Gosh, watching an Indians/A’s baseball game in 1992 would have been exciting.
The A’s would more than likely stomp on the Tribe, but you would see Kenny Lofton and Rickey Henderson face off…which would be worth the price of admission. look at what they did that year:
- Henderson, 33, would hit .283/.426/.457 with 15 and steal 48 stolen bases. Two years removed from his MVP season, it was a down season for Henderson. Still, he was a top of the order talent and would remain so for another decade.
- Lofton, 25, would hit .285/.362/.365 with 5 HR and steal a league-leading 66 bases. He finished second in the ROY race behind Pat Listach. He would go on to be a top of the order catalyst for the 90’s Indians powerhouse teams.
This card is from the 1992 Pinnacle set.
By 1992 both Upper Deck and Topps had put out “premium” products, so this 1992 issue was Pinnacles first attempt in that market.
Within the set, there was a subset called “Idols”, which paired modern young stars with a veteran or retired star. To complement the “Idols” subset, Pinnacle also had a proper insert set in series 2 called “Rookie Idols”. The 18 card set was issued only in the second series, and were seeded 1:100 packs–so while they were not impossible to pull, when you consider that the set held 18 cards, it might have been tough to pull the card that you wanted.
For a while, in the ’90s this card was particularly popular. In the October 1996 issue of Beckett the card listed for $15/$30, and I know at one point it crept up to $50. The Zosky/Ripken, Poppel/Ryan and Thome/Sandberg were also very popular.