The 1990 Upper Deck baseball card set is renowned among collectors not only for its impressive photographic quality and design, but also for the numerous errors that were included among the 792 total cards in the set. Upper Deck burst onto the baseball card scene in 1989 and immediately revolutionized the industry with its premium cards that featured state-of-the-art printing technology that brought the players to life in a way never seen before. With such a dramatic increase in production came more opportunities for mistakes to slip through quality control.
Perhaps the most famous error from the 1990 Upper Deck checklist is the misspelling of pitcher Jeff Reardon’s last name on his base card. Reardon, an All-Star closer for the Boston Red Sox and Montreal Expos in the late 1980s, had his last name printed as “Readon” on card #343 in the set. This mistake triggered a frenzy among collectors upon the set’s release in March 1990 as they scrambled to obtain the rare mishap. Later print runs corrected the error, making the misspelling highly valuable for those who discovered it early on. It remains one of the most significant statistical errors in baseball card history due to Reardon’s status as an established star at the time.
Another notorious error involved Seattle Mariners’ starting pitcher Randy Johnson on card #643. The mistake here wasn’t in Johnson’s name but rather his listed height. Instead of the usual 6-foot-10 height Johnson was known for, his Upper Deck card instead listed his height as 3-foot-10. Considering Johnson’s intimidating presence on the mound thanks to his towering frame, the mental image of the 6-foot-10 Johnson being shrunk down to a nearly 4-foot height created amusement among fans. The error was humorous rather than costly like Reardon’s, but it still captured attention as one of the set’s more bizarre statistical blunders.
More common errors involved switched photographs between players. For example, Houston Astros reliever Larry Andersen’s image was mistakenly replaced with that of teammate Juan Agostio on card #54. Meanwhile, Agostio’s photo slot was occupied by Andersen’s picture instead of his own. California Angels teammates Devon White and Chili Davis also fell victim to swapped images on cards #387 and #388 respectively. Through no fault of their own, these players were represented by another player’s face in the 1990 Upper Deck set until the error was fixed in subsequent runs.
There were also abnormalities with team affiliations listed on some cards. Outfielder Jeff Reed, who spent 1989 with the Montreal Expos organization, had his card #450 mistakenly identify him as belonging to the New York Mets. Reed was never property of the Mets, making this an incorrect franchise assignment. Pitcher John Dopson experienced the opposite situation – his card #638 properly noted his stint with the Chicago White Sox in ’89 but failed to mention he was also briefly with the Boston Red Sox that season as well in additional transactions.
Even the cards without an evident mistake on them could sometimes be dubious. For example, pitcher Frank DiPino’s card #348 features an airbrushed alteration to his jersey number. While DiPino did pitch briefly for the Cleveland Indians in 1989 wearing number 38, the number on his pictured uniform was changed to 58 using post-production touchups. Whether this was an attempt to align with inaccurate records or something else is unclear, but it represented an anomaly nonetheless.
Errors weren’t exclusive to player name, photo, or team data inaccuracies either. Occasionally short prints would enter the marketplace where certain statistic box information was erroneously omitted. An example is pitcher Orel Hershiser’s card #361 missing his 1988 ERA altogether despite listing other years. In other instances, small typos could creep their way into a card’s text write-up unnoticed like missing letters or wrongly spelled words.
While detrimental to the accuracy of the set as a baseball archive, the printing mistakes that made it into the 1990 Upper Deck checklist have done wonders for the product’s long term collecting interest. Cards bearing errors have taken on greater significance and demand as the years passed. The rarer mistakes command prices many times greater than the standard issue versions. Even quarter-century later, enthusiasm remains high for tracking down these accidental variants that add an extra element of the unexpected to an already legendary sports card set. Though a nuisance at the time, the misprints in 1990 Upper Deck have solidified its legacy among fans.
