Over the last couple of decades in baseball, WAR has become something of a mainstream statistic and a common tool used by teams, fans, journalists, and even players themselves to discuss the relative merits of one major leaguer v. the field.
But WAR (Wins Above Replacement) also still lives up to its name in some regards.
The most obvious single statistical outcropping of the Sabermetrics movement, WAR remains the subject of much debate, with many traditionalists decrying the effects it has had on the game, reducing player value to a single number.
Heck, the baseball cognoscenti can’t even quite agree on a formulation of the stat — do you prefer the Baseball Reference version of WAR, or the FanGraphs version?
No doubt WAR is imperfect — it sometimes doesn’t know what to do with new trends in player usage, for example, and it doesn’t directly take into account all the things that go into, say, smart baserunning, heads-up fielding, and clubhouse leadership.
Intangibles and gaps aside, though, WAR is at least a handy tool for helping to categorize players across eras and can also lead to some intersting discussions.
For instance, how fun would it be to look at the rookie cards of the ten greatest hitters of the 1980s, by measure of WAR?
Well, it’d be a downright blast! So let’s do it … with the help of WAR.
What follows, then, are those ten standout batters, by measure of the Baseball Reference version of WAR, along with their “best” rookie cards (most popular, most valuable, most first-est, etc.).
Values are based on recent sales of PSA 9 copies of the cards listed, which standardizes our condition consideration but also means big numbers for some of the older cards on our list.
But such is life during a baseball WAR — not all parties agree, and choices will be questioned.
And, if you think that’s a doozy, just wait until you read our “honorable mention” below.
Baseball war, indeed!
For now, we’ll start at the bottom, which is really not so low at all when you’re talking about a guy like …
(Note: The following sections contain affiliate links to eBay and Amazon listings for the cards being discussed.)
1978 Topps Eddie Murray (#36)
They didn’t call Eddie Murray “Steady Eddie” for nothing – from 1980 through 1985, Murray hit at least 30 home runs four times and drove in 110 or more runs five times.
The exceptions were when he connected just 29 times in 1984, and in 1981, when he managed 22 home runs and 78 RBI.
Of course, both of *those* totals led the American League during that awful strike-torn summer, so I think his streak gets to live through that “dip.”
Murray was never the flashiest player on the field, but you always knew he’d be there, knocking in runs and manning first base for some pretty great Orioles teams, including the World Series champions in 1983.
All in all, his slow-burn excellence added up to 46 Wins Above Replacement for the 1980s and 68.7 over the course of his 21-year career.
The hobby’s love affair with Murray was a bit of a slow burn, too, but his 1978 Topps rookie card spent most of the 1980s as *the* card to get from that set, and one of the keys to the entire late 1970s.
Value: $1100-1200
Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)
Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)
1977 topps Dale Murphy (#476)
Murphy is the only player on our list who is NOT in the Hall of Fame, which may be telling for his future prospects in that regard. (For some perspective on that front, consider that the next three guys on the 1980s position-player WAR list after Dale Murphy are Eddie Murray, Tim Raines, and Gary Carter, all HOFers.)
Indeed, with National League MVP awards in 1982 and 1983, six straight All-Star selections, and five 100 RBI seasons through 1987, Murphy was in many ways the face of baseball during the 1980s.
Then, of course, his performance fell off the table in his 30s to an extent few other superstars have ever experienced.
Consider that, while Murphy put up 47.1 WAR during the 80s, his career WAR stands at just 46.5.
Even so, millions of fans still love Murph, and so do collectors across multiple generations. His 1977 Topps rookie card has stood on various rungs of the hobby royalty ladder over the years, and you have to figure one more big run is in the works if Murphy eventually gets the call to the Hall.
Value: $275-350
Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)
Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)
1977 Topps Andre Dawson (#473)
Dawson put up one of the most dramatic in-your-face seasons ever in 1987 after famously signing a blank contract with the Cubs following an ugly bout of collusion that sapped his free agent market.
The funny thing about that 49-homer outburst that gave Hawk his only league MVP award, though, is that it produced the seventh most single-season WAR (4.0) of his career and only his sixth most of the 1980s.
The fact is, Dawson was one of the most complete and exciting players in the game during his ten-year run with the Montreal Expos, showing power, speed, and outfield prowess that had most observers thinking about what his Hall of Fame plaque would look like way before his Cubbies exploits.
And, even when his knees gave out, Dawson had enough left after his move to the Wrigley Field grass that he accumulated 47.3 WAR during the 1980s on his way to 64.8 over the course of his 21-year career.
Along the way, Dawson’s 1977 Topps rookie card enjoyed a strong hobby run, first coming to prominence during the boom of the mid-1980s, then blowing up when Hawk did in 1987. From there, it was a steady ride to Hall of Fame price levels, where it sits today.
Value: $450-550
Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)
Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)
1975 Topps George Brett (#228)
Nobody had a hotter start to the 1980s than George Brett, who scorched his way to a .390 batting average to open the decade and followed that up with a run to the World Series with his Kansas City Royals.
That performance, which also included 24 home runs and 118 RBI, garnered Brett his only American League MVP award on the strength of an amazing 9.4 WAR in only 117 games.
All of that made Brett’s rookie card the frontrunner in the 1975 Topps set, a distinction it never lost even as he struggled to stay on the diamond – he managed just two what you might call “full” seasons through the rest of the 1980s (1985 and 1988).
Even so, Brett was so good when he did play, he put up 47.6 WAR during the decade, more than half of his 88.6 Hall of Fame total.
Value: $4500-5000
Check prices on eBay (affiliate link)
Check prices on Amazon (affiliate link)
1982 Topps Cal Ripken (#21)
Ripken, unlike a few of the guys ahead of him on this list (see below), was a collector favorite almost from the very start of his career.
Debuting with the Orioles the day the 1981 strike ended, Ripken used the remainder of that summer to warm up for his 1982 Rookie of the Year campaign. By the time he took home that hardware, Cal’s 1982 Topps base card he shared with Bob Bonner and Jeff Schneider was already a hobby headliner.
And you could make a strong argument that Ripken’s 1982 Topps Traded card – his first solo Topps issue – single-handedly ensured that the Traded franchise would continue on and become a staple of the hobby calendar.
Meanwhile, C