Friday Five: My Top 5 Oakland Athletics

Yesterday, I watched the end of the Oakland A's game. It was their last home game in Oakland.

The Moneyball music hits different on this one. 💚🥺 pic.twitter.com/ucOBSBgH78

— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) September 26, 2024

I don't want to get too bogged down in the backstory of what has happened to the A's during the past year, so I will let this Jeff Passan tweet do the talking.....

The Oakland A’s were killed by greed. Do not allow the people responsible for this to spin it any other way. John Fisher did not have to move this team. Major League Baseball and its owners did not need to be complicit in it. This was a choice. A wrong one. History will sneer.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) September 26, 2024

As a St. Louis native, I know the disappointment of seeing a professional sports franchise move away.  

I wanted to share my favorite 5 Oakland A's players for today's Friday Five post. 

Here is my list:

Honorable Mention: Tim Hudson 

One of my favorite non-Cardinal pitchers to watch of the past 20 years. I love the movie Moneyball, but if I had to change something about the movie, I would want more time spent on the Big 3, Mark Mulder, Barry Zito, and Tim Hudson. The three made the A's rotation far above-average and allowed them to tinker with the offense by focusing on on-base percentage. Without Hudson's quality pitching, the team would not have been a contender, yet he's barely mentioned in the film. The book gives more time to the pitchers, but still probably undersells Hudson, Mulder, and Zito too. Anyway, long-time favorite player who has a Hall of Fame argument too, but I will save that for another post.  

5. Stephen Vogt 

Before Stephen Vogt was the manager of the Cleveland Guardians, he was a fan-favorite with the Oakland A's. The catcher seemingly came out of nowhere to make back-to-back All Star Games for the American League roughly a decade ago. Before he seemingly came out of nowhere, he was actually on the Durham Bulls stuck behind Jose Molina and Jose Lobaton who were catching for the Rays. Vogt was also a fan-favorite in Durham. He was a player who did a little bit of everything on the field, while his personality made it easy to like. There have been several other Durham Bulls players who have made appearances with the Oakland A's over the years, but Vogt is easily my favorite.  

4. Jose Canseco

Jose Canseco is one of my favorite baseball villains/goofballs, but before he was blacklisted from the game for ratting out all sorts of steroid users, he was a really great baseball player. We now have a 50-50 player, along with half a dozen players who have gone 40-40 in a season, but I remember when Canseco first accomplished the feat back when I was in elementary school. He was the best of the power-speed players from the late 1980s. Throw in some tape measure home runs and a hilarious Twitter account and Jose has cracked my top 5 Oakland A's players......

3. Gene Tenace 

I have learned a lot about various baseball players through my years of collecting with Tenace being at the top of the list. When I first ran into Gene Tenace, I was a little kid collecting baseball cards and he was the back-up catcher on the early 1980s Cardinals teams. Years later, I would learn about Tenace's run as the Oakland A's catcher during the early 1970s helping the team win three World Series titles. In fact, Tenace was the World Series MVP in the 1972 Fall Classic against the Reds. I love myself some Gene Tenace baseball cards and have a deep appreciation for his contributions to the A's 1970s dynasty.  

2. Mark McGwire 

I liked Mark McGwire while he was on the A's, he's not just here because he was on the Cardinals for a few years. Such a fun player to watch, who doesn't like long home runs? I will let a video clip do the talking for Big Mac.  

1. Rickey Henderson 

I am going to give you a story about one of my Rickey Henderson rookie cards rather than talk about Rickey Henderson the player. Rickey would be a little sad, but I am hoping my readers will be entertained.  As a kid, I used to love stolen bases, mainly because of Vince Coleman and Willie McGee, but Rickey Henderson was cool too. Anyway, my parents have some people over to our house for dinner. I cannot remember the reason why exactly, but the people had kids who had baseball cards in their car. It was 1985 and my best card was a Dwight Gooden rookie card. This particular evening, I am hell-bent on trading my Dwight Gooden rookie card, which my older brother thought was a terrible idea. At the time, he was right. Forty years later, I was right. The best card I could get in return for my Dwight Gooden rookie card was a Rickey Henderson rookie card. I like Rickey, I made the trade and still have the card to this day.  

Rickey was the greatest Oakland A's player. 

Set Project: 1983-1990 Topps Glossy Send Ins

If you opened packs of Topps cards during the 1980s, you probably remember the contest cards that used to pop up every couple of packs.  They usually involved winning a trip to the All-Star game or Spring Training.  I think in the later 1980s Topps also offered collectors the chance to buy sweatshirts, or a chance to subscribe to Topps Magazine.  Cannot believe I passed up those opportunities.

I actually did save up my contest cards though, and at some point towards the end of each summer, I could usually convince my parents to get a money order to send in for a sweet stack of 10 glossy cards.  I actually think based on the number of cards in my collection, plus the fact that I probably split the cards my brother, I likely got a $4 dollar money order.

In retrospect as an adult, the fact that the money order probably cost $1 to buy, I am surprised my parents just didn't take me and my brother to the card shop to just buy the set of glossy send in cards. 

Four to six weeks later in the mail, we would have a stack of the glossy send-in cards.  They were really the same card design every year with a different colored border.  Still pretty exciting for the time when there were not many choices of sets to collect in the baseball card world.   

I have a few from 1983, but there are too many that are in too good of condition for them to be something that I actually got that year.  Plus, that was the first year I collected.  The first year where I actually have a somewhat significant amount of the glossy mail-ins cards is from 1984.  

Again, same design every year.  

I know that some of these cards that are in my collection have been with me since 1984.  They have rounded corners, or for some reason, the fronts of the cards are different colors than the backs of the cards.  A little weird considering my house was definitely smoke free.....

and I kept my cards in boxes and pages.  You can see the edges of this Quisenberry cards are a little bit yellowed, as is the Carew card above, especially when compared to the back of the card.  I'm actually guessing that I probably put these cards in sheets at some point.  I recall having a notebook for my cards later elementary school years that were filled with the best cards in my collection.  

In other words, my glossy mail-ins and Vince Coleman rookie cards.  

Other copies of these cards in my collection have clean white borders and no rounded edges.  Likely because I bought them as an older collector.  

The Raines card above is not well centered, but is a much better card than the Quisenberry.  There used to be a card shop in south St. Louis County off of Telegraph Road where I actually think I ended up with a lot of these cards.  The guy who owned the store had a lot of sets like these and the cards usually ended up in dime and quarter boxes.

Surprisingly, I have large amounts of most of these sets, but none of them are complete.  Of the sets that I have, I am actually missing a lot of the Cardinals out of the them.  Maybe they were not in the dime and quarter boxes at that store, or some other reason that I cannot think of at the moment.  

I am not going to post the checklists of all the Glossy Mail-In sets, but I will break down each of them and give a percentage that I am starting out at.  Some are going to be easy to finish, perhaps a COMC order, others I am going to spend a little time digging around for the cards.  I have a few road trips coming up in the next few months, plus there are a few card shows around here.   

1983 - 31 out of 40 78%  

1984 - 28 out of 40 70% 

There are several 1984 cards that I will likely replace since my only copies were clearly from my actually collection in 1984.  The seven year old me was not good with corners.  Really lower than 70%

1985- 35 out of 40 88%

These are all pristine, not sure I actually ordered any as a kid in 1985.  Maybe my brother ended up with all of them.  

1986- 42 out of 60 70%

1987-  22 out of 60 37%

1988- 42 out of 60 70%

1989- 58 out of 60 97%

1990- 55 out of 60 92% 

The percentages are all pretty high starting points, outside of the 1987 set, but I still need almost 100 cards, roughly, when taking into account all the different years that I am trying to assemble here.  I am going to say that this is going to take until February.  I will be shocked if I finish it sooner.  

I am going to tack a few other set projects onto this before the end of the year.  

I Love The 1990s Cardinals Part 38 - Ozzie Canseco

The player born on July 2nd with the most home runs?  Most RBIs?  Most WAR?  Most hits?  All of the answers to this question are the same.  They are all former Oakland A's outfielder Jose Canseco.   Obviously not a Cardinal.....

at any point during his career, but the Cardinals did sign Jose's less successful, less expensive twin brother.  It was a true 1990s Cardinals move.  Jose Canseco would have cost a lot of money.  He was brash and over the top.  So, enter Ozzie Canseco.  What was Ozzie Canseco like?  I honestly have no idea, outside of the fact that he was on the Cardinals.  He also had baseball cards.

The whole Ozzie and Jose situation reminds me a lot of The Simpsons episode where Springfield hosts a film festival, Mr. Burns decides to enter a film to spruce moose up his image, but goes cheap and hires Senor Spielbergo instead of Steven Spielberg.

Jose was known for his combination of power and speed.  He hit long, loud home runs.  The one I best remember was his home run against the Blue Jays in the American League Championship Series against the Blue Jays.  

That highlight clip of Jose's features one more home run than Ozzie hit during his entire Major League career.  That's right, Ozzie had zero Major League home runs.  He also only had 65 at bats in the Majors over three season.  

If you collect baseball cards, you probably better remember Ozzie Canseco cards with the A's in the early 1990s.  They were pretty popular, pretty much just based on the fact that he was Jose's brother.  I am pretty sure that there were some pretty horrific trades back in the early 1990s based on collectors getting their hands on Ozzie Canseco cards.  

Maybe not that popular, but yes.....

So, how did Ozzie Canseco get on to the Cardinals?  Awhile ago, unfortunately I cannot find it, a fellow collector argued with me that Ozzie was a part of the Willie McGee trade in 1990.  Not really, that was Felix Jose.  Ozzie Canseco, Ozzie Smith, Jose Canseco, Felix Jose, it's all confusing.  Right time frame though.  The A's released Ozzie, not Jose, was released at the end of the 1990 season.  Ozzie Canseco, not Smith, spent 1991 in Japan, before he signed with the Cardinals in 1992.  That was a team with Ozzie Smith.  

Ozzie Canseco played a few games with the Cardinals in 1992, but spent most of the season in Triple A Louisville.  He played a total of 98 games that year in the Minors, he hit 22 home runs and drove in 57 runs.  He did not do much with the Cardinals that season.  1993 was similar for Ozzie, he spent most of his time in the Minors, did little with the Cardinals, and was traded to the Brewers at the end of the season.  

So, what 27 year old Triple A prospect gets a bunch of baseball cards?  Ozzie Canseco.  

He had a couple, I am going to look at three really quick. 

First up is his Donruss card.  What is going on with this card?  Not much, Ozzie is hitting, or maybe striking out?  You decide.  

Now, it's time for my favorite two Ozzie Canseco cards.  First, there is a 1993 Stadium Club card.  The Cardinals wore their batting practice jerseys in Spring Training games, so this is from some time during a practice game.  There is a slight resemblance to Todd Zeile in this picture.  

Todd Zeile probably played with his batting gloves while he was running the bases.  Todd Zeile was also not that buff.  Last one.  

I used to love getting the Cardinals giveaway set.  There were some really great cards in these sets.  The 1993 set, which this card comes out of, is probably my least favorite.  However, it's still a really nice looking set.  I like the view of the mullet on this card.  

That Didn't Last Long and A Set Update

I went into work at the end of last week and one of my students brought me a pack of 2018 Topps cards.  You know, the set that I am not collecting.  Hard to hand a pack of baseball cards back to an eleven year old and say, "Sorry, but I do not collect these".

I opened the pack of cards.....

First card of the year goes to Diamondbacks infielder Brandon Drury.  

First Cardinals card was Dexter Fowler.  I like the action shot.  

First former Durham Bulls player was Wil Myers.  

A few thoughts on the base cards.  First, the wave on the front of the card isn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to look.  I am still not rushing out to buy a bunch of packs, but definitely better in person than online.  I will still always refer to these cards as the "Aqua Fresh" set.  

The card backs are a huge letdown.  

For the second year in a row we've lost the player's stat line in favor of some box with the player's Twitter and Instagram handle?  If someone was going to follow C.C. Sabathia on social media, I am pretty certain that they don't need a baseball card to prompt them to do it.  He has an Old English Sheepdog (+1), but he named it after an NFL team (-1).  

I know I have advocated for sets being more kid friendly, social media connections are definitely more kid friendly, but as a young collector the stats on the back were helpful with matching up players who appeared old and washed up on television versus someone my dad and older brother told me was a good baseball card.  

Fergie Jenkins comes to mind.  

Old guy pitching for the Cubs.   

Hall of Famer.  

Two more quick items.  First, I never posted the best card I pulled out of the pack with the scans above.  I was rather surprised, in a good way.  

Would love to have seen a Cardinals Postseason card, but the players have had a hard time overcoming Mike Matheny lately.  Maybe next year.  

Last item.  I have also started working on the 1983 Topps inserts.  I have picked up 8 of the cards so far.  I won't repost the whole checklist, but I have 92 more cards to find.  

I like the idea of mixing vintage and modern players in the 1983 set.  I wish the retired players matched up a little bit better with the players who actually appeared/played around that time.  Of the retired players in this group of cards only Darryl Strawberry seems to fit.  

I understand that Topps has to make as many Derek Jeter cards as possible, but he did not play in 1983.  Same with Canseco.  Can't we sub out Canseco for Rickey Henderson?  Seems like a better choice for an A's outfielder from the early 1980s.  Maybe a Don Mattingly in place of Jeter?  

My Top 50 Players On Cardboard-#35 Jose Canseco

My Top 50 Players on Cardboard
#35
Jose Canseco

Before I get into my Canseco write up, I will preface my write up with this: I am not a fan of Jose Canseco.  In fact, he is my least favorite player on this list by far.  When I post material on my blog I always write my own articles and post pictures of cards in my collection.  This is one article where I sought some outside input on ranking fairness, not sounding too biased against Canseco, etc.

When I came up with the idea of this countdown and started making a list he naturally appeared on the initial planning list which consisted of more than 100 players who have appeared on a baseball card during my thirty years in the hobby.  Despite the fact that I am a little bit grossed out by Canseco, there can be little doubt for those involved in the hobby over the last 30 years that Canseco has had a huge impact both on and off the field.  Let's start out with a rookie card.

1986 Donruss Jose Canseco RC 

Canseco has several rookie cards that appear in 1986 releases.  The regular Topps base set from that year was lean in terms of any rookies, but he did appear in the regular Donruss and Fleer sets from that year.  Canseco would also make an appearance in the 1986 Topps Traded set.  The three rookie cards, Donruss, Fleer, and Topps Traded, are all kind of iconic 80s baseball cards.  The Donruss has always been my favorite.  I like the Rated Rookie sign in the corner, the yellow A's jersey, and the mullet and bad mustache.  There all pretty inexpensive, unless they grade high, and fairly easy to find.

Hobby Impact-
Canseco cards have always been extraordinarily popular with collectors.  It was kind of a mark against your collection in the late eighties/early nineties if you did not have a Canseco rookie somewhere.  The beginning of his career in Oakland was phenomenal and his popularity in the hobby swelled when a reached the 40/40 milestone and also helped the A's become one of the dominate forces of baseball in the late 80s.  He was later traded to the Rangers and Red Sox, back to A's, throw in sometime in Toronto, Yankees, White Sox, Angels, and maybe a try-out with the Expos during spring training.  Through it all, Canseco maintained a core of collectors who were loyal to his cards.

It always surprises me how popular his cards have stayed throughout the years.  In many ways he was one of the villains (or a hero-depends on your perspective) of the steroid era, but unlike other players caught up in the mix, Canseco's cards have remained popular and valuable.  He has a few relics floating around and a few autographs too.  One of the biggest downfalls of Canseco relics and autographs has always been the fact that many of these cards are from the end of Canseco's career.  That means you aren't getting Canseco as an A's player, how most remember him, but rather a Devil Ray or White Sox.

2000 UD Ionix Authentics Jose Canseco Autograph 

The autographs easily sell for $20 and short-printed, low serial number autographs can often drift towards $50 or higher.  Find an autograph of Canseco in an A's uniform and you will pay a premium on those prices: base autograph will be closer to 30 and serial numbered low will be north of 50 no problem.  For many Canseco fans, these cards are nice to add to their collection, but many just like the cards from his days in Oakland.  It doesn't matter whether it was his first stop, or second stop, nothing beats seeing Canseco in the green and gold.

On The Field Impact-
Sometimes I forget how good Canseco was his first few years in the game.  He won the 1986 American League Rookie of the Year, the 1988 American League MVP, the first player in MLB history to record a 40 steal/40 home run season, and was a World Champion on the 1989 Oakland A's. Really, it would be easy to make a huge list from Canseco's first few seasons in the Majors.  Canseco's numbers slid slightly his last two or three years in Oakland and I remember being really surprised when he was traded from the A's to the Rangers at the end of the 1992 season.

Just strictly looking at his home runs and other surface stats the level of Canseco's fall is not totally clear, but his oWAR went from 6.1 in 1991 to 1.9 in 1992.  Mix in that his OPS+ had fallen from a high of 170 all the way down to 128.  Canseco was definitely an above average offensive player after leaving Oakland, but he was pretty much a DH most of the rest of his career, and his real value was hitting home runs.  His end of career high notes were hitting 46 home runs for the Blue Jays in 1998 and following that up with a season of 34 for the Devil Rays in 1999.  Canseco also picked up a World Series ring in 2000 with the Yankees.

Canseco's real impact on the game since his retirement, Canseco insists that he was blacklisted, has been his whistle-blowing surrounding the steroids.  In 2005, Canseco wrote a book, Juiced, which detailed his steroid use throughout his career.  While penning the book he managed to throw a few other players under the bus including: Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Juan Gonzalez, Ivan Rodriguez, and Jason Giambi.  Most of the names on this list, minus Pudge, have all been caught or admitted their steroid use.

Canseco also appeared in the Mitchell Report as a source and also wrote a follow-up book which named ARod as a steroid user, along with Albert Belle and Magglio Ordonez.

Favorite Card-

1987 Topps Mini Jose Canseco 

Is this considered a rookie card?  No?  The 1987 cards have always been some of my favorites and the mini version is also really cool.  The cards still feature the trademark wood frame of the regular 1987 Topps cards, but they don't have the same name box at the bottom and lack the team logo at the top.  In someways, these cards are similar to the 1986 Topps mini cards, but they just changed the border.  Either which way, a really cool set and the Canseco card features him with his mullet and polyester A's uniform.

Pudge? Where's Raffy?

I ran across a really inexpensive dual relic from the early 2000s this week when I found a really nice dual bat of Ivan Rodriguez and Alex Rodriguez.  This card hails from the 2001 Upper Deck MVP set, which has some great relic cards for a cheap box, and features the two former All-Stars as Rangers teammates.

2001 Upper Deck MVP Ivan Rodriguez/Alex Rodriguez Dual Bat Card

While the 2001 Rangers were a pretty good offensive team with the two Rodriguezs, Raffy Palmeiro, Ruben Sierra, Michael Young, and Rusty Greer the team finished in last place 16 games below .500.  I guess signing ARod for 250 million then letting Darren Oliver and Rick Helling anchor your rotation is not a great idea.  Anyway, I have spent some time over the years collecting the relic cards from this set, batting gloves and dual bat pieces, and have whittled my checklist down to a Raffy card.

If it weren't a busy week I would scan all the cards, batting gloves too, and post them.  However, I do work a job that pays money and I have an Open House tomorrow night.  Might be nice to be prepared. So, instead of a whole set, I bring you my five favorite dual bat cards from the 2001 Upper Deck MVP set.

2001 Upper Deck MVP Chipper Jones/Rafael Furcal Dual Bat Card

A future Hall of Famer, and former Durham Bull, in the person of Chipper Jones and a shortstop from the Cardinals 2011 World Championship team.  What's not to love?  

 2001 Upper Deck MVP Carlos Delgado/Jose Vidro Dual Bat Card

Anytime you can find a cool Expos card is a good day.  Anytime you can find a cool Expos card without Dawson, Carter, or Vlad is double cool.  Not sure I dig Delgado, but if Upper Deck had done an Orlando Cabrera/Jose Vidro card the awesome meter might have exploded.  

2001 Upper Deck MVP Jose Canseco/Ken Griffey Jr. Dual Bat Card

I really have a nice collection of Griffey cards for a non-Griffey collector.  Then I have this conversation piece with Griffey and Canseco.  

2001 Upper Deck MVP Frank Thomas/Sammy Sosa Dual Bat Card

There are not many Sosa relics, or Sosa autographs, floating around out there.  I like this one with Frank Thomas and the two good Chicago players from the time.  I could have also put the Magglio/Frank Thomas card here too, but Sosa.  

2001 Upper Deck MVP Kerry Wood/Rick Ankiel Dual Bat Card

Neither really lived up to the hype, but it's a really sweet card.  I like that Ankiel is hitting even though he would have been a pitcher at this point in his career.

Complete Set: 2000 Fleer Gamers

There is a reason that several of the card companies from the card boom of the late 90s and early 2000s are bankrupt and out of business.  The main reason was probably the fact that the companies competed with each other, but also with themselves.  There is only so much money that collectors spend on cards each year, as much as we would all love an unlimited budget, and Fleer, Donruss, Upper Deck, and Topps pumped out an overabundance of products.  There were products that were definite hits and a few flops along the way too.  There were also a few card products that flew under the radar.  The Fleer Gamers set is one of those sets that has gotten a little bit better and stronger with age.

2000 Fleer Gamers Jose Canseco 

First, the base set is nothing that great.  It's pretty typical of a Fleer release from this era and that is all I can really say about the design.  There are 120 total cards in the set, so it's not too difficult to track down the complete set with a box and a little help.  In fact, the box prices are one of the best things about this set.  Back in 2000, this set was one of way too many released by Fleer.  Of course, it was deemed a flop and many shops and Ebay sellers have boxes of Fleer Gamers on the cheap.  With a mediocre base set why would one care to roll the dice on a $30-$40 box of wax?  Inserts, Relics, and Autographs. 

2000 Fleer Gamers Cal Ripken Cal To Greatness 

Let's start with the inserts.  They are not very Fleer like in some regards.  There are die-cuts that look more like something that Pacific would put out on the market, but if nothing else there is the stand-by Cal Ripken insert set which yields two to three cards per box.  The Cal to Greatness set is pretty popular and the cards in the set hover around $5 on Ebay.  Three of these cards alone can pay for half of your box before you pull anything else.

2000 Fleer Gamers Lumber Ray Lankford Bat Card

The relic cards look like your typical late 90s relic set, small relic, not so great player card that would sell on Ebay for $2.  Almost not worth buying when you include shipping, except Fleer actually did a few things right with this relic set that most sets in the card boom era failed miserably with.  First, the list of players included in the relic set (all bat pieces) includes plenty of Hall of Famers, but also a lot of solid players with little to no relic exposure.  I could use Ray Lankford as my example, of a player with no relic cards outside of this set, and an above average Major League resume.  There is also a relic card for ESPN announcer Chris Singleton which is also his only relic card.  Of course there are the usual suspects of good players, average players, with a few Hall of Famers sprinkled into the mix.  Which leads me to my second point.  

The set is named Lumbers, the relic cards are all bats (notice a theme) and yet the relic cards are only planted two per case, or one every box and a half.  If Topps put out a set like this there would be a bat card in every pack.  The result of short-printing unique relic cards is directly reflected by the price that collectors pay for these cards on the secondary market.  Excluding a $0.99 bat card of Royals prospect-flop Carlos Febles, almost every bat card from this set is over $5 on Ebay with star players over $10 and Hall of Famers north of that point.  But wait, there's more....

2000 Fleer Gamers Lumber Shawn Green Bat/Auto 

To make this set a little bit sweeter Fleer also put in signed (on-card) versions of the bat cards.  The autographs were seeded at about one per ten boxes, or one per case and a half.  Long odds for an autograph.  The checklist includes Derek Jeter and Robert Alomar as the Hall of Famers included, but also features Rafael Palmeiro, Paul Konerko, Sean Casey, and ARod.  The autographs tend to fetch a pretty good price with most commons reach at least $20 on the secondary market.

Overall, I am aware that the base set is not that appealing, but if you are looking to pick up a cheap box and find something cool (and enjoy opening some wax) then this is a great product to look into picking up.  Boxes are easy to find on Ebay and the right hit could add a great card to your collection, or give you a nice trade chip to pick up something else for your collection.

30 Year Top 50: 1986 Donruss

#42- The 1986 Donruss set was an incredible set at the time of it's release and a few years in the early to mid 90s.  The set featured one of the hottest rookie cards of the 1980's and several other rookie cards that were above average.  For awhile, the Jose Canseco rookie in the set could sell or trade for upwards of $100.  However, with the demise of Jose Canseco the value of his rookie cards also crashed hurting the overall value of this set.

1986 Donruss Rated Rookie Jose Canseco

I am not going to rehash the whole Jose Canseco saga, but he was incredible at the height of his career and fell really hard.  At the time of this set's release, the Donruss Jose Canseco rookie card was one of the most sought after cards.  Often a rookie card makes or breaks a set and in this case the fate of this set followed the Canseco card.  In the late 80's when the Canseco rookie was at it's height, the card also brought up the values of several other rookie cards in the set including Fred McGriff, Paul O'Neill, and Andres Galarraga.  

1986 Donruss Rated Rookie Paul O'Neill

1986 Donruss Rated Rookie Andres Galarraga

1986 Donruss Rate Rookie Fred McGriff

In the end, the "other rookies" in the Donruss set ended up being almost as important as the Jose Canseco.  All three players had careers that were probably better than Canseco's, especially Paul O'Neill who was a key player on four World Championship teams.  None of the four players are Hall of Famers and that has brought down the value of this set to around $20.  It's not the 1988 Donruss set, but it's also not nearly as good as the 1987 set.  

My reason for including this set in my countdown is the simple fact that for a few years in the late 80s this was a great set.  In 1989, Jose Canseco hit 42 home runs to lead the American League while stealing 40 bases and driving in more than 100 runs.  That same season, Fred McGriff enjoyed his second thirty plus home run season, when 30 home runs was a big deal, and draws comparisons on that season with Mark McGwire on Baseball Reference.  O'Neill and Galarraga enjoyed solid seasons, but would have more impact later in their careers.  

Despite it's loss in value the 1986 Donruss set can teach us two important lessons.  First, the 1980s cards all generally lack the kind of cardboard value that vintage cards enjoy.  No fault of the collector's, but its hard to value a card when there are thousands upon thousands of copies of a card.  For me, these sets are still great to take out and look at.  I love the polyester uniforms and seeing cards of players I loved watching as a kid.  Cardinals cards of Danny Cox and Mike Laga.  Yellow Pirates jerseys.  

Second, there are many in the card industry that try to say that the on field product has little effect on the price of a player's cardboard.  If that statement were true, than the Jose Canseco card would still retain some shred of value instead being able to find raw copies of the card for under $5. 

I had such as conversation with the Editor of Beckett Baseball Card Magazine Chris Olds on Twitter during the Cardinals and Nationals game last week.  Basically, I took the view point that Bryce Harper's regular season and postseason performance would have to greatly improve for him to maintain his current level of card values.  

For example, in the mid 90s collectors went crazy for Andruw Jones cards when he played well, as a teenager, in the 1996 playoffs.  Sixteen years later, Andruw Jones is a role player with a low batting average and no defensive skill.  Not to say that is what Harper is to become, but collector's eyeing a high end rookie should look at the cards of Canseco and Jones to better understand the high risk that comes with adding high end rookie cards to their collections.  

Like the 1986 Donruss set?  Not in my Top 50 is the 1984 Donruss set.  This set is very similar to the 1986 Donruss release.  For years, this set was a highly valuable and high sought after piece of cardboard.  There were three important rookie cards in the set, which like the 1986 Donruss, lost value and popularity with the demise of the players.  Most importantly was the Don Mattingly rookie card. 

1984 Donruss Don Mattingly 

Mattingly had a great start to his career, but it was derailed by injuries.  His cards had trouble maintaining their values over time.  Mattingly has moved on to become a successful manager with the Dodgers and still is popular with Yankees collectors.  The other two key rookie cards were the Joe Carter Rated Rookie card and the Darryl Strawberry rookie.

1984 Donruss Darryl Strawberry

1984 Donruss Joe Carter

Strawberry's career followed a similar path as Jose Canseco.  Again, not going to rehash the entire saga, but he was a really good player who turned out to be very average.  His cards are still sought after, but do not maintain much in terms of value.  Joe Carter was a highly thought of prospect who turned into a nice everyday player.  Above average, but not a Hall of Famer.  More importantly he hit a game winning, series ending home run in the 1993 World Series.