The 1985 Topps baseball card #665 features Don Baylor in his rookie season with the Minnesota Twins. Baylor enjoyed a long, successful 19-year career playing for 7 different teams from 1970-1988. Some key details about Don Baylor’s career and this particular baseball card:

Don Baylor was born in 1950 in Austin, Texas. He was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles in the 3rd round of the 1968 MLB June draft. Baylor made his MLB debut with the Orioles in 1970 at age 20. He played his first 11 seasons with Baltimore, establishing himself as one of the game’s top power hitters and run producers. Baylor’s best seasons came from 1974-1977 where he hit between .268-.296 and smacked between 25-32 home runs each year. He played in the 1975 World Series with Baltimore, though they lost to the Cincinnati Reds.

In 1981 at age 30, Baylor was traded to the California Angels. He enjoyed his two best statistical seasons in 1982-1983 when he hit .296 with 33 home runs and 118 RBI in 1982 and followed it up with a .277 average, 31 homers, and 109 RBI in 1983. Notably, Baylor led the American League in hits (199) and runs scored (109) during the Angels’ playoff season of 1982.

Following the 1983 season, Baylor signed as a free agent with the Boston Red Sox. He hit .281 with 25 home runs for Boston in 1984 in his lone season with the club. That offseason, the Minnesota Twins acquired the 34-year old Baylor in a trade with Boston, and that’s where he found himself for the 1985 season which corresponds to this particular Topps baseball card.

The front of the card features a mid-swing photo of Baylor from his time with the Twins in 1985. He is shown barehanded, taking a big cut with his trademark uppercut swing. The graphics on the card are typical of Topps’s designs from the mid-1980s, with the team logo, “Twins” script, and player’s name across the top.

The back of the card lists Baylor’s career statistics up to that point. It notes he batted .281 with 25 home runs and 84 RBI for Boston in 1984 before joining the Twins. For Minnesota in 1985, Baylor hit .256 with 17 home runs and 62 RBI in 151 games. The card provides a brief bio on Baylor, mentioning he was an All-Star in 1979 and played in the 1975 World Series. It also lists his birthdate as March 15, 1950 in Austin, Texas.

While with the Twins in 1985 at age 35, Baylor was still bringing value as a power bat in the middle of the lineup. Though in the latter stages of his career, he still managed 17 home runs and drove in over 60 runs. The Twins finished 78-84 that year and missed the playoffs. It turned out to be Baylor’s final season playing every day, as he took on more of a part-time role over the next three seasons.

In 1986, Baylor split time between the New York Mets and Angels, hitting a combined .254 with 10 home runs. In 1987, he was with the Angels again part-time, batting .226 with 3 homers in 56 games at age 37. Baylor caught on with the Oakland A’s late in 1988 for his final MLB season, appearing in only 21 games and going 6-for-26 (.231) with 1 homer before retiring at age 38.

In total, Baylor played in 2,862 MLB games over 19 seasons, batting .260 with 338 home runs and 1,276 RBI. He was a career .993 fielder and made one All-Star appearance in 1979. Baylor finished within the top 15 of AL MVP voting four different times in his prime years with Baltimore and California in the mid-1970s through early 1980s. Since retiring as a player, Baylor has spent many years as a coach and manager in the MLB, most recently as bench coach of the Washington Nationals from 2011-2018.

The 1985 Topps baseball card #665 pays tribute to Don Baylor’s lone season with the Minnesota Twins near the end of his illustrious playing career. While in the latter stages of his time in the majors, Baylor was still a productive player for the Twins in 1985 at age 35 by belting 17 home runs. This card provides a statistical and biographical overview of one of the game’s premier power hitters from the 1970s and early 1980s. It encapsulates Baylor’s contributions during his stop with Minnesota before wrapping up his career over the next few seasons.