1981 Royals

1981 Kansas City Royals

On to the AL West.  First up, the AL Champion Royals.  Growing up I somehows liked the Royals, but I don't know why.  Maybe it was because they were always in the playoffs, and were not the Yankees.  They won the division 4 times in the years 76-80, and made the playoffs in 81.  Not a bad run during this time as they seemed to pick up afterthe A's dynasty years.  A total of 37 different players saw action during the 1980 season.  Lets see each of the card companies did in featuring cards of the players.  Any players shown with other teams will count in the team % as they are considered checklisted.

Topps

24 Different player cards + 2 of the 3  "Future Stars"  Manny Castillo and Mike Jones for a total of 26 players.  (70%)

Topps nailed most of the major players.  Other than Dave Chalk (69 games) their were not major players missing.  That is due to Kansas City fielding a regular lineup day in and day out, with a lot of "minor" players seeing time as spare parts.

Fleer

23 Player cards + an extra Willie Wilson, Amos Otis, and George Brett  (62%)

Interesting note that Fleer has the only card of Steve Busby, who was released on 8/29.  Jeff Twitty is another player only in the Fleer set, but at least I had heard of Busby.

Donruss

20 players + Manager + Darell Porter+ and extra George Brett  (57%)

Manged to get all of the major players.


Player selection grade:  Topps - A; Fleer - A; Donruss - B


Rankings by Team

Topps

Yankees (87%)
Tigers (85%)
Brewers (82%)
Indians (82%)
Orioles (79%)
Red Sox (76%)
Royals (70%)
Blue Jays (65%)

Fleer

Yankees (85%)
Orioles (74%)
Tigers (71%)
Brewers (67%)
Indians (67%)
Royals (62%)
Blue Jays (57%)
Red Sox (54%)

Donruss

Orioles (71%)
Tigers (71%)
Brewers (70%)
Indians (67%)
Yankees (64%)
Red Sox (59%)
Royals (57%)
Blue Jays (51%)