Player: Jose Canseco
Set: 1986 Fleer and Donruss
Card Number: 649 and 39 respectively
Why is These Cards are Must Have?: I have been jonesing to review this one for a while now. To include or to not include and where does it rank? These are tough questions. If you look at his stats, he’s a Hall of Famer, no doubt about it. The first 40/40 guy, MVP award, Rookie of the Year award, and 4 Silver Slugger awards. The card was perhaps one of three must have cards if you grew up in the 80s (along with Griffey’s Upper Deck rookie and Mark McGwire’s Topps rookie). The Donruss version was at one point a $60 card. His card single handedly blew open the entire baseball card mass production in the 80s. It was also responsible for people seeing the Donruss company as the elite set to own. I remember trying to buy packs of 1986 Donruss and they were nearing $3 a pack at one point.So I put this card on the list because of it’s place in history and not for the person on the card. I am still a Canseco fan but he can never ever be let into the Hall of Fame. If he hadn’t taken the roids, he would never have had the career he had, may never have even made it to the majors. I can say this, if I were in his shoes, I probably would have done the same thing, but was it worth it in the end? Probably. I will say this, his book blew the cover off the “Steroid Era” in baseball, it was because of him that steroid testing began, and say what you will everything in his books have been true. The only one he was off on was Clemens, but I think he started after the book was written.
On a Scale of 1 to 10, How Must Have Are These Cards?: A 5, again, I think the rating is more for the card’s place in history and not for the player. This is a card that should be in everyone’s collection, even if you hate what he did. Without this card and Canseco for that matter, the card industry would have had to wait 3 more years for Griffey to blow open the industry and we may have never even had an Upper Deck. You can find this card for about $2.50 on eBay, significantly more if PSA graded.
I remember when these were THE cards to have. More than any other cards. Heck, I remember thinking that Eric Plunk’s cards must be worth more too. After all, he was the other guy on Canseco’s Fleer card. That has to mean SOMETHING, right?
This was the Holy Grail of cards in the late ’80s. Screw the ’85 McGwire card, this was IT! I was prety happy when my Dad got this card for me for $10. Actually, I was elated. This card spent about 18 years in a safe deposit box, but it now sits before me and I love it now like I did when I was 11.
The funny part about it is that it looks more like a mud-shot, which is suiting.
Err, MUG-shot.