Completely Red: 1985 Topps/Topps Traded

This set came out 6 years before I started collecting, so I didn't have a lot of it. But what I did have is one of the most iconic rookie cards of the era: 1985 Topps Eric Davis. Oh man, what a sweet card. This, and the '87 Topps Jose Canseco were freakin' boss. It really isn't much to speak of in general. Just a dusk portrait of our man near the batting cage. But the 5-tool upside of Davis was immense, so this card was high society, man. He was great for bit, good for a while, but nowhere near where we'd thought he'd be. Ah well. It's still a page-stopper for me. And nowadays? Eighteen cents on Sportlots. Such is this silly little world.

As far as the set design, I'm a fan. Big, imposing team nameplate, made even more apparent by the mere 4 letters of 'REDS' forced to fill the whole space. Throw Mr. Redlegs in there on the right, and we have precious little room for the actual name and position of the player, crammed into the gray in a boring font. Whatever. Still sweet. We have an excellent Father-Son subset, which was fortunate enough to feature a Reds Hall of Famer, Gus Bell, and his son, Buddy, who would actually join the Reds midway through the '85 season. We're also blessed with three big Pete Rose cards (record breaker, manager, base). Nice.

STATS:

Cards - 32

RC's - 2 (Eric Davis, Tom Browning)

All Stars - 11 (Pete Rose, Cesar Cedeno, Gus Bell, Dave Parker, Tom Hume, John Franco, Mario Soto, Dave Concepcion, Eric Davis, Jeff Russell, Tom Browning)

Reds Hall of Famers - 8 (Gus Bell, Tony Perez, Dave Concepcion, Mario Soto, Eric Davis, Tom Browning, Dave Parker, Ron Oester)

Spectacles - 2 pair

The 70's Called, They Want Their Mustache Back - 1 (Andy McGaffigan)

Checklist:

6 Pete Rose RB

28 Dann Bilardello

54 Cesar Cedeno

82 Joe Price

107 Tom Foley 

131 Buddy Bell - Gus Bell FS 

146 Gary Redus

175 Dave Parker

198 Eddie Milner

223 Tom Hume

251 Brad Gulden

314 Ron Oester

323 Andy McGaffigan

342 Ted Power

367 Keefe Cato

417 John Franco RC

441 Duane Walker

468 Wayne Krenchicki

495 Mario Soto

515 Dave Concepcion

547 Pete Rose MG/TC

573 Jay Tibbs

597 Brad Lesley

600 Pete Rose

627 Eric Davis RC

651 Jeff Russell

675 Tony Perez

727 Frank Pastore

752 Bob Owchinko 

779 Nick Esasky
11T Tom Browning XRC
68T Alan Knicely

Go Reds.