When Subsets Were Cool!

There are many differences between collecting baseball cards today and collecting before the mid 1990’s.  For one, as a kid, it was more about the thrill of getting a picture of your favorite player on a piece of cardboard.  Now, it’s easy to get lost in all of the subsets, inserts, numbered variations, autographs, relics, patches and rainbow variations.  The list is much longer than that but we don’t have the time or space to list them all.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s still fun and your chances of pulling something valuable is much greater.  Of course, you are going to spend more money too in search of that value.  The chase for those inserted gems has taken away from the base cards and basic subsets that are still a big part of the baseball card set.

In my opinion, to get to the essence of collecting, you have to go back to when times were simpler.  While you had virtually zero odds of pulling an autographed card, except in some select sets (still astronomically low numbers) and there was no such thing as a relic or patch card, there were some really cool subset cards that could excite you as a collector.  In 1991, Donruss changed the game with the non-autographed insert card that was sequentially numbered with the Elite Series.  I saw one pulled when I was a kid and I nabbed one as an adult.  But before all of that, there was the basic subset that was different from the base card and it consisted of the best players in the game.  So let’s take a trip back to a time before numbered cards and autographs and take a look at some of the coolest subset cards that made opening those older packs fun.1989 Donruss MVP – I’ve said this before but it bears repeating.  1989 Donruss is my favorite set of all time.  The timing of my entry into the hobby, combined with the colorful set and its availability locally made it my go to for years.  I still will pick up a box when I see it in a shop just to see if I can add another Griffey or Sheffield rookie to my collection.  Another thing that Donruss did well was the MVP subset in 1989.  It continued with the colorful theme of the set and provided a close up shot of the best player from all 26 teams in Major League Baseball.  That’s right young bucks; there were only 26 teams in the majors in 1989.  The subset featured such legends as Kirby Puckett, Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn.  The design was a very nice deviation from the 1988 MVP inserts.  Truly a classic subset for a classic card set!Donruss Diamond Kings/Gallery of Stars – These cards sort of bleed together as they are very similar.  Donruss produced the Diamond Kings for the base Donruss set and the Gallery of Stars for the Triple Play edition.  I never really liked Triple Play but I did enjoy the Gallery of Stars inserts.  These two subsets were colorful artist’s renditions of popular players of the era.  Some of my favorites were Ken Griffey Jr., Frank Thomas, David Justice, Bo Jackson and Fred McGriff.  Let’s be honest, I liked most of them except for the occasional Willie Randolph or Ed Whitson.  When I am done with my massive 1991 Topps quest, I think I might try to put the entire Diamond King set together.  When I say put it together, I mean through boxes and packs.  Buying the set as a whole is for people who take shortcuts.1989 Topps All Stars – There wasn’t much that got me excited for Topps in the late 80’s.  As I have shared before, Topps has just never really done it for me outside of 1990.  But one thing I did like about Topps in both ’88 and ’89 was the All Star subsets.  Again, I was a sucker for colorful and these cards were just that.  They had a solid color background and the classic Topps ’88 and ’89 script that said All Star at the top.  It should go without saying but this subset included the previous year’s all-star selections.  Colorful cards depicting All-Star players are always winners in my book.Topps Future Stars – While Topps began using the Future Star subset in 1980, the design used in 1987 and 1988 are iconic.  Bo Jackson helped that become a sought after insert in ’87.  Recent Topps products have brought back the swooshing rainbow star logo and it has been a welcome return.  Topps altered it over the years and even moved away from it during a period of time but this particular logo is the one that I was crazy for.  Never mind that Topps swung and missed on their “Future Stars” more than Rob Deer did curveballs.  Card companies have never been excellent prognosticators.  Just ask the Donruss Rated Rookie department.  The design is what I liked and they hit it out of the park with Jackson.  That remains one of my favorite cards to this day.  The interesting tidbit about the card featured here is that it’s not really Al Leiter.  This was the error version that showed someone who looked eerily similar to Leiter.  It was actually a minor league pitcher named Steve George.1991 Score All-Star – I am about to go on a streak with 1991 Score.  The fact is that they had several sweet subsets in 1991.  Some of them were repeated from ’90 and some were replicated in the years to follow but ’91 is where it’s at for me.  We’ll start with the All-Star subset.  These were cartoon looking drawings with big heads but were very well done and showed the subject player in some action shot that either showed their defensive prowess or power.  There isn’t much to add verbally to this subset as I’ve exhausted the definition of an all-star subset so I’ll let the photo of Barry Larkin do the rest of the explaining for this one.1991 Score Dream Team – This is probably my favorite subset of all time.  This was a very clean and classy photo and design of black and white photos with only “Dream Team” and the players name in color.  While this was my favorite subset, I must admit that the particular cards of Kirby Puckett and Jose Canseco shirtless made me uncomfortable to say the least.  And I won’t even discuss the Rickey Henderson in only sliding shorts card.  Frank Viola went safe with the turtleneck and Will Clark even wore a suit.  Football did a Dream Team subset as well but it didn’t have that same classy feel to me and I collected football as much as baseball.  Though not a big name, the Doug Jones card was really cool with him holding a baseball that was aflame.  This was a great subset!1991 Score “The Franchise” – Another classy looking subset in ’91 Score.  This utilized a black and white picture as well but provided a color background that made the card design pop.  The subset featured 20 franchise players so you were all but guaranteed to pull a star in this subset, with the exception of Todd Zeile.  Nothing against Zeile but he didn’t really belong in a subset with Cal, Clemens, Brett, Yount, Henderson and Sandberg.  Score may have pumped out 893 cards that year but this 20 card subset was a gem.1991 Score K-Man/Rifleman/Master Blasters – This 30 card subset featured three types of specialists.  The K-Man was for the strikeout masters like Nolan Ryan, Roger Clemens and Doc Gooden.  The Rifleman included the guys with big arms like Sandy Alomar Jr., Bo Jackson and Eric Davis.  The Master Blasters was reserved for the big bats like Jose Canseco, Darryl Strawberry and Cecil Fielder.  Bo Jackson was the only player to get recognized as both a Rifleman and Master Blaster.  The K-Man featured blue laser beams while the Rifleman was green and Master Blaster was red.  They had a real 1991 feel and were always a welcome sight when I was ripping through a pack.  With an 893 card set, there were a lot of Scott Sanderson’s, Kevin Tapani’s and Shawn Boskie’s to be had.  Give me one of the subsets any day.1991 and ‘92 Fleer Pro Vision – In 1991, Fleer introduced the Pro-Vision set, a collection of artist renderings that included 9 players.  The players were all superstars and included Jose Canseco with lighting coming out of his bat, Will Clark shattering a bat, Kirby Puckett just smiling, Doc Gooden throwing a fireball, Bo Jackson with a terminator like arm, Roger Clemens holding a comet, Don Mattingly standing in front of a pin striped background, Mark McGwire posing in front of the American Flag and Eric Davis in space.  The 1992 edition was a smaller subset that featured only 6 players.  The checklist included Robin Yount, Ken Griffey Jr., Nolan Ryan, Cal Ripken Jr., Frank Thomas and David Justice in similar designs as ‘91.  While these were artist renderings, unlike the All-Star subset, they weren’t very cartoony and disproportionately sized players.  These were cool drawings that showed the players as superhuman athletes.  They continue the Pro-Vision subset for a few years but really went off the rails by 1994.  The basketball and football had similar subsets that were just as good.1992 Fleer Ultra All-Stars – This subset of All-Star players was a very good looking set.  Fleer Ultra brought a new level of baseball card in 1992, much like Upper Deck in ’89 and Stadium Club in ’91.  The All-Star cards had a black marble look with a clean action photo of the subject player.  While Ultra had gone away from card borders, the All-Star subset provided something unique with the marble border.  These were the first cards that I held in my hand and thought, “I’d better take care of this because this is a NICE card.”  They had a high society feel to them that still hold up today.  Fleer Ultra was a very good set in the early days and the All-Star subset was icing on the cake.

The next time you are opening a pack of 2016 baseball cards and you have to start searching the card for some unique marking or discoloration that makes it unique or rare, think about when subsets were clear and distinct deviations from the base set.  These subsets are not as valuable as the 1 of 1 you might pull now but they should hold some relative value to you depending on when you started collecting and the players you sought out.  I enjoyed each of these subsets and they are part of what made collecting a lifelong hobby for me.  No matter how advanced we get with technology and innovations in the card industry, we have to remember and revisit what brought us to the hobby to begin with.  What subsets have you really enjoyed over the years?  I’m sure I’ve missed some really good ones but these are some that I still hold in my “old” boxes.

J-Dub