The Most Important Baseball Card since 1981: 1989 Ken Griffey Jr. Upper Deck #1

1989 Ken Griffey Jr. - Upper Deck - #1

For anyone who has avidly collected baseball cards at some point since the 1980s, the Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card stands out as a staple of the card industry. To me, it is my generation's 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle. For obvious reasons, this card will never remotely approach the value of a 1952 Mantle. But as a child at the age of 11 in 1989, most of my friends and classmates greatly desired this card. If you owned this card, you were cool. If not, you needed to get with the program.

To me, I resisted the urge to own this card. In the late 1980s-early 1990s, I scaled back on buying baseball cards other than the occasional baseball pack. Instead, I was more focused on basketball (Hoops and Fleer) and football (almost all of the brands) cards and even hockey (Pro Set) cards. It seemed everyone and their brother was after baseball cards and Upper Deck was driving a huge part of that demand with its premium brand. In 1989, Upper Deck's pack price of 99 cents was way too rich for me.

In October 2014, I finally broke down after deliberating over the summer that if I saw a smoking hot deal on the Griffey Jr. rookie card, I would buy it. At a card show, a dealer was selling an entire 1989 Upper Deck set for $25. Having not seen that set for any less than $50 at any card show or shop that I can recall, I thought to myself, "Sure, why not?". As soon as I bought the set, the dealer chuckled and told me that he had just paid $20 for the set and turned a $5 profit. I laughed and told him that if he could replicate that another 1000x, he'd make a few grand. So we both got a charge out of that.

Scanning over the Griffey Jr. card itself, I always have had a strong appreciation for the Upper Deck design in 1989 (as well as the 1990, 1991 and 1992 designs). The 1989 set rises above the other sets though because the green stripe looks like the baseline to first base and I always thought that was a cool touch. The reverse of the card is far more colorful than anything any other card company was putting out including Score (which had started using full color pictures on its reverse side in 1988). Prior to 1989, I almost exclusively purchased packs of Topps and Donruss.

Overall, there is much out there on the Internet regarding the history of this card as well as choosing and securing Ken Griffey Jr. as the #1 card in this set. There is even ample information out there to suggest that this card is more readily available than any other card in the set since Upper Deck let the presses roll a little more for this card specifically. Regardless, this card fueled a craze in this hobby that I recall with distinction. A lot of kids my age emulated themselves after Ken Griffey Jr., or wore his trademark #24 when playing sports, and the virtually anonymous Seattle Mariners brand suddenly gained a whole lot more prominence with his arrival. It was cool to have a cap with that gold S. 25 years later, I finally agree.