Upper Deck Company - Company History - 1989 Set and Ken Griffey, Jr.

1989 Set and Ken Griffey, Jr.

In the 1989 Upper Deck baseball set, Ken Griffey, Jr. was selected to be featured on card number one. The decision to make Griffey, Jr. the first card was reached in late 1988.

A teenage employee named Tom Geideman was the one who suggested the use of Griffey as its choice for the number-one card. Traditionally, Topps had a system for reserving various numbers in their sets (such as numbers 1 and 100) for the biggest stars in the game. Geideman decided that a top prospect should be honored with the number one card in the inaugural 1989 set. After reviewing Baseball America, Geideman narrowed the list of candidates to four: Gregg Jefferies of the New York Mets, Gary Sheffield of the Milwaukee Brewers, Sandy Alomar, Jr. of the San Diego Padres, and Ken Griffey, Jr. Geideman was a Mariners fan and decided that Ken Griffey, Jr. should be the prospect featured on card number one of the 1989 set.

At press time, Griffey had not yet played a major league game, so Upper Deck used an image of Griffey in a San Bernardino Spirit uniform. Competitors such as Score and Topps neglected to include a card of Griffey in their regular 1989 sets. Both brands would make a card of Griffey in their end of year Traded sets. Such neglect helped Upper Deck gain exposure due to the popularity of Griffey in the 1989 MLB season.

Despite the popularity of the Griffey card, it was not a scarce card. The card was situated in the top left hand corner of the uncut sheets and was more liable to be cut poorly or have its corners dinged. Company policy was that if a customer found a damaged card in its package, the company would replace it. Many Griffey cards were returned and the result was that Upper Deck printed many uncut sheets (sheets consisting of 100 cards) of just the Griffey card. According to Professional Sports Authenticator, the Ken Griffey, Jr. would become the most graded card of all time with the company. PSA graded over 50,000 of the cards. The Beckett Grading card service has evaluated over 25,000 of the Ken Griffey, Jr. rookie cards.