Before he sold his soul to the Devil Bud Selig, started turning tricks fighting former football players in Atlantic City, and claiming that Madonna wanted to have his child, Jose Canseco actually was a hell of a baseball player. In fact, he was almost worthy of the Hall of Fame. Canseco was the first man to hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases in one season (1988), has Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player awards to his name, owns (at least I think he still owns it) a championship ring and was one of the most feared sluggers in the game for nearly a decade.

In the Bay Area during the late 1980s and 1990s it was tough to go anywhere and not hear someone talking about The Bash Brothers, or to see Canseco and Mark McGwire’s likeness plastered on some television, poster or T-shirt. And it was no different in the baseball card market. This 1986 Donruss Jose Canseco rookie card was the epitome of modern collecting, save all cards made prior to 1975, for nearly two years during his run at 40/40 and for a while afterward. Before people in the hobby were talking about error cards, game-used jerseys and Albert Pujols Bowman Chrome rookie cards, they were talking about this bad boy. And for good reason. At one point this card fetched in the neighborhood of $150-$200, but nowadays you could probably get your hands on a non-graded copy for about 1 percent of that. And honestly, it’s well worth it when you consider the history of this card. It still brings a smile to my face to say I own the Jose Canseco rookie card.

This entry was posted on July 12, 2008 at 1:22 am and is filed under Card of the Day with tags 1986 Donruss rated rookie, Atlantic City, baseball, baseball cards, Bud Selig, card collecting, Hall of fame, hobby, Jose Canseco, Madonna, Major Leaguse Baseball, Mark McGwire, rated rookie, rookie cards, sports, The Bash Brothers, Vai Sikahema. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.