CTB: 1998 Topps #334 Andruw Jones (ASR)

Our Second of Three 1996 HOF Profiles featuring inductees who were also honored on Rookie Cup Cards is of Phillies Nemesis Andruw Jones.  

1998 Topps #334 Andruw Jones (image swiped from tcdb)

On this card we have a quality action shot of Andruw just prior to contact - something that would result in hits 1933 times during Jones 17 year career (2541 hits as a professional). His Career Home Run totals were even more impressive 434 MLB/550 Pro. 

Notice on the card that Jones is wearing the Jackie Robinson 50th Anniversary Patch that all players wore during the 1997 season. Andruw finished 5th in the Rookie of the Year Voting - an Award that has been named after Jackie Robinson since 1987.  Nice seeing Two Hall of Famers represented on a rookie cup (keep reading there's more!) 

Rookie Cup Credentials 

Before his 1997 rookie campaign even started Andruw Jones was already a World Series hero who hit a Pair of Home Runs vs the Yankees, albeit in a losing effort. 

To earn his ROY votes Andruw Jones played a full NL season in 1997 with 18 HR, 70 RBI but only a .231 AVG (93 OPS+ / +3.3 WAR) which was similar to the 3 Cup Team outfielders - Jose Cruz Jr (26/68/.248, 101/+2.2), Jose Guillen (14/70/.267, 82/-3.3). Mike Cameron has a Snub Beef (14/55/.259, 109/+4.4) as does Vlad SR (.302 BA, 117 OPS+). In fact the BBWAA ranked Guerrero ahead of Guillen by a handful of votes on the NL side and Cameron received more AL votes then Guillen did within the NL bracket.  

Flip

1998 Topps #334 Andruw Jones (b-side image also tcdb)   

First we want to look at the demographic info and note that Andruw Jones was the 3rd MLB player from Curacao, after Hensley Meulens (1989) and Ralph Milliard (1996). In the 3 decades since Andruw Jones the number of players born in Curacao has grown to 17 (that is a 560% increase for a territory that had ZERO players 40 years ago)

Moving down the text mentions Jones as both an Offensive and Defensive threat. And he was - Andruw just missed the 20/20 targets during his rookie campaign but did hit them 3 times in his early career. In the Outfield he earned 10 gold gloves. 2005 was his standout season where he led the league in HR & RBI with 51 & 128 respectively (+6.7 WAR) good enough for 2nd place in the NL MVP voting (Albert Pujols 41/117/.330 +8.4 WAR) 

We also get a quote from Andruw Jones' Manager Bobby Cox that invokes the name of another well known CenterFielder, Joe DiMaggio. If you're keeping score at home that is 4 HOF on a single Rookie Cup Card Andruw, Jackie, Bobby Cox (as a Manager) and Joe D. 

Andruw Jones HOF Index

1998 Topps #334 (Rookie Cup)

2001 Topps Stadium Club Pat Burrell (Game Dated Card/Phungo Challenge)

Sources and Link

1998 Topps All-Star Rookie Cup Index

TCDB

National Baseball Hall of Fame

Baseball-Ref

1998 Topps All-Star Rookie Cup Subset (honoring 1997 Winners)

 This is an index of our columns related to the 1997 Rookie Cup Team that was honored in 1998 Topps

22	DMITRI YOUNG	Cardinals	1B	1998
46	WILTON GUERRERO	Dodgers	2B	1998
25	SCOTT ROLEN	Phillies	3B	1998
335	NOMAR GARCIAPARRA	Red Sox	SS	1998
146	JOSE GUILLEN	Pirates	OF	1998
326	JOSE CRUZ JR.	Blue Jays	OF	1998
334	ANDRUW JONES	Braves	OF	1998
228	SCOTT HATTEBERG	Red Sox	C	1998
129	JASON DICKSON	Angels	RHP	1998
185	MIKE HOLTZ	Angels	LHP	1998

Sources and Links

B-R Bullpen 

Baseball-Ref

Lifetime Topps Project (1998 ASR Subset)

Topps All-Star Rookie Cup Master Index

1990s Topps All-Star Rookie Cup Tournament

Last Winter we started a project to try and figure out what season produced the best Topps All-Star Rookie Team. That tournament was between the 10 squads that represented the 1960s. It was won by the Little Joes from 1966 led by Joe Morgan, Tony Perez, and stellar pitching by Marcelino Lopez. 

For our second Tournament we visit the 1990s. Lets take a look at the seeding for the last decade of the 20th century. 

seed	Year	Team	Captain
1	1993	Kenny's Kids 1993	Kenny Lofton
2	1991	Maple Larry's 1991	Larry Walker
3	1992	Team Pudge 1992	Ivan Rodriguez
4	1996	Chippers	Chipper Jones
5	1994	Piazza Peeps 1994	Mike Piazza
6	1998	Todd's Gods	Todd Helton
7	1998	Rock and Rolen	Scott Rolen
8	1990	Juniors Kids	Ken Griffey Jr
9	1995	Manny Being Manny	Manny Ramirez
10	1997	Team Captains	Derek Jeter

No I am not a Jeter hater, we determined seeding using a forumula. Turns out the rest of the 1997 team was pretty weak. 

Lets get to the actual games. The preliminary round is a double elimination featuring the bottom 4 teams. Two of these teams advance to the major tournament while the other two will be eliminated. 

1990s Game 1
1997	Team Captains		0 - 4 - 1
1998	Rockin and Rolen		5 - 6 - 1
	W: Jason Dickson (1-0)		L: Billy Wagner (0-1)
	HR 1990: None
	HR 1997: None
	MVP: Scott Rolen (1)

1990s Game 2
1995	Manny Being Manny		5 - 7 - 0
1990	Juniors Kids		2 - 6 - 1
	W: Brian Anderson (1-0)		L: Tom Gordon (0-1)
	HR 1995 Ryan Klesko (1), Javy Lopez (1), Jose Oliva (1)
	HR 1990: none
	MVP: Ryan Klesko (1)

	1990s Game 3 Avancement Game
1995	Manny Being Manny		3 - 10 - 2
1998	Rockin and Rolen		0 - 6 - 1
	W: Joey Hamilton (1-0)		L: Mike Holtz (0-1)
	HR 1995: None
	HR 1998: None
	MVP: Joey Hamilton (1)
	Manny Being Manny (2-0) Advance as 7 Seed

	1990s Game 4 Elimination Game
1997	Team Captains		1 - 8 - 2
1990	Juniors Kids		6 - 10 - 2
	W: Jim Abbott (1-0)		L: Alan Benes (0-1)
	HR 1997: none
	HR 1990: Ken Griffey Jr (1). Gary Sheffield (1)
	MVP: Ken Griffey Jr (1)
	Team Captains (0-2) Eliminated Finish 10th Original Seed 10th

	1990s Game 5 WTA Game
1990	Juniors Kids		4 - 10 - 1
1998	Rockin and Rolen		2 - 8 - 0
	W: Tom Gordon (1-1)		L: Jason Dickson (1-1)
	HR 1990: GREGG JEFFERIES (1), BOB GEREN 2 (2)
	HR 1998: None
	MVP: GREGG JEFFERIES (1)
	Juniors Kids (2-1) advance as 8 seed

The two teams that advance out of the preliminary tourney are Manny Being Manny (1995) and Junior Kids (1990) they will be the 7th and 8th seeds respectively. The Surprise is the elimination of seven seed 1998 Rockin and Rolen. 

This brings us to the opening round of the major tournament. 

	1990s Game 6 - Major Bracket - Double Elimination 8 -> 4 teams Opening Round
1990	Juniors Kids (2-1)		3 - 10 - 1
1993	Kenny's Kids (0-0)		1 - 4 - 0
	W: Jim Abbott (2-0)		L: Cal Eldred (0-1)
	HR: 1990 None
	HR: 1990 None
	MVP: Jim Abbott (1)

	1990s Game 7
1995	Manny Being Manny (2-0)		1 - 10 - 0
1991	Maple Larry's (0-0)		6 - 10 - 0
	W: Kevin Appier (1-0)		L: Brian Anders (1-1)
	HR: 1995: None
	HR: 1990: None
	MVP: Delino DeShields (1)

1999	Todd's Gods		2 - 11 - 0
1992	Team Pudge 1992		1 - 11 - 0
	W: Kerry Wood (1-0)		L: Mark Leiter (0-1)
	HR 1999: Mark Kotsay (1), Todd Helton (1)
	HR 1992: None
	MVP: Kotsay (1)

	1990s Game 9
1994	Piazza Peeps 1994		3 - 4 - 1
1996	Chippers		4 - 5 -1 (10)
	W: Hideo Nomo (1-0)		L: Greg McMichael (0-1)
	HR 1994: None
	HR 1996: Garrett Anderson (1)
	MVP: Garrett Anderson (1)

Major Round 2 Winners Brackets

	1990s Game 10 - Major Bracket - Round 2 - Pivot Round Winner Advacnes
1990	Juniors Kids (3-1)		3 - 5 - 0
1996	Chippers (1-0)		4 - 9 - 1
	W: Carlos Perez (1-0)		L: Tom Gordon (1-2)
	HR 1990: Bob Geren (3)
	HR 1996: Chipper Jones (1)
	MVP: Chipper Jones (1)
	Chipers (2-0) Advance as #1 Seed

	1990s Game 11 - Winner Advances
1999	Todd's Gods (1-0)		4 - 10 - 0
1991	Maple Larry's (1-0)		2 - 6 - 0
	W: Jesus Sanchez (1-0)		L: Scott Radinksy (0-1)
	HR 1999: None
	HR 1991: None
	MVP: Jesus Sanchez (1)
	Todd's Gods (2-0) Advance as #2 Seed

Major Round 2 Losers Bracket (elimination Games)

	1990s Game 12 - Elimination Game
1995	Manny Being Manny (2-1)		5 - 6 - 0
1992	Team Pudge 1992 (0-1)		3 - 6 - 2
	W: Joey Hamilton (2-0)		L: Al Osuna (0-1)
	HR 1995: none
	HR 1992: none
	MVP: Joey Hamilton (2)
	Team Pudge 92 (0-2) Eliminated finish 8th orginal seed 1

	1990s Game 13 - Elimination Game
1994	Piazza Peeps (0-1)		3 - 8 - 0
1993	Kenny's Kids (0-1)		1 - 4 - 2
	W: Steve Cooke (1-0)		Dave Fleming (0-1)
	HR 1994: none
	HR 1993: none
	MVP: Steve Cooke (1)
	Kenny's Kids (0-2) Eliminated Finish 7th original seed 3

Major Round 3 WTA Bracket, Winners advance, Losers Eliminated. 

	1990s Game 14 - Major Bracket - Round 3 - WTA Round
1995	Manny Being Manny (3-1)		1 - 2 - 0
1991	Maple Larry's (1-1)		2 - 4 - 2
	W: Kevin Appier (2-0)		L: Brian Anderson (1-2)
	HR 1995: none
	HR 1991: Felix Jose (1)
	MVP: Felix Jose (1)
	Maple Larry's (2-1) Advance as #4 Seed

	1990s Game 15- WTA Game
1994	Piazza Peeps (1-1)		1 - 3 - 1
1990	Juniors Kids (3-2)		3 - 6 - 0
	W: Jim Abbott (3-0)		L: Greg McMichael (0-2)
	HR 1994: none
	HR 1990: none
	MVP: Jim Abbott (2)
	Juniors's Kids (4-2) Advancd as #3 Seed

This brings us to the Final Four who will meet in a pair of best of 3 semi-finals

The 1-4 match up is:

1991	Maple Larry's (2-1)
1996	Chippers (2-0)

The 2-3 match up is:

1990	Juniors Kids (4-2)
1999	Todds Gods (2-0)

The 2-3 pairing features the surprises with 8 seeded Juniors Kids and #6 Todd's Gods both getting to the semis. #1 seed Kenny Kids had a horrible showing, losing both of their games to finish 6th in the 10 team tournament. 

Ok that is it for now, The Final four will be featured in our next post.