2024 Topps 1989 retro #89B2-10 Gunnar Henderson

I opened my first pack of 2024T series 2 a few weeks ago and sadly did not get any new Rookie Cup cards, However...

I did get one Rookie Cup from the 1989 Retro insert and it was a good one. 

2024 Topps 1989 retro #89B2-10 Gunnar Henderson, Baltimore Orioles

Henderson was the unanimous selection for 2023 AL Rookie of the Year. He led an excellent Junior Circuit Rookie Class in Home Runs, RBI and WAR all while playing Shortstop for the Division Champion Baltimore Orioles. 

And he is not suffering a sophomore jinx. He has 26 Home Runs mid-way through the season, second only to Aaron Judge. Gunnar is leading the league in WAR (5.9) and Runs Scored(70) and is in the top 10 in a bunch of other categories: RBI, Total Bases, Hits, OBP, XBH, BB, OPS. 

There is only one Shortstop in MLB history to post a 50+ Home Run season, Alex Rodriguez (57 2002, 52 2001). If Henderson can match his first half the rest of the season he would join this exclusive club. 

Picture This 

We scoured Getty Images and found the original photo for the card. It was taken by Brandon Sloter who describes himself as a "Funtographer" on Instagram. According to the information attached to the image the picture was taken at Camden Yards during an Orioles 2-0 victory over the Boston Red Sox on September 28 2023. It was not a noteworthy game for Henderson who when 0 for 3 with a couple of strikeouts. Since the shot is of him fielding we will note that he had 3 assists in the game which helped Pitcher Dean Kremer to his 13th and final victory of the season. 

In the image we can also see the Memorial Patch dedicated to 16 time gold glove winner Brooks Robinson, which feels appropriate on a card showing a player in the field.  

1989 Topps   

The 35 anniversary insert this year is 1989T. The shortstop on that year's Cup squad also took home Rookie of the Year Honors, Walt Weiss. 

Weiss numbers were not nearly as impressive as Henderson in fact they are pretty pedestrian (.250, 3, 39) with a 2.8 WAR. However Weiss did play for the 1989 Oakland A's who won the World Championship. 

We will tackle the 1989 AL ROY voting in the future, but I will summarize by noting only 2 players had double digit Home Runs, one of them batted .215 and the other was a DH that did not play into the 1990s. So it is safe to say that Walt Weiss won a ROY award but it was partially due to a pretty weak class. 

Sources and Links

2024 Topps All-Star Rookie Cup Subset Index

1989 Topps All-Star Rookie Cup Subset Index

Game Dated Cards Index

Baseball-Ref

Getty Images

NYT - Ken Rosenthal

1962 Topps #288 Billy Williams

Today's All-Star Rookie Cup posting brings us to Hall of Famer Billy Williams who is the oldest living Hall of Famer to have also won a Rookie Cup. 

The recent passing of Willie Mays has pushed the 86 year old Williams into 8th place among the eldest surviving Hall of Famers - and 6th among players. 

1962 Topps #288 Billy Williams (image lifted from tcdb)

1962 Topps is one of my favorite designs - the novelty of the wood grain only used here and in 1987 keeps the idea fresh. I also like how the rolled up photo illusion slides our eyes into the full size Rookie Cup trophy.

Williams is captured here in follow through of his "Sweet Swinging" form - the rollup flows with the swing here as well. All this adds up to a really great early card of a Future Hall of Famer. 

Rookie of the Year

Billy Williams earned NL Rookie of the Year honors by leading the 1961 freshman class with 25 Home Run 86 RBI and 256 Total Bases.  However...

Even in the pre-analytics days Voters recognized the importance of the catching position with just under of a third of the ballots favoring future HOF Joe Torre. Saving deeper analysis for a future aWARds column, but for today's discussion it's enough to say that Billy Williams led NL rookies in 2 of the 3 Triple Crown categories and it is really hard to argue against those criteria in the Rookie of the Year voting. 

1962 Topps #288 Billy Williams (flip)

 

Little hard to make out but here we see the rest of Billy Williams numbers for his ROY campaign. The 146 games is noteworthy as that his a high number for a rookie by today's standards and the phrase "played everyday" definitely applied to Williams. For a decade from 1962-1971 averaged 161 games and was just below superlative threshold numbers (29 HR /98 RBI/.298 AVG)

 

I also want to point out in the demographics section that specifies Williams' Home as "Whislter, Ala." Which is of course the tail end of his nickname "Sweet Swingin' Billy from Whistler"

Always a fan of cards with comics. The presentation on 1962T is a bit different - it is more of an illustration than a comic. A lot of the rookie cup cards in the early era of the subset have comics focused on the cup. This one is ok - cup is a bit distant and I cannot tell which character is giving or receiving the award. 

Note that the card makes no mention of Williams Rookie of the Year award.

 

More Rookie Iconogaphy

 

1962 Topps is not the only time that a Billy Williams card features rookie related iconography 

 

1961 Topps #141 Billy Williams

 

In just 1961 and 1962 Topps added a Star Icon to a few of the rookies in the set. Other notables from 1961 were Carl Yastrzemski and Phillies Catcher Clarence Coleman. Hall of Famer Juan Marichal's rookie card is in 1961T but did not get a Rookie Star Icon.

Sources and Links

1962 Topps All-Star Rookie Cup Subset Index

Billy Williams HOF Index

Baseball-Ref

NBC Bay Area

1970 Topps Rookie Cup Team

This is an index to postings related to the 1970 Topps All-Star Rookie Team which honored rookies from the 1969 season. 

166	AL OLIVER	Pirates	1B
174	TED SIZEMORE	Dodgers	2B
238	JOSE LABOY	Expos	3B
645	DON MONEY	Phillies	SS
288	LARRY HISLE	Phillies	OF
321	LOU PINIELLA	Royals	OF
18	Carlos May (no cup)	White Sox	OF
232	BOB DIDIER	Braves	C
39	MIKE NAGY	Red Sox	RHP
377	BILL BUTLER	Royals	LHP

Sources and Links

All-Star Rookie Index

Baseball-Ref

Topps.com