Happy Trails Ken Griffey Jr

1989 Sports Collectors Daily #3 Ken Griffey

This is one of those cards inserted into magazines as a sheet during the late 80s. In 1989 SCD chose to use the 1964 design as their template. There are a number of reasons I love this card, the retro design, the kid when he was "the Kid" and then there is the back. You may have to click on this to enlarge it, but check out the underlined text. Glad to see the "experts" at SCD were on the ball.

For the Collector

1989 Sports Collectors Daily #3 Ken Griffey (b-side/click to enlarge)

For the record the 1989 UD Griffey card is holding steady at near it's typical $20.00 price. Recent sales of the 1989 Fleer and Donruss Griffey cards on the Bay have been for under $2.

I have some mixed emotions about Junior. One of my baseball buddies and I both came up with an inside-ism that "Griffey hates Philadelphia". He blew off the 1996 All-Star game which we attended. Griffey would have been one of the premier attractions in those pre-interleague play days. There was also the night Jim Thome would hit milestone Home Run #400. It was in Philadelphia versus the Reds. At the time Griffey at 499 Homers and was staring at his own milestone, but once again he elected not to play.

I did get to see Griffey play a few times. All after 2004, He was rather poor 1-17 in the games I saw without any of his 630 homers. In the games I attended Griffey and the Reds were 1 and 4, with the only win being on April 12 2004, the Day the Phillies opened Citizen's Bank Park.

Now that Griffey is officially retired Jim Thome is the Active Career Home Run Leader among Left Handed Batters.

Here is a link to a great article in the Slate about the 1989 Upper Deck #1 Ken Griffey Jr Card.