1984 Cubs Team Issued Cards

Yesterday I talked about getting started collecting all of the Cubs team issued sets. First, some bad news for me. I thought the 1984 set was the first one. But a reader pointed out that there were team issued sets in 1982 and 1983. The '82 set includes the very first card of Ryne Sandberg in a Cubs uniform. The set can be picked up at the Beckett Marketplace for a mere $125. Ouch...that one will have to wait. And there was another in 1983, but it goes for $35.

Anyway, today, I'll show you my first set, from 1984.

Baseball Card Day was August 8, and the Cubs were in the thick of the division race with the Mets. On August 1 the Cubs took over first place and on August 6-8 they had a four game homestand against the Mets. The Cubs took the first three and were going for a sweep on Baseball Card Day. There were 37,292 fans at the game. I wonder if the Cubs had enough sets, because 37,000 was a huge number for the Cubs back then.

The Cubs won the game to complete the sweep and a packed house of fans went home, probably happier about the win than the baseball cards. The Cubs ended up winning the division by 6.5 games and made their first post-season appearance since 1945.

The '84 team ranks up with me pretty high among all the different Cubs teams, so that makes this set special, too.

Enjoy a look at the 1984 NL East Divsion Champions. I've got them in alphabetical order. Many of the names (including two Hall of Famers) you may recognize, while there are some only the die-hard Cubs fans will know. Several of the players in the set were acquired by the Cubs in spring training or during the season. So this set also have the first Cubs cards of Dernier, Sutcliffe, Eckersley, Matthews, Frazier, Hassey, Sanderson, Hebner, and Stoddard. The Cubs beat both Topps and Fleer to the punch.