The 2002 Fleer Greats baseball card set was released at the start of the new millennium and featured some of the all-time greatest players from baseball history. With 100 total cards in the base set, Fleer took a retrospective look back at the icons who made major contributions to America’s pastime.
Some key things to know about the 2002 Fleer Greats set include that it focused exclusively on players who had been retired for at least five seasons. This ensured that only true legends who had cemented their legacy made the cut. Ranging from the earliest days of the sport in the 1800s up through more recent retirees, the set did a fantastic job of capturing baseball across multiple eras.
One of the most unique aspects of the 2002 Fleer Greats cards was the creative photography and artwork used on each player’s card. Rather than simply reusing existing action shots or standard portrait pictures, Fleer commissioned new conceptual images to be made specifically for this set. Many featured the players in painterly illustrations or imagined scenarios representing highlights from their careers.
For example, Babe Ruth’s card shows him towering over Yankee Stadium and pointing to the stands, symbolizing his iconic home run power. Willie Mays is depicted in center field with an outstretched glove, alluding to his famous over-the-shoulder basket catch. Nolan Ryan has a close-up of his blazing fastball to represent his record seven no-hitters. The artistic designs helped bring these legends to life in a fresh, visually striking way.
In addition to main roster players, the 2002 Fleer Greats set also included a few special subset cards to round things out. There were “Captains of the Game” parallels featuring managers John McGraw and Casey Stengel. An “Icon Autographs” subset contained autograph cards of Ruth, Mays, and Ryan on specially designed parallel templates. Finally, “Hall of Famers” parallels highlighted stars already enshrined in Cooperstown at the time of the set’s release.
The checklist for the base 100-card set was an impressive who’s who of baseball history. Some of the biggest names included Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Mickey Mantle, Stan Musial, Ted Williams, and more. Representing eras from the earliest days of professional baseball in the 1870s all the way up to retirees from the 1990s, it truly captured the evolution of the sport over more than 100 years.
When the 2002 Fleer Greats set was released, it received wide praise from collectors for its creative design concept and the caliber of players featured. While it didn’t have the huge print runs of some modern sets, its limited production also helped ensure the cards retained value as desirable vintage issues in the years since. Today, a complete unopened factory set in mint condition can sell for thousands of dollars on the secondary market.
Individual player cards also maintain strong collector demand and trade value depending on the name. Rookie cards or especially rare parallel versions of all-time greats like Babe Ruth, Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle can easily fetch hundreds of dollars or more in top grades. Even commons of star players from the set tend to sell for far above the original pack price of two decades ago.
The 2002 Fleer Greats baseball card set was a unique retrospective look at some of the most legendary names to ever play the game. Through its creative conceptual photography and focus only on true icons of baseball’s past, it succeeded in paying tribute to these greats in a classy and memorable presentation. Both for its historical content and the strong collector demand it continues to carry in the hobby, it stands out as one of the premier and most desirable vintage issues from the early 2000s.
