The 1988 Griffey Jr. rookie card, that almost was!
Did you know that in 1988, Legends Sports Memorabilia magazine attempted to bring licensed baseball cards to market under the name T&M Sports Cards?
The proposal for the new set would have included a Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card, and some other revolutionary ideas in the card world:
-Special “Mint Cards” would be inserted in random packs. 64 players that had earned honors or awards the previous year would get cards on high-gloss paper stock with two-color foil stamping. The cards would be consecutively numbered, which would have created the first serial numbered cards.
-The first chase autographed card in history! Paul Molitor autographed cards would be randomly inserted in packs.
-660 card set would have included current and retired players
-players would have had the option to choose their own photo for the next year’s card
Former Fleer card photographer Lou Sauritch described the cards to us in an interview as “absolutely beautiful” and that they were “years ahead of their time”.
Sauritch shared with us photos of the cards presented to apply for licensing.
MLB and the MLBPA granted a card license to Upper Deck instead of T&M in 1988, and the cards never came to be.
