It was the summer of 1989, I was in my pre-teen years and full bore in love with all things baseball. Playing organized baseball, playing pickup baseball, wiffle ball home run derby, and of course buying and trading baseball cards. Nerd alert. The most coveted (and most expensive for someone my age) card that summer was the 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card. None of my friends had one, but we were all chasing one. Saving up money from cutting grass and doing other summer jobs just to buy a pack of Upper Deck cards. Ripping packs in hopes of finding a Griffey rookie, but alas all for naught.
Fast forward to the late 20-teens and my parents started ferrying from my childhood home to my current home the remains of my baseball card collection as well as what my dad had collected / stockpiled decades prior. So many good memories of going to card shops and shows with my dad and friends, a much simpler time.
Fast forward, again, to the summer of 2020, the first “Covid Summer”, and like others looking for ways to pass the time while cooped up at home I started to spend spare evenings digging into and starting to re-sort my old card collection. Like many others of my generation in similar states, we found solace and joy in what was once a pre-teen affliction that now was a pandemic salve. Card prices soared and what was once junk value cardboard was now valuable again.
Fast forward, yes again, to this year and I decided for my birthday earlier this week that I was going to dig into my storage totes to “find some old school baseball cards to rip.” Luck turns out that I had, or more likely my dad had stockpiled decades prior, a lightly scotch-taped box of 1989 Upper Deck baseball cards. I knew immediately THAT BOX was calling to me and was how I was going to spend my birthday evening once the kids were in bed (with Crystal out of town for work). What follows was the rough arc pack-by-pack of my evening ripping through 36 packs; come along with me for a stroll down a nerdy, cardboard-based, memory lane.
Pack 1 – McLemore, Pecota
The first pack starts out interesting with future Baltimore Orioles “supersub” Mark McLemore from his earlier years with the, then, California Angels. I remember Mark’s short stint with the Orioles as an all-around, can-play-anywhere sort of a utility man ballplayer. Bill Pecota on the other hand is more well-known for the fantasy baseball statistic named after him, PECOTA.
Pack 3 – Gregg, McGwire
Another Star Rookie in this set, Gregg Jefferies, was also a very popular card to collect around this time but it was his 1988 Donruss rookie that was more sought after than this 1989 Upper Deck card. Pair that with one half of the Bash Brothers, Mark McGwire, who back then was popular for his youth and power while setting the rookie home run record but wasn’t until years later in 1998 when he and Sammy Sosa (and Ken Griffey Jr. as well) lit baseball on fire with their single season home run record chase. Unfortunately his career is tainted by alleged and confirmed steroid use and even with his immense stats did not make the Hall of Fame.
Pack 3, Card 3 – Griffey
And then, just like that, with card 3 in pack 3 the ever elusive Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card appeared. Something I had chased as a pre-teen, but never managed to find was there in my hand. If there was only one thing I could have changed about the moment was if my dad was there with me (and not back at his home in Pennsylvania) to share in the giant smile, quite chuckle, and general elation and glee at finally pulling the Griffey rookie.
I debated stopping there and looking to sell the rest of the packs individually as they tend to go for decent money on eBay and could probably have earned enough money to cover funds to get the Griffey card graded (and then some). But I figured it was still early, I had nothing else planned, and there were still 31 other packs staring back up at me. The pre-teen Jeff would have been proud, and the Jeff of about an hour later would have been thankful as well (that’s called foreshadowing folks, so stick around ;).
Pack 5 – Randy x2, Orel
Pack 5 brought with it some serious pitching ability with Orel Hershiser, who might be one of the most decorated pitchers not (yet) to be in the Hall of Fame, and then TWO Randy Johnson rookie cards (love that pale blue Expos jersey). The Randy cards are nice in that they fetch pretty decent money both raw and graded, so these might be good to sell as-is or get graded in hopes of PSA 9 or 10 to see for even better money. I wasn’t chasing the Johnson star rookie, but it was nice to find and even better to find two of them to add to my tally of Hall of Famer cards.
Pack 6 – Jim Pankovits
I don’t recall Jim Pankovits‘ playing career which makes sense as he spent it mostly with the Astros, but it turns out he also has a baseball player analysis system named after him, PANKOVITS. However, what struck me when finding him in pack 6 was really the photo selection for this card. It would seem that the photographer and someone at Upper Deck must have had beef with Jim as this is a pretty unflattering photo. Still, he has a baseball player ranking system named after him and I don’t (and you probably don’t either).
Pack 9 – Harold, Eck, Raf, Eddie, McGwire
Another pack of stars from my youth, plus a bonus Orioles legend and personal favorite; pack 9 was another solid pack, maybe it’s a hot box with all sorts of hits?! Harold Reynolds, who spent most of his time with the Seattle Mariners might be just as well known as a baseball broadcaster, but also had a short stint with the Orioles. Dennis Eckersley and his mustache racked up tons of save, heavily with the Oakland A’s but with a scattering of teams during his Hall of Fame career. Rafael Palmeiro was a prominent consistent and power hitter who spent many years with the Orioles, but who’s legacy is tainted by steroid allegation and positive test usage. Eddie Murray may have spent the back part of his career with various teams, but spent the first half with the Orioles and was my favorite player as a kid (and still is to this day). So many games spent watching from the upper deck and chanting “ED-DIE, ED-DIE” waiting for him to hit another homer run on his way to a Hall of Fame career; there are a plethora of others with stories just like this with other teams and players, just one of the joys growing up a baseball fan. Oh, and then another Mark McGwire card, sweet.
Pack 12 – Rock, McGwire, Big Cat
Tim “Rock” Raines was an amazing leadoff batter who scored a ton of runs and stole a lot of bases on his way to the Hall of Fame, mostly with the Montreal Expos but also had a single season with the Orioles (perhaps a common theme here for cards I pulled and am sharing here all spent some time with the O’s). No complaints next, another McGwire card. Andrés “the Big Cat” Galarraga (“El Gato”) played for a smattering of teams but was a giant human (at least for those days) and had amazing reflexes as a first baseman given his size; thus El Gato.
Pack 14 – Randy, Boggs
Another pack, another Randy Johnson rookie, no complaints here. Pair that with a Wade Boggs who spent the majority of his career with the Red Sox and some shameful time with the New York Yankees, never took it on his division rival Baltimore Orioles. Boggs was also a super superstitious player, eating chicken before every game which means over the course of his career he had chicken no less than 2,439 times over the course of his 18 year career which works out to 135 times a year or about every third day. That’s enough to make the Chicken Eater Hall of Fame let alone the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Pack 17 – Orel, TJ, Kirby, Donnie Baseball
Another Orel Hershisher followed by another player best known for something besides their playing career, Tommy John, and his famous ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in his elbow and the surgery to replace it by Dr. Frank Jobe. The surgery is so common now and is often referred to as Tommy John surgery or simply “TJ.” It turns out John was actually quite the pitcher racking up 288 wins which is the second most by a pitcher since 1900 who’s not in the Hall of Fame. Kirby Puckett was one of those players that even if you weren’t a Twins fan you had to like him for his general upbeat demeanor, charisma, and passion for playing baseball (and was least of the reasons he made the Hall of Fame). Don Mattingly, more lovingly known as “Donnie Baseball”, played his entire career with the damn Yankees but was a player I had a hard time disliking as a kid though unfortunately for him my lack of disdain did nothing to help him make the Hall of Fame (or win a World Series) but has had his number retired by the Yankees.
Pack 18 – Griffey, Randy, Darryl, Boggs
Another Griffey rookie, you’ve got to be kidding me, at this point I have a perma-smile and cannot believe my fortunate to have now pulled TWO of the same card that I’ve chased since childhood. You probably could have dropped an anvil on my foot and I would have apologized for getting in the way. True joy. Add to that another Randy rookie, another Boggs, and a Darryl Strawberry team checklist card for the New York Mets. Darryl may have struggled with substance abuse throughout his career, but he was an unbelievably imposing figure in the batting box and slugged innumerable home runs from the left side of the plate leading both the New York Mets and Yankees (twice) to World Series victories.
Pack 20 – Donnie, Randy, Devereaux
Another Donnie Baseball and Randy rookie, again no complaints here. Mike Devereaux had decent power during his stint with the Orioles (two stints actually) and played the most games with the Orioles and are in the team’s Hall of Fame though did win a World Series while with the Atlanta Braves and is second in career home runs by a player born in Wyoming (only John Buck has more).
Pack 21 – Gregg, Grace, Griffey, Von Hayes
Pack 21 started off just fine with another Gregg Jefferies and Chicago Cubs legend Mark Grace. Grace and I share a fondness for the 17 jersey number, though he won a World Series while with the Arizona Diamondbacks beating the New York Yankees so should we ever meet I’m sure he’d hold that over my head. From there my heart skipped when I came across the THIRD of the Griffey rookie cards from this box of 1989 Upper Deck baseball cards. Had this happened to me as a child, setting aside how I came across an entire box of cards all to myself, I would have been insufferable and talked about it incessantly to anyone who would listen (and probably more who would rather not). And I’d probably still be talking about it to this day. The pack wrapped up with Von Hayes who bears a striking resemblance to a dear friend of mine, but otherwise was not a player I was generally aware of growing up.
Pack 25 – Donnie, McGwire, Canseco
Another Donnie Baseball and Mark McGwire made this a fun pack, but toss in a Jose Canseco to pair with McGwire for a proper Bash Brothers pack made this an even cooler pack to rip. Everyone I knew growing up that played baseball would do the Bash Brothers “high forearm” after home runs or other big plays, we grew up mimicking the fun and joy that Mark and Jose brought to the game. Canseco might be one of the most decorated players (462 home runs, Rookie of the Year, 6x All Star, MVP, 2x World Series winner) to not make the Hall of Fame, but given his documented use of performance-enhancing drugs certainly kept him out of the Hall (and likely ensnared others and kept them out as well, see McGwire, Palmeiro from this post alone).
Pack 27 – Luis, Viola, Donnie, Canseco, Boggs
Luis De Los Santos had a mostly journeyman career including stints in Japan, Mexico, Korea, and Taiwan (where he won a Taiwan Series), but also had a partial season with the the Baltimore Orioles’ Triple-A affiliate, the Rochester Red Wings. Frank Viola may not have made it to the Hall of Fame, but he did win a Cy Young in 1988 (which is celebrated on the back of this card) and was World Series MVP so that alone means he probably eats for free anywhere around Minnesota (where he primarily starred for the Twins). Another Donnie Baseball and Wade Boggs and the “normal” Jose Canseco card (the former was his AL MVP card).
Pack 29 – McGwire x2, Schmidt
Another pack with a Mark McGwire, strike that TWO McGwire’s and a Michael Jack Schmidt card. More commonly known as Mike Schmidt, he for some reason sticks in my head as “Michael Jack Schmidt” almost certainly from watching Phillies games with my dad’s parents when visiting them during the baseball season and likely hearing the TV announcer refer to him that way. Schmidt was a gritty third baseman who won 3x MVP’s, a World Series MVP, 12x All Star, and several other awards during his power hitting and defensive abilities-based career that saw him easily get elected to the Hall of Fame in his first year on the ballot.
Pack 33 – Aase, Glenn, Donnie, Randy
Don Aase played for a handful of teams but had one wonderful season with the Orioles in 1986 where he set the team record at the time for 34 saves, made the All Star team and closed out the game. In a silver lining stat, his 34 saves were also at the time the record for a member of a last place team. Welcome to being a lifelong suffering fan of the Baltimore Orioles, these are the things we celebrate. Womp womp. Glenn “Glass Jaw” Davis started his career showing serious power while with the Houston Astros and was traded to the Orioles after the 1990 season for Steve Finley, Pete Harnisch and Curt Schilling (this guy ended up amounting to a pretty decent pitcher) and then signed a then club record $3.275 million, one-year contract. Orioles fans had a lot of excitement for Davis going into the 1991 season. We should have known better. Suffering a spinal accessory nerve injury during spring training he barely played that season. 1992 wasn’t much else to be excited about and then in 1993 he broke his jaw in a bar fight and was hit in the head by a line drive while in the dugout. The Baseball Gods™ clearly did not want Glenn Davis to have a positively memorable career with the Orioles. From there things got better pulling another Donnie Baseball and Randy rookie.
Pack 36 – Randy, Griffey, Eck, Boggs, Donnie
The final pack in the box, pack number 36, had things come down to an amazing finish. Randy “Moose” Milligan spent his career with a handful of teams but mostly with the Orioles and is one of the few cards I have from my childhood that were hand-signed in-person. Another Eck, Boggs, and Donnie Baseball group of cards and then a final, FOURTH, Griffey rookie. An absolutely insane box of cards to open. The pre-teen Jeff could never, NEVER, have imagined this sort of fortune and luck nor ever expected to own four Griffey rookie cards. I probably could have asked for a kings ransom in trade had I merely tried to trade one of these as a kid, let alone four of them.
I suppose I’ll likely try and grade all four of the Griffey cards and keep the best, my guess is perhaps one is a PSA 9 with the others more likely PSA 5s-7s. The Randy rookies may also be worth grading given their current market prices of ~$100 for a PSA 10 though I’ll likely be more stringent with those as anything less than a PSA 10 will cost more to grade than I’d make selling it which almost certainly means I’ll just list for sale raw, as-is.
The visual summary of my haul from a box of 1989 Upper Deck baseball cards; 4 Griffey rookies, 6 Randy rookies, 6 McGwire’s, and one lovely Eddie Murray card. I could not have scripted a more enjoyable way to spend my birthday in a way that brings childhood wonder and joy to a (mumble mumble) 40+ year old. Happy birthday to me indeed.
Postscript: One thing I noticed while opening the 36 packs, besides the enjoyable foil wrappers that partly fell apart, partly tore open much nicer than typical “wax packs” of that era, was the Mickey Mantle Card Contest that was advertised on the pack front and back. Allegedly if you sent in a postcard with an accurate guess of the 1989 All Star game you had a chance to win a 1952 Mickey Mantle card “worth thousands of dollars” which, by the way, if that’s a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card is now worth over $6.6 million dollars. I did a brief search online to see if I can learn more about this drawing and who won, but came up blank. This is a pretty intriguing story and I’d like to know if someone did win the contest, which given the 5-3 final score seems like an entirely likely guess someone would have made. I’d love to know which Mantle card they won and what happened to it since then. If you have details about this contest, the winner, and the fate of that card please let me know; otherwise I’ll try and see if there’s a way to track down more about this story. I suspect I’d easily trade these four Griffey rookies for winning a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle back in 1989. Though if you think I would have been insufferable talking about ripping 4 Griffey rookies there’s probably no extent to the size of my ego had I won a Mantle card back then.
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