The 81 Donruss Enigma

Since I began inventorying all of my cards, I’ve started to pay attention to what is in the background on each card. Like my last post on Mario Ramirez and the incredibly shrinking Sid Monge, I noticed that 1981 Donruss has an interesting quirk.

Either Donruss was headquartered in Chicago, or they had zero budget to send their apparently sole photographer to games other than those played at Comiskey and Wrigley. Let’s do a little statistical case study…

I grabbed a random stack of 81 Donruss, and it turned out to be 56 cards. Thirty-three of the cards are of National League players and 23 are of American Leaguers. Of all 56 players, there are three White Sox and zero Cubs. Also, of those 56, all but 3 are in their road uniforms. Those not in their road unis? White Sox.

So, judging by backgrounds, 30 of the 33 NLers are at Wrigley, with the remaining three in non-descript dugouts. Of the 23 ALers, all 23 are at Comiskey.

I’m sure there has to be some card photography in this set that was not taken at Wrigley or Comiskey, but so far, I haven’t found any!

Bizarre.

Wrigley

Wrigley

Comiskey