KITTLEMANIA: The Great Rookie Card Craze of 1983
Ask today's collectors about the great rookie cards of 1983 and you'll hear the same three names over and over: Wade Boggs, Tony Gwynn, and Ryne Sandberg. And why not! We're talking about the Chicken Man, Mr. Padre, and Ryno after all, three of the most popular players in the history of the Red Sox, Padres, and Cubs respectively. All three have well deserved plaques in Cooperstown, and—as card collectors know well—all three had rookie cards in each of the main three sets in 1983: Topps, Fleer, and Donruss.
"If only I could time travel back to 1983," you might think, imagining yourself ripping open a pack and pulling one of these all-time greats. Of course, some of us don't need to time travel. We were there. And the scene was just what you might imagine, only it wasn't.
My first card show of the 1983 season came somewhere around the All-Star break. By this point, I'd practically completed all three sets from packs and was more in the market for some lesser condition cards of all-time greats like Hank Aaron and Willie Mays. As hard as it is to believe today, a few dollars might score you a 1961 Willie Mays with rounded corners back then. With nearly $50 in babysitting cash burning a hole in my pocket, there was no limit to what I could go home with.
Still, it only took about five minutes at the show to see that something special was happening. Cards of Aaron and Mays—even Mantle and Ruth—sat untouched. Why spend money on those Hobby has-beens when you could put your hard earned babysitting cash toward 1983 Fleer!
As you picture the rookie cards of the Big Three, you may well be puzzled as to why Fleer would be the brand of choice. Topps has the history, and Donruss had the Diamond Kings. What did Fleer have beyond goofy Super Star Specials like "Black and Blue?"
Fleer had Ronald Dale Kittle, that's what it had, and that was enough. Who? Ronald Dale Kittle, the Chicago White Sox slugger who had clubbed 18 home runs already and was absolutely not just a flash in the pan. Check the back of the card, for chrissake!
FIFTY home runs at AAA Edmonton in 1982 in only 127 games, and 40 dongs the year before at AA Glens Falls. The man was a demigod in glasses. Oh, and most importantly, the geniuses at Topps and Donruss completely whiffed on Babe Ruth 2.0. If you wanted a Kittle—and trust me, you most definitely did!—then you had no choice but to pony up for Philly's Finest.
Never mind that a box of Fleer at my local drugstore would run me $10.80. Kittlemania had struck me, just as it had everyone else, and I was more than happy to shell out $11.50 or even $12 for a chance at cardboard gold. Three boxes in, my Kittle count stood at three, which rounding conservatively made me a goddamn millionaire. The smart collector might have spent the rest of their money on those Aaron and Mays cards they came for, but not me. I loved baseball cards, but I loved money even more. That left me only one thing to do.
I headed over to a table where a dealer had been selling 1977 TCMA Clinton Dodgers team sets, you know, the set with Ron Kittle's true rookie card. "Got any left?" I asked, as I reached into my pocket for the $10 price tag he'd been asking. "Good thing you got here when you did. Just one left," the dealer told me as, hands shaking and butterflies in full effect, a deal went down.
On paper I was a 13-year-old boy. On cardboard, I was a man. No, check that. I was THE man. So go ahead, get that time machine built. Turn the dial to the Summer of '83, and head out onto the convention floor. Whatever Boggs, Gwynn, and Sandberg aspirations you might have had when you strapped yourself in, the pull of Kittlemania would be too great to resist. Like a goat to garbage or a bumblebee to birthday cake, you would find yourself preternaturally and helplessly drawn—impelled really—to those boxes of Fleer, where a Wade Boggs might as well have been Tommy Boggs and the entire Fleer checklist of 660 reduced down to two: Ron Kittle or GTFOH. "Is this heaven?" you might wonder, as if the answer weren't 110% obvious.
Jason A. Schwartz is a collectibles expert whose work can be found regularly at SABR Baseball Cards, Hobby News Daily, and 1939Bruins.com. His collection of Hank Aaron baseball cards and memorabilia is currently on exhibit at the Atlanta History Center, and his collectibles-themed artwork is on display at the Honus Wagner Museum and PNC Park.