This is part 20 of an ongoing series. To see the rest of this series, click here.

When I said “random,” I meant it. For this first “Triple R” post, I reached into one of my four rookie boxes and pulled out this mint condition 1987 Donruss David Cone card.

This Donruss series was always a hit with me. It is filled with rookie (or rookie year) cards of several stars from the late 1980s and 1990s. And the design I felt always made these cards seem better than they really were. The black borders immediately rewarded collectors who took care of their cards. And aside from the Mark McGwire “Rated Rookie” in this set, this David Cone was always a standout to me.

Cone played 17 years in the Big Leagues and ended his career just shy of 200 wins and 2,700 strike outs. He tossed a perfect game as a member of the New York Yankees and was the American League Cy Young Award winner during the strike-shortened 1994 season. He posted a career-high 262 strikeouts in 1992 while splitting time between the New York Mets and Toronto Blue Jays.

But while all of this is pretty common knowledge, I realized something new about Cone this morning: He is a FIVE-TIME World Series champion. That’s a pretty accomplished career … and his rookie card will cost you less than a buck, even in mint condition. Crazy.

This entry was posted on February 16, 2009 at 12:13 pm and is filed under Random Rookie Recap with tags 1987 Donruss, baseball cards, Cardboard Icons, Cy Young Award, David Cone, Kansas City Royals, New York Yankees, Random Rookie Recap, rookie cards, World Series. 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.