Baseball score cards have been used by fans attending games for over a century to keep track of the action on the field. The 1989 MLB season produced some memorable individual and team performances that fans who kept score that year would remember recording on their cards. That season saw key developments and changes that are reflected in the design of score cards from that year.
Baseball was still enjoying high popularity in the late 80s, though the steroid era was just around the corner. World Series winners in the late 80s included the Detroit Tigers in 1984, Kansas City Royals in 1985, New York Mets in 1986, and Minnesota Twins in 1987 and 1991. The 1989 season saw the Oakland Athletics win the World Series, defeating the San Francisco Giants.
Score card designs in 1989 generally included space to track outcomes of each at-bat through the traditional tallies of hits, runs, errors, and putouts. With 24 players on a team’s active roster plus reserve players and starting pitchers, accommodating all possible players on a card required multiple lines. Most mainstream cards from companies like Scoremaster, E-Z Score, and Topps featured grids with 3-4 rows and 9-10 columns tailored for tracking 9 innings of play.
Some key player and team performances to look for on 1989 baseball score cards include Nolan Ryan of the Texas Rangers recording his 5,000th career strikeout. At age 42, Ryan remained one of the most dominating pitchers in the game. Another notable pitching performance was Montreal Expo Mark Langston throwing a 1-0 no-hitter against the San Diego Padres on September 11th. The Oakland A’s roster that would go on to win the World Series starting to come together, with key additions like Rickey Henderson and Dave Stewart solidifying the lineup.
The dominance of the New York Mets and teams in the National League East also stood out. The Mets went 100-60 behind pitchers Dwight Gooden and David Cone to win the division by 21.5 games over the St. Louis Cardinals. The Pittsburgh Pirates won the NL East the previous three seasons but fell to third place behind the Mets and Cardinals in 1989. In the American League, the AL East was highly competitive with only 4 games separating first place Baltimore and fourth place Boston. The Toronto Blue Jays finally won their first division title.
Card designs in 1989 also began incorporating space dedicated specifically to tracking pitching statistics beyond just outcomes of at-bats. Additional rows were added below the grid for tallying numbers of innings pitched, hits allowed, runs allowed, walks issued, strikeouts recorded and earned run averages. This recognition of the importance of pitching stats reflected their growing prominence in baseball analysis. Color schemes on cards remained mostly basic – blue or black grids printed on tan or white stock paper.
Prominent players whose performances statistically stood out in 1989 and would be evident when tallying hits, runs and RBI on a score card include Rickey Henderson of the A’s smashing a single-season record of 119 runs scored and 42 stolen bases. Cincinnati’s Nick Esasky led the NL with 40 home runs and 114 RBI while Toronto’s George Bell had a league-high 134 RBI. Nolan Ryan’s record-breaking 5,000th strikeout came in Texas’s 1-0 victory over Toronto on May 1st. His season tally of 223 strikeouts in just 170.1 innings was also impressive.
Attendance records from the 1989 season also speak to baseball’s popularity, showing why fans still diligently kept score. The Baltimore Orioles set an all-time single season MLB attendance record of 4,030,770 that still stands today. Four other teams (Toronto, San Francisco, Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee) exceeded 3 million fans. College and high school baseball also remained hugely popular as evidenced by Louisville Slugger continuing to be a dominant manufacturer of bats, batting gloves and other gear prominently marketed to younger players.
Through the 80s, baseball cards also evolved in their incorporation of more color photos and statistics on the back. These developments allowed stats from the 1989 season recorded on score cards to be cross-referenced with specific baseball cards to jog memories of key performances. Venezuelan pitcher Liván Hernández debuted with the Marlins as an 18-year-old and though he only pitched 12.2 innings in 1989, baseball card collectors could look to his rookie card for details on his early career.
Into the late 80s and early 90s, intangible elements like increased corporate money, national television contracts, expansion franchises, player strikes and steroids would continue altering the business of baseball. But for fans keeping score at games in 1989, the cards were a connection to enjoying the simplicity of just tracking the on-field action of America’s pastime during one of its peak eras. Even today, combing through a well-kept 1989 score card could spark fond memories for fans of all the timeless aspects of baseball that united generations.
