The 1990 Topps Traded baseball card set was released to capture late season and postseason trades during what was an exciting year in Major League Baseball. The 144 card set featured many star players that changed teams via trade in the months leading up to the 1990 season or during the season itself. Some of the biggest names included Rickey Henderson, Nolan Ryan, Dave Stewart, and Jose Canseco.
The 1990 regular season was memorable for several compelling division races that went down to the wire. In the National League East, the Pittsburgh Pirates held off the New York Mets by a single game to win the division. In the NL West, the Cincinnati Reds defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers by a game as well. The American League East saw a three team battle between the Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays, and Baltimore Orioles that also came down to the last day of the season. The Oakland Athletics cruised to the AL West title, winning by 13 games over the Minnesota Twins.
Several major trades during the 1989-1990 offseason and regular season impacted playoff races and postseason matchups. In December 1989, the Oakland A’s acquired Dave Stewart and Rick Honeycutt from the Toronto Blue Jays for Jose Canseco. This effectively broke up the “Bash Brothers” duo of Canseco and Mark McGwire in Oakland. In January 1990, Nolan Ryan was surprisingly dealt from the Houston Astros to the Texas Rangers for pitcher Jeff Bagwell and others. Later that month, the New York Mets obtained slugger Hideki Irabu from the Chiba Lotte Marines of Japan’s Pacific League.
As the 1990 season got underway, Rickey Henderson was surprisingly traded by the Oakland A’s to the New York Mets in May. That summer in July, the Cincinnati Reds acquired reliever Norm Charlton from the San Diego Padres. Into August, the Boston Red Sox acquired reliever Jeff Reardon from the Minnesota Twins. These were some of the biggest name players included in the 1990 Topps Traded set to showcase how rosters changed via trade. The Mets in particular loaded up as they tried to chase down the Pirates in the NL East.
When the dust settled, several teams that made significant trades during 1989-1990 went on to postseason success. The A’s kept rolling even after dealing Canseco and Stewart, winning the AL West again behind McGwire’s record-setting 49 home run season. Oakland then defeated the Red Sox in the ALCS before losing to the Reds in the World Series. Cincinnati held on to win the NL West and got solid contributions from Charlton down the stretch. In the NLCS, the Reds knocked off the Pirates behind the pitching of José Rijo.
For collectors, the 1990 Topps Traded set was a fun way to encapsulate an exciting year of player movement and competitive divisional races. For the first time, Topps added jersey swatches or “traded” patches featuring the new team’s logo within the border of the traded player’s photograph. This incorporated a fun new memorabilia element within the traditional cardboard format. Notable rookie cards in the set included Larry Walker, Tom Glavine, and Chuck Knoblauch. The complete set includes all 144 cards and tends to trade for $30-$50 in near mint condition today.
Key variations within the 1990 Topps Traded set included jersey parallel cards, gray backs, and gold wrappers. The jersey parallels featured real game-worn fabric swatches and were inserted very sparingly, making them quite valuable if obtained. Gray backs were irregularly cut card backs instead of the standard white. Gold wrapper packs contained enhanced chase cards like Irabu or Stewart. Overall it was a fun colectable set celebrating an iconic year in baseball when many superstars changed teams via trade. The on-field results and new card fronts/patches combining stars with their post-trade teams created lasting nostalgia for 1990 Topps Traded.
