The Vern Ruhle Rainbow Twins

And other tales of early-80s cardboard debauchery

1981 Donruss Vern Ruhle (#261) - Card of the Day

If the mid-1980s ushered in the Junk Wax Era, then the advent of Fleer and Donruss baseball cards in 1981 surely ushered in the Junk Wax Error.

Or the Meh Wax Error.

Or at least the Error Era.

Whatever you called it — Error Mania was popular at the time, and in 1989, thanks to Billy Ripken — that era delivered more error cards per square mile of dried-out pulp than any treasure-seeking collector had a right to dream about.

In fact, those early Fleer and Donruss sets were so riddled with errors and idiosyncrasies that most collectors at the time just threw up their hands and gave up trying to keep track.

Of course, some of those error cards rose to the top of our collective hobby consciousness when they were corrected and thus became variations. The ones that really sparked our imaginations were the ones that showed up in unequal amounts.

There seemed to be a lot fewer “Craig” Nettles cards (1981 Fleer) out there than the correct Graig Nettles variety, for example. Others that scored big collector dollars back then, and even now, included lefthanded John Littlefield and “All” Hrabosky (Al Hrabosky), all 5’1” of him.

Then there were the scores of error cards that were corrected but that were corrected sort of in the middle of the endless print runs that defined the hobby back in those days.

Case in point, the 1981 Donruss Vern Ruhle card. On the first pass, Big D rolled out the card you see up there, to the left.

Any seasoned 1980s collector can tell you that’s Ken Forsch, older brother of 20-game winner (for the Cardinals in 1977) Bob Forsch, and not Vern Ruhle. Somebody noticed the gaffe at some point back in 1981, too, and Donruss issued the corrected card showing Ruhle.

To be fair, the guys on those two cards do look pretty similar, and they were both Astros righthanders. But you kind of need to get that sort of thing right if you’re producing baseball cards.

Donruss did get it right, eventually.

Truthfully, it’s tough to tell which variation is more plentiful. For example, PSA shows that they’ve graded fewer than 10 copies combined.

And you can buy either one for about a buck (or less) on eBay.

Still, this dynamic duo is a solid, if sad and blurry, representative of a heady era in the hobby when we finally had not one, not two, but THREE major sets to collect.

We loved them all. Still do. Warts and all.

Today is an especially good day to celebrate all the dreary splendor they represent, too, because Vern Ruhle was born on this date in 1951.

Between then and now, he grew up, went to Olivet College, got drafted by the Detroit Tigers (17th round, 1972), made it to Motown three years later, got released but then signed with the Astros, and then developed into a sort of super swingman.

Including late-career stints with the Indians and Angels, Ruhle made 188 starts among 327 appearances, finishing 67-88 with 11 saves and a 3.73 ERA.

Stinkily, Ruhle died at just 55 years of age in 2007.

But today, we can still say, “Happy Birthday, Vern Ruhle!”.

(And “Whaddup, Ken Forsch?”)

1981 Topps (#402) - Hidden Astros

Forsch and Ruhle each won 12 games for the 1980 Astros, who beat out the Dodgers to win the National League West, then went up against the Phillies in the National League Championship Series. Here’s how that went:

Not an Astro in sight, even though “squeak” was an apt description of the 10th-inning, Game 5 Phillies win that sent them to the World Series — after three other extra-inning games.

For their part, Ruhle and Forsch started one game apiece in the NLCS, with Forsch losing and Ruhle getting a no-decision.

For what it’s worth, the “1980” cap above is more Astro orange than Phillie burgundy. Otherwise, it’s all Bob Boone, Greg Luzinski, Mike Schmidt, and Larry Bowa.

Collect the Rainbow

You can find all sorts of artifacts from that 1980 NLCS on eBay, including this nifty Astros Rainbow program:

It’ll cost you a bit more than the original sticker price says, but it looks pretty neato, if you ask me. Here is the full listing.

—

That’s all I have to say about Vern Ruhle today, other than that he was also teammates with Terry Puhl, which was confusing as a kid.

But also kinda kuhle.

Thanks for reading.

—Adam