Tribute to 1990 Bowman - Joakim Soria and John Buck

Today's tribute card of Joakim Soria and John Buck is based on the 1990 Bowman Art Insert series.

I really like these cards. They were found in regular packs of 1990 Bowman, eleven cards in total.

The checklist is shown below. As you can see it runs the gamut from first ballot Hall of Famers all the way down to nearly-forgotten flame outs. From the top:

*** First Ballot Hall of Fame
Nolan Ryan
Robin Yount

*** Great, But Maybe Not All-Time Greats
Don Mattingly
Will Clark
Brett Saberhagen

*** Once Great Careers, Now Derailed
Bo Jackson
Dwight Gooden

*** Decent Enough
Kevin Mitchell

*** Had a Good Year or Two
Mark Davis
Gregg Olson

*** Huh?
Jerome Walton

Overall it's a pretty cool snapshot of baseball in 1989.

Oh, and did you notice there were two Royals? Two out of eleven! Today you're lucky to find two Royals in an entire base set of 200 cards.

Now back to the set. The Art Prints remind me a lot of 2007 Bowman Heritage. 2007 Bowman Heritage was one of first cards sets I collected in a long while. It had been a long layoff up to that point. I hadn't been collecting any cards since 1999.

I've since learned that many other people share this experience with me in some regard. If so, I'd be interested to know: what were the card sets that brought you back to the hobby?

All that said, I hope you enjoy the tribute card! It is one of my personal favorites.

Comments

  1. I think the '90 Bowman art inserts were a precursor to UD Goudey just as '89 Bowman itself was a precursor to Heritage.

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  2. That is pretty cool. I was looking at it and trying to figure out which Bowman (or Heritage) set that it was from. It is funny that you did this card since last week I was trying to find the Mattingly card in my stash. All I found was Bo and I think maybe Jackie Robinson. All of the rest, I threw away I guess.
    As for a set that brought me back, maybe '06 Topps. I was down in Georgia at the time and bought a few blasters to try and get that Gordon card. Since then, I have bought more and more cards each year.

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  3. Do those Gordon rookie cards still sell for a billion-ty dollars? I remember when the Topps card made national headlines.

    J.W., you're right about '89 Bowman. That is indeed the most apt precursor to the Heritage set, especially with the facsimile signatures. It's like they merged that with the black outlines and creative backgrounds of the '90 art insert cards.

    Speaking of the '89 set, it is so absurdly cheap. Pretty nice looking set, all things considered. '89 and '91 were great years for the hobby in my opinion.

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  4. I originally came back around 1998, and it was Topps that I collected the most that year. After 2000, I started getting frustrated with everything that was out there again, and didn't buy much again until 2008. And again, it was Topps that brought me back. It's always Topps.

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