Credit to
Don, who hit it right on the head. That
teeny tiny Trammell was the product of one of those early 80's All-Star programs indeed. This Trammell was of the 1981 variety.
Now, I didn't really know anything about these until I saw them in an ebay store that I was perusing to combine shipping for my Porcello Mini. I didn't quite know what to think of them, but oddball cards being fun and all, decided to add them to the order. When they came I was blown away. I had no idea they were so small! For the record, they're also really, really thin, much more like poster stock than card stock.
But that makes sense, based on what I was able to piece together from the internet. These "cards" were part of a fold-out insert put into All Star Programs from 1981-1985 that featured all of the All Star nominees for that year. Some entrepreneurial types took those inserts and carefully cut out the teeny cards within. They really are like cards though, complete with a little player profile on the back.
Like I said, this was what I was able to piece together, so there might be some more detail about these that I'm missing, but I think that's the gist. In my order, I ended up getting the Tigers sets for 1981, 1982 and 1985, all of which I'll showcase here. As for 1983 and 1984, I'll leave space on this page for if and when those little guys make their way to me.
1981 All Star Program Inserts (Cleveland) I'm not going to get into too much description on any of these, but the Tigers had a respectable, albeit small, group of nominees, highlighted by the ubiquitous 80's Trammell, Whitaker, Parrish Triumvirate. I'll start things off with the very neat back of the cards, which differ from year to year much more so than the fronts.
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1981 ASG Program Insert (Back)
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Alan Trammell
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Lou Whitaker
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Lance Parrish
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Steve Kemp
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Milt Wilcox
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1982 All Star Program Inserts (Montreal) Now these are just plain cool. Same concept as the '81 versions but because the game was in Montreal, everything dual-written in English and French--even the positions. We also get the first, rather unbelievable error of the set, a card claiming to be Starting "LANC" Jack Morris, with a picture of someone else. I don't have time to dig through my 80s Tigers to find out who exactly, but Jack Morris it is not. I say that the error is somewhat unbelievable too because come one, these are All Star nominees, not the scrubs. Weak. Anyway, these '82s are my favorites of the ones that came in.
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1982 ASG Program Insert (Back)
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Kirk Gibson
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Lance Parrish
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Lou Whitaker
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Chet Lemon
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Alan Trammell
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Jack Morris (Err.)
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1983 All Star Program Inserts All in good time, my friends.
1984 All Star Program Inserts I don't have these either, although I'm excited to see the Tiger representation after their 35-5 start to that World Championship season.
1985 All Star Program Inserts (Minnesota) To the victors go the spoils. Of this I mean that with the Tigers' World Series win in '84 they were very well represented in the '85 All Star Game. We still get the same standbys as we had in the earlier sets, but with all sorts of new blood from that '84 team. One downer: no player profile on the backs. Just a name, team and ASG logo.
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1985 ASG Program Insert (Back)
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Jack Morris
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Willie Hernandez
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Kirk Gibson
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Lou Whitaker
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Alan Trammell
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Chet Lemon
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Dan Petry
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Darrell Evans
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Lance Parrish
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