Quote:
Originally Posted by rats60
I guess that is why in the fall of 1989, Griffey was the 5th best rookie in the set behind Jerome Walton, Dwight Smith, Jim Abbott and Todd Zeile.
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Griffey Jr. had been the top pick in the draft in '87 and was the son of a famous baseball player. There was a ton of hype surrounding Griffey Jr., who had just graduated high school.
By putting Griffey Jr. as the #1 card in their first set, UD took a huge gamble that paid off (Topps failed to even include Griffey Jr. in their base '89 set). The card would become the the most-graded card ever (more than 90K just by PSA alone).
The '89 UD had five new innovations: 1) foil-wrapped 2) tamper-evident pack 3) high gloss cards on high quality white paper stock 4) images on both sides
5) a hologram. These cards completely revolutionized the somewhat stale baseball card market, and the '89 UD Griffey Jr. was the poster child of this new era.
The card is a part of pop culture. Griffey Jr. re-enacted the card's pose in a Macklemore's "Downton" video:
https://youtu.be/JGhoLcsr8GA?t=104