Upper Deck will start 2009 by…looking back at ’08.
Upper Deck’s 2009 baseball card release will include an insert set devoted to significant events of 2008–in and out of the sports world. The company is releasing a “Top 10” series entitled “Historic Firsts” which will be sprinkled inside its base set. Topping the list will be a card paying tribute to President Barack Obama.
“Despite the country’s economic woes, the past year included an incredible amount of unique firsts,” said Kerri Stockholm, Upper Deck’s director of Sports Marketing. “So in an effort to help restore enthusiasm and hope across this great land of ours, Upper Deck decided to acknowledge many of these noteworthy achievements by way of this special card set. And with President Obama’s moving inauguration ceremony on Tuesday, the timing couldn’t be better.”
The “Historic Firsts” cards, inserted at a rate of 1:6 packs in Upper Deck’s 2009 
Series One Baseball release, will be available in early February. Boxes and cases are already being pre-sold on eBay.
Other notable achievements in the collection include, from the political arena: the “First Female Candidate on GOP’s Presidential Ticket” (Sarah Palin); from the military sector, the “First Female to be Promoted to U.S. Four-Star General” (Army General Ann E. Dunwoody); and from the science-and-technology region, the “First Privately Developed Space Launch” (SpaceX Falcon 1).
Within the sports world, several historical firsts took place, including Michael Phelps’ eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Other notable sports-related “firsts” are represented by the “First NHL Winter Classic” (Sabres vs. Penguins, Jan. 1); the “First Asian-American MLB Manager is Named” (Don Wakamatsu); the “First Indian Players to Sign MLB Contracts” (Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel); the “First World Series Game to be Continued” (Game 5, Oct. 27 and 29). Upper Deck will also toot its own horn with the “First Collector to Complete Upper Deck’s Historic Yankee Stadium Legacy Set” (Tommy Baxter).
