1991 Donruss Series 1

By the time 1991 rolled around, Donruss had been in the baseball card business for 10 years. The cards had a much slicker look and could be held in the collector's hand without fear the thing would bend, fold or become mutilated at the slightest touch. An interesting tidbit, in case you did not already know, the company got its name from its founders in 1954 - Donald and Russell Weiner - by combining their first names. So, if you didn't know that, then I've taught you something today, and you are free to go. :-)

The 1991 series 1 cards featured BRIGHT blue borders with various diagonal lines and 'painted' dots or mark, kind of resembling tire tread. The pictures were nice and big, taking up about two-thirds the face of the card. The company logo was in an upper corner, the team logo in a lower corner of the image. At the bottom in a red diagonal banner was the player name and below that in a baby blue banner was the player's position. The backs of the cards were a similar baby blue with black text. A wonderful color combination for those who don't actually want to READ what's on the back!


In today's pack, we have a pretty good mix of stars, HOF, and people long forgotten...

The first card in the pack is Robin Yount (White Sox)! That is awesome! Then we have Al Newman (Twins), Walt Weiss (A's), Greg Hibbard (White Sox - Man, this would have been a great Sox-or-no-Sox pack!), Charlie Hayes (Phillies), Greg Olson (Braves), Jose Offerman (Dodgers - Rated Rookie), Dave Martinez (Expos), Tony -Frickin- Gwynn (Padres), Delino DeShields (Expos - Diamond King), Tim Crews (Dodgers), Scott Bankhead (Mariners), Billy Hatcher (Reds), Dickie Thon (Phillies), Terry Bross (Mets - Rated Rookie), Willie Stargell puzzle piece with wax pack stuck to it (#1,2,3).

Did you know that the MLB contract with Donruss REQUIRED they produce a "Diamond King" for every team or they couldn't produce ANY Diamond King cards!? That's why you see some crappy Diamond Kings in the early days of the subset. I'm not saying DeShields is a crappy DK, just giving a little bit of useless trivial knowledge...