’30-YOC Top Ten Lists’ – Top Ten Donruss Rated Rookie Baseball Cards!!!

’30-YOC Top Ten Lists’ – Top Ten Donruss Rated Rookie Baseball Cards!!!

I was going through a random stack of Cubs baseball cards from the 1980’s the other night and I ran across several cards from in-set subsets and insert cards that brought back a ton of memories from my youth as a baseball card collector.

Among the cards were a few Donruss Rated Rookie cards that made me pause and smile.  I used to really like the Rated Rookie subset and eagerly awaited the next Donruss release just to catch a glimpse of who they chose for the new set that year.

Like most rookie cards, the players selected were hit or miss.  For every future Cy Young pitcher, there was a Greg Swindell card.  For every future Gold Glove defender, there was a Jose Lind card.  And for every future member of the 500 Home Run Club, there was a Mackey Sasser card.

Still, over the spread of time that the Rated Rookie subset was included in the base set of Donruss’ releases (1984-1985), they did have their fare share of hits.

I thought it would be fun to look back and choose a ‘Top Ten’ for these cards as I was in my collecting prime as these rookie cards were highly coveted.

So, without any more chit-chat, let’s get right down to it – Here are my ‘Top Ten Donruss Rated Rookie baseball cards!!!

Honorable Mention – 1984: Tony Fernandez, Sid Fernandez. 1985 – Shawon Dunston. 1986 – Paul O’Neill, Andres Galarraga, Danny Tartabull. 1987 – Benito Santiago, Devon White, Rafael Palmeiro. 1988 – Al Leiter, Mark Grace. 1989 – Sandy Alomar, Jr., Gregg Jefferies. 1990 – Robin Ventura, Todd Zeile, Ben McDonald, Steve Avery, Delino DeShields, Greg Vaughn.

10 – Gary Sheffield, 1989

9 – Randy Johnson, 1989

8 – Mark McGwire – 1987

7 – Fred McGriff, 1986

6 – Joe Carter, 1984

5 – Roberto Alomar, 1988

4 – Bo Jackson, 1987

3 – Greg Maddux, 1987

2 –  Ken Griffey, Jr., 1989

1 – Jose Canseco, 1986

And there you have it.  Quite a list, huh??

I based my rankings on a multitude of things, but ultimately it came down to how significant I thought the card was at its time of release, how important the card was when the player was at his prime, and how collected the card is today.  I did not use any science in my measurements to get to these rankings – just my feel for the hobby 25+ years ago and at the present time.

How are my rankings?  Dead-on or Way-off??  Let me know what you think.

Oh, and here is one more peek at that fantastic Rated Rookie logo:

Enjoy!  And have a great evening.