The Baseball Cards of Jose Canseco

There was probably no hotter player to collect from 1986, his rookie year, until 1989, when a certain Seattle rookie came up, then Jose Canseco.

The Donruss rookie is probably the most iconic of Canseco’s. Not just because of the dirt-stache but that was the only set in 1986 to have a solo card of Canseco. (Fleer had him share a card with Eric Plunk while Topps relegated him to the Traded set).

Demand was so feverish that year that a small-time card company, Star, put out a 15-card set called Jose Canseco: His Era Begins.

There were even unlicensed cards produced, most notably by photographer Rob Broder.

Probably Canseco’s biggest on-field accomplishment was his 40-40 season in 1988. The feat was highlighted most notably in Score’s 1989 set with what was a very popular card at the time.

By the early 1990’s Canseco was as much a celebrity for his off-the-field antics as his on-field play. This was captured by Upper Deck in their 1991 card, featuring Canseco wearing a T-shirt with the words “LEAVE ME ALONE”.

That same year Score put him on a card swinging a bat wearing only a pair of jeans.

Once he was traded away from Oakland, Canseco became a baseball nomad. Cards captured his travels from Texas to Boston to Toronto to Tampa Bay to the Yankees to the White Sox to the Angels to the Expos. And he never actually got in a game for the Angels or Expos!

Although Canseco might not have lived up to his enormous hype, he is still beloved by baseball card collectors everywhere, and has spawned more than his share of supercollectors who track down every variation of his cards, which now number in the thousands.

http://tanmanbaseballfan.com/blog

http://www.blowoutcards.com/forums/baseball/858392-canseco-perfection-collection-steroids.html

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bo Rosny is The Hall of Very Good’s resident baseball expert.  You can read more from him at his website Baseball Cards Come to Life.

*****

The Hall of Very Good™ Class of 2016 is presented by Out of the Park Developments, the creators of the wildly popular baseball simulation game Out of the Park Baseball. Out of the Park Developments has made a generous donation to The Hall.