Tom Herr Answered 'The Cars' Question
He'll drive you home tonight, no power required
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1986 Fleer All-Star Team Tom Herr (#2) - Card of the Day
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In 1985, Tom Herr put together one of the most amazing baseball seasons that I’ve ever witnessed (via the newspaper and nightly highlights, you understand).
That summer, as his Cardinals battled the Mets — and, for a while, the Expos and Cubs — for supremacy in the old National League East, Herr settled in to the three-hole in the St. Louis lineup.
There, with Vince Coleman and Willie McGee getting on base in front of him, Herr hit .302 with eight home runs, and 38 doubles, all career highs (though he hit .323 in the strike-shortened 1981). Pretty solid stuff for a second baseman in the light-stick middle infielders era of the 1980s, and especially for one employed by Whitey Herzog and the small-ball Cardinals.
The really astounding part of his game, though, was that Herr drove in 110 runs. That made him the first player since George Kell in 1950 to drive in 100 or more with fewer than ten homers. Paul Molitor joined the club in 1996 with the Twins (9 HR, 113 RBI), as a full-time DH.
TheIgnitor was the last one to do it.
Now, I realize the going rate on the value of RBI as a stat these days is pennies on the dollar compared to its 1980s heyday, and Coleman and McGee gave Herr plenty of opportunities (and speed) to get the job done. But the Orry Main lookalike still had to step up and deliver. That’s just what he did.
If you’re still not amazed by Herr’s season, consider that he also stole 31 bases in 34 attempts and scored 97 runs of his own. All while holding down the keystone for 159 games as Ozzie Smith’s double play partner.
Herr brought that same productive game to the National League Championship Series, where he hit .333 while driving in six, with a homer and a stolen base as the Cards dispatched the Dodgers in six games. The World Series wasn’t quite so kind to either Herr or his teammates.
But that November, Herr finished fifth in N.L. MVP balloting, behind McGee, Dave Parker, Pedro Guerrero, and Dwight Gooden, and just ahead of Gary Carter. It was a nifty little bow on a season that also landed Herr in the All-Star Game for the first (and only) time.
And so, as the 1986 hobby season dawned, collectors had a “new” star to chase in the person of Thomas Mitchell Herr, even though he’d been around for more than half a decade before his breakout campaign.
As luck would have it — or more likely as “a way to squeeze more Gooden and Don Mattingly cardboard into their products” would have it — Fleer decided to really give us something to chase.
Enter the Fleer All Star Team, a set of 12 cards featuring (yes) All-Stars with silhouetted player photos over bold solid colors. The cards were printed on thicker card stock than the base set and inserted randomly in wax packs and cello packs. As you might have guessed from the long lead-in and the card at the top of this post, Tom Herr had a spot in this lineup.
The back of his card told much the same story that I just did:
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Here’s the complete 1986 Fleer All-Star Team checklist:
1 Don Mattingly
2 Tom Herr
4 Gary Carter
6 Dave Parker
8 Pedro Guerrero
10 Dwight Gooden
12 John Tudor
Pretty heady company for Herr and a couple of others, including three who weren’t actually All-Stars in 1985: Quiz, Stormin’ Gorman, and Tudor. Hey, if it was good enough for Topps…
But Fleer didn’t stop with All-Stars. Nope, they also issued a set of six Future Hall of Famer cards, inserted one per rack pack:
Seem Fleer had a pretty clear crystal ball, notwithstanding their leadoff hitter. But, heck, Ryan was a riskier Cooperstown pick than Rose in 1986. And I’ll wager (ahem) that Fleer was as shocked as anyone by Charlie’s Hustle.
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You can read more about the Future Hall of Famers set right here.
For my hobby money, these Fleer inserts deserve credit for jumpstarting the insert craze that continues to this day. Certainly, they were the first random pulls in my collecting “career.” Topps game cards, Donruss puzzle pieces, Fleer logos stickers — all one per pack, nothing to chase.
But you want a Tom Herr All-Star card in the two hole? Better find you a steady supply of Fleer wax packs.