I never liked Dale Murphy. That is about the worst thing I can say about him, as he was one of the premier sluggers of the early to mid-80’s and won back to back Most Valuable Player awards. Today, Dale is very outspoken about cheaters in baseball and as you can imagine has made more than one comment towards Jose Canseco.
Recently, Dale started a website called ‘IWontCheat.Com’ and is already an author three times over. Wikipedia has an entire section devoted to Murphy’s “Clean Living Habits” which is a pretty interesting read. Today’s Cardboard War will look at two of Dale Murphy’s many artistic portraits released throughout his baseball career and beyond.
1992 Confex Baseball Enquirer
I have to admit, whoever came up with this set was a genius. For further proof, just find a copy of the Pete Rose card which features a homely-looking “Hit King” signing a shoe at what is likely a memorabilia show. As much as I enjoy the set, some of the cards were hit or miss and the Murphy was definitely one of them. The best they could come up with was a hat that read “Goody Goody” but the artist did manage to capture that constipated look Dale always wore on his face.
2003 Donruss Diamond Kings
Speaking of constipated looks, it appears the artist of this Donruss piece of work knows exactly what I am talking about. By the time this card was released Dale Murphy was long gone from the sport of baseball and was most likely doing whatever Mormons do for fun.
These cards have a price tag of about $4-$8 dollars depending on the seller, which makes this card about $4-$8 dollars worth more than the ‘92 Confex.
I say the Diamond King wins, and it’s not even close!
Diamond King – hands down!!!
I am a huge Diamond King guy so I may be biased, but the DK wins out for sure. A lot has to do with the fact Dale actually has logos and team names on the DK for me as well.
Are you bustin’ on Murph?! Man, the Braves are taking a beating lately.
Now, I’ll take any Murphy card in existence, but the painting on that DK card has always weirded me out. That odd expression plus the unibrow doesn’t appeal to me. In contrast, the “what the fuck am I doing in a PHILLIES uniform?!?” look on his face on the Confex card makes me laugh every time I see it.
So the Braves fan who has more Murphy cards than all of you put together says Baseball Enquirer.
Plus, $4-8 for a base Diamond King?? What the hell??
Dayf, it’s a “short print”.
I think they both look lousy that’s why I paired them up.
That Baseball Enquirer card is hideous. Was the layout guy drunk and couldn’t make the frame completely vertical? Instead he chose it to be slightly rotated.
And what’s the deal with the slanted empty box under the picture? It looks like a nameplate, but there’s no name in there. What’s that box for?
No contest DK
Diamond King definitely
Aw geez, zapped by a short print. Death to short prints!
The reason there is an empty box under the name is because no one would give them a license to make fun of their players so they had to take out all the names and teams so they didn’t get sued. There’s a couple of players in the set that noone knows who the hell they are.