1980 Baseball Cards

By Patrick Mondout

There were very few sets of baseball cards produced in 1980. By the mid-Awesome80s it was clear that 1980 was the last quiet year (in terms of production) the hobby would ever see.

The big story of the year came near the end of the season. Fleer won the first round of their lengthy legal battle with Topps. You can read more about the case and the history of baseball cards here.

 The Card of the Year is without a doubt the 1980 Topps Rickey Henderson rookie card (see right).

1980 at a Glance A complete checklist of Kellogg's 1980 3D cards is here. For the second straight year, the San Francisco Giants and KNBR issued a set to be distributed by police officers. The Los Angeles Dodgers also issued their first of many such sets. O-Pee-Chee released a 374 card set. As usual, the Canadian cards were virtually identical to the Topps issue, but featured the OPC logo, bilingual (French & English) text, and lighter backs that were easier to read in any language. Here's a checklist. Notable minor league sets for 1980 include the Reading Phillies (Ryne Sandberg), Charlotte Orioles Police (Cal Ripken), Charlotte Orioles WBTV (Ripken) (all three of these are worth at least several hundred dollars each),  Waterloo Indians (Von Hayes), Peninsula Pilots (Julio Franco), Rochester Red Wings (Mike Boddicker), Tidewater Tides (Mookie Wilson, Ed Lynch and Mike Scott), Nashville Sounds (Willie McGee), Knoxville Blue Jays (Jesse Barfield), Appleton Foxes (Ron Kittle), Clinton (Rob Deer), Memphis Chicks (Terry Francona and Bryn Smith), Columbus Astros (Johnny Ray), Quad City Cubs (Carmelo Marinez), Wisconsin Rapids (Kent Hrbek, Gary Gaetti), Wichita Aeros (Lee Smith) and the El Paso Drillers (Tom Brunasky). Our coverage of the 1980 Topps Baseball set is here (along with a checklist). Topps produced a 33 card "Pit, Hit, and Run" set for Burger King in limited numbers in 1980. A checklist and more information is here. Topps also produced a team set of 22 cards of the Philadelphia Phillies for Burger King.  Topps prototyped a set for Pepsi in 1980, but it was never released. As with the Burger King set, it looked substantially similar to the '80 Topps set. Topps Superstar Photo Cards were beautiful 5x7 cards and featured some of the clearest photos you'd find on a Topps product from this era. A complete checklist and more information can be found here.

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