The 1987 Donruss baseball card set was among the most widely produced and collected sets of the late 1980s baseball card boom. It is also renowned among card collectors for containing some of the rarest and most valuable error cards ever produced. While errors have always been a part of the production process for baseball cards dating back to the earliest days of the industry, some of the errors in the 1987 Donruss set stand out for their scarcity and the fascinating stories behind their creation.
One of the most famous error cards from 1987 Donruss is the ‘Bench Back’ Dale Murphy card. During production, the backs of some Dale Murphy cards were accidentally printed with the statistics and biography of Johnny Bench, the legendary Cincinnati Reds catcher, instead of Murphy. Only a small number of these errors are believed to exist, making them enormously valuable to error card collectors. The story behind this error is that the printing plates for the fronts and backs of cards got mixed up at the Donruss factory during assembly. As a result, some Murphy cards wound up with the wrong backs. This created a truly one-of-a-kind anomaly that is still highly sought after today.
Another attention-grabbing error from 1987 Donruss involves New York Yankees star Dave Winfield. On his base card, the statistic listed for home runs committed an error. Instead of stating his actual total of 1 home run for the 1986 season, his card mistakenly listed his home run total as 14. Since Winfield was not a power hitter and only hit 1 home run that year, collectors quickly realized this was a glaring mistake. It’s believed only a small handful of cards with the incorrect “14 home runs” statistic were ever printed before the error was caught and corrected. As a result, the Winfield error card is considered an especially rare find today.
Perhaps the most infamous statistical error from 1987 Donruss relates to slugging Milwaukee Brewers first baseman B.J. Surhoff. On his rookie card, Surhoff’s career batting average was mistakenly printed as an astronomical .499 instead of his actual .249 average from his debut 1986 season. This insane .250 discrepancy understandably caught the eyes of eagle-eyed collectors. Once again, production was swiftly halted before more than a miniscule number of cards with the wrong average could be created. As one of the most blatant statistical bloomers in sports card history, B.J. Surhoff’s “.499” error card is tremendously sought after by error collectors.
In addition to mistaken statistics, switch errors were also prominent in the 1987 Donruss set. These occurred when the photo or name on the front of a card did not match the correct statistics on the back. One example involved San Diego Padres catcher Terry Kennedy. A small batch of Kennedy cards were printed where the front pictured Kennedy but the back contained stats for a different player, Houston Astros catcher Alan Ashby. This created a true photovariation error. Other known switch errors from 1987 Donruss paired photos with mismatched names and stats for players like Ozzie Smith and Omar Moreno.
Among the most elusive errors from 1987 Donruss were those involving checklist cards, which catalog all the base cards in a release. One extremely rare error checklist substituted the name and photo of Minnesota Twins pitcher Les Straker in place of the intended Dodgers pitcher Tom Niedenfuer. Only a miniscule number of these checklist errors are known to exist. Another notable checklist error switched Cub pitcher Jamie Moyer’s image with that of Tigers pitcher Floyd Bannister. These erroneous checklist cards possess especially compelling drama since they involve mistakes made directly on the cards meant to account for all other base cards.
Of course, no discussion of 1987 Donruss errors would be complete without mentioning the famous ‘Uecker Back’ error. Famed MLB broadcaster Bob Uecker had his career statistics mistakenly printed on the back of an otherwise standard Milwaukee Brewers team card. While Uecker played briefly as a major leaguer in the 1960s, this non-player card blunder made for quite the anomaly. It’s believed only a tiny handful of Uecker Back errors were ever created before being caught and fixed during production. Over 30 years later, it remains among the most infamous flubs in baseball card history due to Uecker’s legendary status in Brewers’ fandom and American baseball culture at large.
The 1987 Donruss set stands out for containing what are likely the rarest and most storied errors ever found in a single release. From heinous statistical mistakes to perplexing photo switches to anomalies involving checklist cards, this set presented collectors with an abundance of bizarre anomalies. While error cards have been a part of the hobby since its earliest days, some would argue no other year featured such an eyepopping array of fortuitous flubs. As a result, 1987 Donruss errors ascended to a place of great notability among collectors, becoming some of the most coveted and valuabe modern-day baseball cards on the market. Their abundance of mystique and scarcity cement this set’s reputation as a true error card gold mine for collectors.
