JUMPING ROOKIES CARDS

 

                       Rookie Cards are somewhat the majority of collectors collecting these days. What made me talk about this subject about jumping Rookie Cards was hearing about the passing of this guy shown here underneath. 

                           You see back in 1981 the Baseball world was captured before the strike in Fernandomania. Prior to Topps going full-speed with a Year end Traded set (Yes I know they dabbled a little bit on the Traded sets in 1972,1974, & 1976) kids were opening packs of Topps and Fleer cards & to their amazement was a Fernando or in Fleers case Fernand. Rookie cards of a player who was making it big. Back in 1951 Bowman was first to do that with a pair phenoms of Mickey Mantle & Willie Mays neither had yet played a single game in the majors yet there were their Rookie Cards.

             1975 Topps issued Fred Lynn who later in the 1975 season won the Rookie of the Year & MVP awards. 

                         Fast forward there was a player toiling in the minors trying to make the Detroit Tigers as the photographer for Topps was taking photos passed on a phenom who later made a name with the Los Angeles Dodgers cause he didn't sign a Topps Contract. Fleer again jumped the gun to create the 1963 Fleer RC of Maury Wills later Topps added Wills in 1967 as his first card (Yes I am also familiar with the 1960 Topps World Series card in which Wills is shown but uncredited on it)  

                  Well we now jump to 1983 Fleer again jumps the gun in getting the South-Side Slugger yet was cold-hearted on many Beckett Magazine early issues after his 1983 season I am talking about the 1 & only Ron Kittle (Again Topps was late in getting him but included him with the Traded set). Kittle is 1 card that I believe should be the sportsman for hot 1 year & then turn Anartician Frigid the next most flippers in the trade must take homage to Kittle in my opinon cause everyone talks about the hottest rookie must have etc then if the player becomes like well what Ron endured these so-called collectors don't want anything to associate with owning a card like that. Now case in point Wander Franco is the newest version of the Ron Kittle saga all everyone wanted in 2021 Franco this........Franco that.......anyone got any of his cards comes the voices of the hobby. Then he falls from the scene cause of the Young Child case I understand its a crime but c'mon this is why I am against Grading cards of as soon as they are released as well collectors jumping too soon on these phenom players I still stand in wishing all the graded companies would just wait until 2 years of a release so you can see if the player is a stud or a dud before grading it. I know I'll hear alot of your comments on saying Grading shouldn't matter well.....it does. 

                       Anyways now in 1985 Topps jumped the RCs with these next 3 players pictured Belcher didn't get noticed until 1988 another 3 years after this card was made. Shawn Abner I can still remember watching NBC's Game of The Week Pregame show when they announced the New York Mets with the 1st overall pick selected Shawn Abner.  We didn't see Abner again until 1988 (Fleer,Donruss,Score, & YES!!! even Sportflics made a card of Shawn that year)  like Belcher however Abner was featured with the San Diego Padres. If you think about it opening a pack of 1985 Topps your a Mets fan wonder who is this guy & Topps didn't create another Abner card until 1990. Now we come to the 1985 Topps Subset that starts at #389 & runs to #404 & who's the RC that is featured in it well 2 years later we all would hear the name of Mark McGwire (Yes I know theres others like Cory Snyder,Oddibe McDowell that were in the same area of having their RCs in the set but Mark was the poster child of the 1984 Olympic Team).

Now its 1986 Donruss as well Fleer were jumping the guns with Canseco RCs making them the hottest RCs before the Update sets were released. Are you convinced yet if not keep reading.

                    1 year later we see Donruss jump the gun with Greg Maddux  (Again Topps & Fleer included him in their Traded/Update set respectively) 1988 Fleer,Score,Donruss did a Gregg Jefferies jump much after seeing him hit .500 in his short time in the 1987 season (He played 6 games).

                   By 1989 everyone included this phenom in their sets with Topps waiting until the update to feature him. By the turn of 2001 Ichiro was issued by then we all learned that Jumping the RCs were a normal. So anyways I leave my readers to see if I have forgotten anyone if so let me know in the comments below. Until then I remind you of the quote of the Rogers Hornsby talking about signing autographs for little kids. "Any Ballplayer who doesn't sign autographs for little kids ain't an American, he's a Communist."