Alan Trammell (True) Rookie Card

With their pick in the 2nd Round of the 1976 MLB June Amateur Draft, the Detroit Tigers selected Alan Trammell from Kearny High School in San Diego, CA. Alan Trammell has one true rookie card and one Whopper of a food & beverage issue.

Modern Era Committee Gets it Right

On Sunday, December 10, 2017 Baseball’s Hall of Fame Modern Era Committee announced their picks for the 2018 Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony.

The Committee voted and it was a proud day for the city of Detroit as two of their own were chosen: Jack Morris and Alan Trammell.

The sentiment throughout baseball was that the Veteran’s Committee made the right choices, of course with all decisions our human nature will question the legitimacy of those decisions.

The Defensive Talent of Alan Trammell

Alan was the complete package. Defensively you weren’t going to get Ozzie Guillen-type flashiness.

Instead, Alan played shortstop with a mechanical aspect, the glove went down the hands came up, and the throw was always smooth, seamless, and got to first base on target.

He didn’t throw the hardest but he threw the most accurately, there was a consistency of integrity to his play.

Double plays were a fluid motion that was fed by teammate Lou Whitaker. The two resembled Bluetooth technology, when paired together they made beautiful music.

The Memorable Offensive Season

His most memorable season was 1984 the Tigers started the season with a dominating 35-5 record and finished the season winning the World Series Championship.

Detroit won that series in five games thanks largely in part to Alan Trammell who went 9 for 20 with a couple of home runs in game 4.

It was one of the most memorable offensive performances in World Series play. He went on to be voted World Series MVP!

He played for 20 years all of them with the Detroit Tigers and he batted over .300 seven times!

Career Stats & Accomplishments

According to Baseball-Reference.com Alan Trammell career stats are .285 Batting Average | 1,231 Runs | 1,003 RBI’s |2,365 Hits in 2,293 Games Played.

Accomplishments:

• 6x All-Star
• 4x Gold Glover
• 3x Silver Slugger
• 1984 World Series Champion
• 1984 World Series MVP
• 2018 Hall of Fame Induction

Alan Trammell True Rookie Card:

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1978 Topps, #707 (RC)

This card should be in a lot of collector’s personal collection, at the very least in their want list because it now depicts the rookie card of two Hall of Famer’s.

What you see here is an Alan Trammell and Paul Molitor true rookie card. Two HOF rookie cards on one card! This makes this card unique and desirable.

In 1978 Topps increased the size of its set, from the previous 660 cards set to the new and improved 726 cards.

The rookie cards, which appear toward the back-end of the set features four players per card by position rather than by team. Although many collectors are not a fan of multi-player rookie cards we make exceptions when they include rookie cards of Hall of Famers.

The card backs are a brownish/copper color with a navy blue font. And since there are four players featured on the card we only get a short bio of each player, there’s not much room for anything else.

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1978 Burger King Tigers, #15 (PRT)

This is a fantastic card of Alan Trammell. A couple of things going for this card are, collectors are fans of the first card of players featured by themselves and that’s what we have here. His rookie is featured with three other players.

These are a bit more scarce too. Distributed in 3 card packs at your local Detroit Burger King free with any purchase.

The cards were printed by Topps and mimic the 1978 design in every aspect. This is a very nice collectible card but technically speaking this is not an official Alan Trammell rookie card.

Instead, it would be considered a Rookie Year card, meaning that the card was produced and distributed in his rookie year.

Why is this card not considered a rookie card? That’s a great question and I’m glad you asked it.

Well, what disqualifies this one is two long-standing standards within the hobby. First, a rookie card must be distributed nationally, and this was a regional release in the Detroit region.

Secondly, food and beverage issues have technically never been viewed as a rookie card either. You can learn more about this topic in my post, The 10 Commandments of the Rookie Card.

Still a fantastic card to own of a Hall of Famer no less! But a true RC designation it is not.

Happy Collecting Collectors,

Learn. Collect. Enjoy.