into the idea that Vince Coleman and his wheels afire were as exciting as Dr. K and Straw had been.

Given that we were coming off rookie card season to make even the most jaded collector drool with visions of future dollar signs, it’s no surprise that well all jumped on Coleman’s 1985 Topps Traded card with great fervor.

It was, indeed pretty neat to finally have a card of the “next Rickey Henderson,” even if Coleman did get eaten by a tarp on his way to October glory.

1986 Topps Traded Wally Joyner (#51T)

Yeah, Jose Canseco eventually “rebounded” from a slow start relative to expectations to win the 1986 American League Rookie of the Year Award.

And, yes, Wally Joyner’s own hot start and cult following did spawn a couple of brand new sets — say hello to Fleer “Baseball’s Best” and Donruss “The Rookies.”

But collectors wanted to see the Angels’ kid wonder on a bona fide Topps baseball cards, gosh darn it, and this Traded delight delivered the goods. How cool would it have been, though, if Topps had captured Wally World with the Angels Stadium halo circling his head?

1987 Topps Traded Matt Nokes (#91T)

While Mark McGwire was busy setting the rookie home run record during the summer of 1987, young Matt Nokes was doing some bashing of his own — 32 home runs and 87 RBI.

Not only that, but Nokes was pretty much an unknown to most baseball fans, which always makes a breakout all the more intriguing.

And then there was the fact that Nokes was the starting catcher for the A.L. East-champion Detroit Tigers.

So, you can bet collectors were eager to get our first Nokes cards that fall, and we had the good fortune for him to make his mark in 1987. Woodgrain wonder!

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What Traded, Update, The Rookies, or other late-year cards have resonated with you during your collecting journey?

I’d love to hear your picks.

Until next time, keep your chin up — there’s only, like, a few decades until Spring Training.

Thanks for reading.

—Adam