I've been tired of the emphasis on the rookie card in Topps products for years. I don't know how many posts I've devoted to rookie-overkill, but it's certainly a running theme and I'm sure it's boring some readers to tears.
I do know that Topps, and the hobby, has been about rookies, and young players in general, for a long, long time. I'm thinking of the Sporting News Rookie Stars subset in 1959 Topps and similar themes that came after, followed by the multi-player rookie card themes throughout the 1960s, '70s and early '80s.
Then there are the rookie trophies and rookie cups, the All-Topps teams. Those have been around for quite awhile, since 1960!
But obviously the focus is on those youngsters even more these days and you could point to various moments all the way to the present in which Topps (or other card companies) ramped up that focus, through special subsets, inserts, autograph cards, short-prints, etc.
Today I'm pointing at 1989. That was the year that Topps doubled-down ... no, tripled-down on young players.
For the first time, it dedicated three separate subsets to youngsters. That was more than any subset devoted toward established players for Topps that year. All they had were the All-Star subsets and, I guess, the record breakers.
Let's take a quick look at those three separate sets dedicated to newbies. I'll breeze through them fast, because you all know them and they've been discussed to death.
ROOKIE CUPPERS
Ten players get the rookie cup as a member of the Topps All-Star Rookie Team, because there's a right-handed and left-handed pitcher on the team.
Most of these guys did rather well for themselves during their careers. That's because the cup (or trophy) was based on actual major league results during the player's first year.
FUTURE STARS
Just five cards for the Future Stars, which matches the total for the previous two years as Topps began the FS designation in 1987. I don't know how Topps decided who to designate a Future Star, but the MLB resumes of the players featured weren't as solid as the rookie cup players. Mike Harkey had pitched five MLB games at this point and Steve Searcy had pitched two.
But Topps hit the jackpot in 1987 when it put a "Future Star" label on the Bo Jackson card, so that's why we're still seeing the FS designation in cards today (but with better predicting skills).
NO. 1 DRAFT PICKS
The cardboard bane of my existence in 1989. I didn't know what to do with these cards of guys in their college or ... what the heck, is that a high school uniform??? This wasn't why I was collecting. It still bothers me when I pull cards like this out of packs of professional athletes (this mostly happens in football now, which is one of the reason why I don't collect current football cards).
None of these guys had major league experience when the cards were printed. Years later, it's fun to see the players who made it, but then there are the cards that just seem like filler.
This set is 10 cards just like the rookie cups. Topps stuck with the top 10 picks in the 1988 draft, so sorry, Pat Combs, you were picked 11th by the Phillies. That means Topps missed out on some 1st Draft Pick cards of Tino Martinez, Royce Clayton, Charles Nagy, Alex Fernandez and Ed Sprague, who were all picked in the top 25.
Even with all this emphasis on young players in 1989, Topps still missed putting some sort of designation or theme on some pretty notable youngsters.
That's what the rookie card logo is for I guess.
For me, 1989 is when I began to not relate to the cards I was pulling. (I've written about the No. 1 draft pick cards before). I could barely handle the four-player rookie prospects cards when I was a youngster, showcasing players who hadn't hit the majors was a step too far.
But obviously some collectors loved it and eventually Bowman was reborn as a prospects set that still sells a ton of cards -- bless their hearts -- without my input.
Baseball will always be run by youngsters -- "Juan Soto is just 19!!!" -- and so will cards. Fortunately, I still get to decide what and who I want to collect.
Comments
Was it because 1989 Topps was a bad set? Not at all. It was because it was a run of the mill set with a solid design, very dull photography and it was grossly overproduced.
Probably testing the waters to see how it would fly.
Topps should have pictured the draft picks in Major League uniforms like Score did starting in 1990. They also whiffed by not putting Gregg Olson in his Orioles uniform, as he'd already made his MLB debut when the Draft Pick card came out. Donruss ended up being first in that aspect.
Always learn something new here
Never made the connection the 1st round picks were coincided with the draft positions
I do like that they were stingy with the labels. Makes those cards a bit more special. Sort of surprised that Future Star hasn't become a 100-card insert set today.
And I actually have always liked the idea of including the #1 draft pick cards for each team. Like I mentioned on Blue Sky I's probably have done this in Traded instead as a round up of stuff that happened during the season. I'd also make it more of a Draft Round Up card so while the #1 guy gets pictured on the front the back would be about how the team drafted the previous June (so like listing the top ten rounds of picks or something like that)