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Some aspects of the cards are upgrades over last year's set and, like nearly every other product on the market, the price has risen considerably. Nevertheless, the Topps company has once again made available a collection of glossy cards, each with impressive photographs of most current players.

For a far more detailed description of the cards, I recommend checking out “Topps Series 1 Review,” a February 25^th article available at the social media page of 9Inningknowitall. The author discusses not only the design of the standard cards, but also points out the beauty and blemishes of some of the special edition inserts.

One particular criticism he has of the 2024 Topps collection does indeed involve one of these special edition collectible cards, a view I happen to share.

“I’m not certain why there is an insert set dedicated to Ken Griffey Jr. this year, but it feels really generic,” the writer states. “They continue the theme of an insert based on the cards of 35 years ago and so this year it’s 1989 which again feels very generic and useless.”

Even as a Cincinattian whose childhood in the Seventies was immersed in the Big Red Machine, I have never really understood baseball's idolatry of the former outfielder nicknamed “The Kid.” We in the Queen City were of course very familiar with Griffey long before he began his professional career, having been a star on the high school team at Cincinnati Moeller.

The 1989 season can be remembered for a number of reasons, so Junior would not even make the Top Ten. He was, considering all the hype that preceded his debut, actually a sort of disappointment during his first season.

An overwhelming favorite to win the honor of American League Rookie of the Year, Griffey finished a distant third behind reliever Gregg Olson of the Baltimore Orioles and Kansas City right hander Tom Gordon. Nor did Griffey win a Gold Glove nor a Silver Slugger, nor did he even earn a spot on the All-Star team.

He of course would eventually accomplish all three of those honors, and he would even get his only Most Valuable Player Award eight years after 1989. The decision by Topps to print a special card for Griffey in its attempt to honor the 35^th anniversary of 1989 seems short-sided, as well as a snub to the far greater accomplishments of that season.

While Griffey's Mariners were finishing next to last in the A.L. West with a 73-89 record, the Oakland A's were on their way to winning their first World Series since 1974. Surely honoring manager Tony Larussa or some of the stars on that Oakland roster would have been more deserving than a guy who hit .264 and just 16 home runs, I spite of all the hype that had followed him.

How about a collector's card of Robin Yount, the future Hall of Fame shortstop of the Mikwaukee Brewers? He was the league's best player in 1989, who had 21 homers, 103 runs batted in, and hit .317 for the year.

Yount's counterpart in the National League had even better numbers in 1989, so he certainly is more deserving of a collector's card than Griffey. Kevin Mitchell produced 47 home runs and 125 runs batted, both league highs, while also leading the San Francisco Giants to the National League pennant.

While he does deserve, at some point, to warrant a special card, it should not be in honor of his 1989 season. In fact, his hometown team, in Cincinnati, which he would join a decade later, actually is more worthy of a special card than is Griffey.

The Reds in 1989 had in place the pieces that would one year later do the A's what the A's had done to the Giants that year, which is sweep them in the World Series. Cincinnati would remain contenders for the rest of that decade with numerous postseason appearances, led by future Hall of Fame shortstop Barry Larkin.

All their fortunes would go awry at the turn of the century after blowing up a talented team in a rueful trade that brought home Griffey, who had become disgruntled because of the distance of new fences at Seattle's new ball park. His time in Cincinnati was forgettable, saddled by underperforming numbers, injuries and declining skills, culminating in an embarrassing scene of his taking a nap in the locker room while his teammates were playing a game.

Because of a largely stellar career, we can overlook the deficiencies of Griffey. He definitely deserves recognition by Topps, perhaps wait until the anniversary of 1989..