The 1989 Score baseball card set was released at the start of the 1989 Major League Baseball season. The set featured 700 total cards including career statistics, biographies, and photos on current MLB players, managers, and coaches. The 1989 Score set is considered a highly valuable and iconic release from the “junk wax” era of the 1980s and early 1990s. Let’s take a deeper look at the key details and biggest highlights from this classic card collection.
The 1989 Score set featured 660 player cards split between the American and National Leagues. Each league had 330 cards numbered 1-330 with players organized alphabetically by team. This proved to be a convenient organizational structure for collectors at the time. The set also included career statistic recap cards for 19 retired MLB legends like Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, and more. There were 21 manager/coach cards included for a total of 700 cards in the base set.
Some notable rookie cards featured in the 1989 Score set included Barry Larkin, Greg Maddux, Randy Johnson, Greg Swindell, and Sandy Alomar Jr. While none of these players truly exploded onto the scene in their debut seasons of ’88 or ’89, their rookie cards have gained value in recent years as their careers blossomed into the Hall of Fame caliber players we know them as today. The Maddux and Johnson rookie cards in particular hold substantial value for collectors today.
In terms of photography and design, the 1989 Score set had a very simple yet classic aesthetic. Each regular player card featured a headshot photo of the player in uniform with their team logo prominently displayed below. The front of the card also listed key stats for the previous season such as batting average, home runs, RBI, and more. The card backs provided extended career statistics as well as a paragraph biography for each player. Managers and coaches received similar treatment with a headshot on the front and stats recap on the back. The aesthetic was highly functional yet lacked some of the flashier photography and embellishments of rival brands like Topps and Donruss at the time.
Distribution of the 1989 Score set proved to be massive, which has contributed to its “junk wax” designation in hindsight. At the time, Score baseball cards were incredibly popular and widely available in stores, vending machines, and on the collector market. It’s estimated that over 1 billion individual 1989 Score cards were produced, which has led to the set retaining relatively low resale value despite its nostalgia and place in card history.
The sheer numbers printed coupled with the lack of short prints, serially numbered parallels, or other scarce inserts has made high grade examples of even star players and rookie cards readily available at affordable prices to this day. For dedicated collectors of late 80s/early 90s sets, the 1989 Score set remains a staple of their collections and an iconic relic of their childhood fandom.
One of the biggest highlights and most iconic cards from the 1989 Score set is the Nolan Ryan card. Ryan was in his age 42 season pitching for the Texas Rangers in 1989 after breaking numerous career records in the late 1980s. His Stats/milestone card in the set features a dramatic action photo showing Ryan mid-windup in a Rangers uniform. The front of the card lists Ryan’s career stats as of 1989 including his record 5,000th strikeout. This Nolan Ryan card captured Lightning during one of the most remarkable years of his legendary career and has become highly desirable for any collection of his best baseball cards.
Beyond the flagship set, Score also produced a number of innovative insert sets in 1989 that mixed creative cards with the traditional stat and photo style of the base collection. One such insert was the “Portraits of Greatness” collection featuring headshot photos of 40 all-time MLB legends on quality cardboard stock in a larger dimension than the standard cards. Career stats were also provided on the back alongside the player’s nickname and position. Other inserts included “Top 100 Home Run Club”, capturing sluggers throughout history, and “Can’t K the Count”, honoring dominant pitchers with stellar strikeout numbers.
Score managed to further innovate and push boundaries with special limited parallel sets as well. The “Silk Force” insert featured glossy embossed parallel cards with silkscreen printing techniques on select star players. Other experimental parallels like “Triple Crown Club” captured the exclusive club of prolific sluggers who have won the batting Triple Crown. Score was progressive in experimenting with insert sets, parallels, and serially numbered short prints before other brands made them commonplace features of modern card releases.
The 1989 Score baseball card set was an iconic release from the junk wax era that demonstrated both positives and negatives of the booming sports card market of the late 1980s. While its massive overproduction has led to affordability even for high-grade examples, the set remains hugely nostalgic and commemorates an important period in baseball card history. Rookie cards of future legends like Maddux and RBI in the base set add lasting appeal and collector value. Innovative inserts and special parallel sets also showed Score leading innovation as the card market entered the modern premium insert era. For both nostalgia and historic significance, the 1989 Score set deserves a place in any dedicated baseball card collection covering the sport’s finest years.
