1993 was a golden year for baseball cards. It was the peak of the hobby, in my humble opinion. There was market competition but not over-saturation. The cards were getting shinier, smoother, sleeker.. but for the most part they were still affordable. It was also the last year before the baseball strike.
I bought hundreds, perhaps thousands, of cards in 1993. Donruss was an okay set. I enjoyed pulling Diamond Kings inserts almost as much as I enjoyed pulling Franchise inserts out of Score packs. I had a tough time finding (and affording) Bowman but even as a 12-13 year-old I appreciated their emphasis on prospects and recent draftees. Upper Deck's flagship brand was their best effort to date. The 1993 Leaf set remains popular to this day; I wrote about that one in December.
I also mentioned the first Flair set in one of my first posts. It was one of two boxes of higher-end baseball cards my mom bought me for Christmas that year. The other was 1993 SP.
Upper Deck called this "The finest trading card ever produced." (A swipe at Topps, perhaps?) Even if the Finest brand had the same price point, I'd still choose SP. The vibrant colors and photography were a natural progression from brands I'd already loved - such as Leaf, Fleer Ultra, and flagship UD. Finest looked like an alien spacecraft.
Looking at this Bret Saberhagen now it kind of feels like an homage to 1959 Topps. But the background isn't real and he's completely outside of it. I guess it creates a decent 3-D effect but I didn't like it at first (the next three Finest sets won me over - especially 1996.)
Now this is a baseball card. Ozzie is perfectly cropped within the border. That string emerging from the logo might be a little odd but it frames the card nicely without being obtrusive. The blocks at the top left add just enough color; the cards might have looked plain without these.
Here's another perfectly cropped photo. I love how Upper Deck used team colors for each card. It's a nice touch and something I've appreciated since Pro Set color-matched in 1990.
A lot of the photos Upper Deck chose were taken during spring training, though I remember being astounded that Gary Sheffield was already pictured as a Florida Marlin (he was traded June 24, 1993) I don't remember SP being a late-season release, and I couldn't find the official release date anywhere. It must have been early September because the first 18 cards were the 1993 All-Star starters.
The set composition is perfect for 9-pocket pages. There are nine cards per team, and the checklist is alphabetical by team and player. That means the Yankees are last! (we can dream, eh?)
The Brian McRae above is just one example of the fantastic on-field action found in SP. Here are some more plays at the plate:
Infield action:
Outfield action, including a triple-exposure Kirby Puckett:
Lots of missed signals in Spring Training. I hope these guys straightened it out once the season started.
Nearly all the cards have a second photo on the back, though a small handful repeat the front photo. Here are some of the more unique card backs:
The Luis Polonia sunset card (not to be confused with a sunset card) stood out to me. The only other sunset/night card I found was Gene Harris:
This set was loaded with interesting singles, including Jose Canseco pitching:
Bip on a boat?
Brian Harper on a brick:
And I haven't even mentioned the foils yet!
As you can see, some of these are scratched and chipped. This was the first time I was aware of a modern set that was "condition sensitive". A lot of my base card corners are starting to wear out as well. I probably shouldn't handle them anymore because finding pack-fresh replacements is next to impossible at these prices...thanks to this guy:
A mini-rant about sealed box prices: why would I pay over $2000 for the chance to pull a card I can buy individually for $500? I wish I could make a deal with the dealer: "I'll give you $100 for the box, and if I pull the Jeter it's yours". That's how much I love this set.
Here are my five favorite singles from 1993 SP, starting with #5:
When this card was released I was amazed that Jim Abbott could swing a bat. I hope I also recognized the rarity (at the time) that an American League pitcher would have to bat.
#4 might be a familiar one to all the Oakland Athletics fans out there:
Rickey stole a lot of bases. Rickey stole so many bases that Rickey got to rip 'em right out of the dirt.
My #3 favorite is a majestic looking Hawk:
This is a perfect posed photo. Blue sky, Green Monster, and a Hall of Famer. Again, the cropping is on point here.
My top two favorites are also Hall of Famers. I selected these because they're action shots of baseball legends, and they're colorful:
Cal Ripken Jr. comes in at #2. And at #1 we have another Junior:
Okay, so this Ken Griffey card could have been cropped a bit better. I don't care. It's awesome. There was no more exciting card to pull for a 12-13 year old kid. Nobody knew who Derek Jeter was. If you had this card - or any similar Griffey issue at the time - you had struck gold. I wonder if that wasn't the last time kids could feel that way about pulling a base card.
I'm considering a similar post about 1993 SP Football and/or 1993-94 SP Hockey so if you enjoyed this post and you want to read more about my favorite set design, please let me know.
Thanks for reading. Have a great weekend!
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Nope, I still prefer '93 Finest to '93 SP.
ReplyDeleteThere's a real generation gap with these '90s cards. To me there's a sameness about Upper Deck's '90s cards that make them almost boring. I like design and thinks it's what makes sets stand out and Topps never shied away from design like UD did.
But I get that '90s kids liked them. They were cards for them, while '70s and '80s cards were for me. And I'm so glad I was born when I was.
I don't pay much attention to sets from the mid-1990s, but I like the photography from '93 SP. Still prefer the regular Upper Deck set from that year, though.
ReplyDeleteIconic set, I don't care what anyone says.
ReplyDelete