The 2023 Major League Baseball season is a wrap. The Texas Rangers made club history by capturing the club’s first World Series title and Cory Seager etched his name in the history books as one of the greatest postseason players of the era. Two generational talents in Los Angeles Angels dual threat unicorn Shohei Ohtani and Atlanta Braves do it all outfielder Ronald Acuna both captured unanimous MVP awards in their respective leagues. The top rookies have been named. The award winning pitchers have been honored. Baseball is over, or is it?
As sports fans know, there is no such thing as an offseason anymore, so after presenting some awesome and affordable early 1990s baseball card insert sets toward the end of last season, we now present the second half of our journey–this one focused on the last half of the decade.
We start with my high school graduation year of 1996 (really) and work our way through our voyage (nearly) into the new millennium.
1995 Leaf Statistical Standouts
Found in series one hobby packs at a rate of 1 in every 70 packs, these were a pretty tough pull. The Leaf Statistical Standouts set features nine of the biggest stars in the game. These greats produced numbers so eye popping each night in the box score that they were household names and, in turn, sat atop the league leaders across the board.
The names you would expect are found here from card number one where you would find Toronto Blue Jays superstar Joe Carter all the way through card number nine, San Francisco Giants slugger and perennial home run leader Matt Williams. Griffey’s here. Ripken. Mattingly and Puckett, too.
What makes these cards so unique and special is the design. You can almost see the rawhide and the unmistakable bright red stitching of the baseball. In the foreground, you will find an action shot of the player with the words ‘Statistical Standouts’ layered in gold foil across the top. The player’s facsimile signature is scrolled across their body near the sweet spot of the ball. The Leaf logo and team name is found at the bottom of the card.
These tough to find inserts were serial numbered to 5,000, back when a number that huge actually meant something. Thanks to the internet, they’re much easier to find today. My personal favorite is the Frank Thomas card. The Big Hurt is seen following through one of his classically powerful swings. Pure 90s.
1996 Leaf Gold Stars
One of the more elegant insert sets from the era resides in the 1996 Leaf product. The Gold Stars set literally has the look of a gold bar and for that reason, looks rather valuable. The foundation is a beautiful gold color with a raised effect. At the top of the card is the player’s last name, followed by the team name and a foil Leaf logo. Below that there is a relatively small action shot of the player fading onto, or off of, the gold bar with a 22-karat circular stamp/logo on the bottom of the card.
The 15-card gold trimmed set has a serial number print run of 2,500 copies with a very difficult 1 in 190-ish packs. So in a sense, it was like striking gold back in the middle of the junk era. You can find your very own gold bar cards of player such as Thomas, Ripken, Jr., Greg Maddux and many more. Most ungraded copies are still quite budget friendly.
1996 Leaf Hats Off
The 90s were the golden era for groundbreaking ingenuity in trading card designs. One of the more fun and unique was found in 1996 when Leaf produced an insert that called Hats Off. The card set featured the biggest stars in the game, including Ken Griffey Jr. and Cal Ripken (do you see a theme here?) who were inserted in retail packs at a clip of one and every 72 packs.
What makes this insert set unique is that these guys were printed and embossed on a wool like material to offer the feel of a real Major League Baseball hat. These fuzzy cards featured the player’s name scrolling from the bottom to the top of the left hand side in a thick gold styling. The backdrop of the card features the aforementioned fuzzy feeling with the teams hat logo prominently displayed across the card. In the foreground you will find a large image of the player and in the lower corner, you will see the gold foil Hats Off logo.
These cards are serial numbered to 5,000, still carry value today, at least in terms of the big stars. The semi stars and minor stars can be found for 10 bucks or less, but if you’re looking for a Ken or a Cal, expect to pay $50+. The overall design and the way the unique card set was pulled off makes it a must on our short list of cool inserts of the late 90’s.
1996 Select En Fuego
One of my absolute favorites on the list is the extremely cool, well hot, 1996 Select En Fuego insert set. Back in the mid 1990s, ESPN Sportscenter anchors were arguably as cool (or cooler) than the athletes that they were talking about each day. Iconic anchor Dan Patrick was right at the top of the cool kid class. Every anchor seemed to have their own catch phrases that became part of the sports lexicon forevermore, and one of Patrick’s famous was when he went bilingual and started using the term en fuego. When a player got hot, you could rest assure that this catch phrase would be mentioned on the highlight reel.
The insert set itself was pretty fire in its own right. The 25-card set featured the hottest players in baseball from icons like Ken Griffey, Jr,. Barry Bonds, Cal Ripken, Jr., and more. It also captured players that were just hot for a short period of time, such as Reggie Sanders and Hideo Nomo. These things happen.
Select outdid itself. These hotties were some of those eye-catching cards of the year as the set combined catchy Dufex technology and etched foil technology which offered an incredible visual with the red hot backdrop. Coupled with the etching of the player in action in the foreground, it was striking. The team logo was in a square box at the bottom of the card, with the words En Fuego in big bold letters and the player’s name in a graphic bar below. The backs of the cards were pretty standard but most interestingly, they feature an personal quote about the featured star on the front by none other than Patrick himself.
The iconic sportscaster is, himself, featured on a card in the set in which he is gripping the lumber placed on his shoulder, in full three piece suit, of course. It looks like we just walked off the set on ESPN ready to take some BP. His SC teammate Keith Olbermann made an interesting assertion on the back of Patrick’s card, offering up the information that Patrick initially said el fuego for years, which means ‘the fire’ but after a Spanish teacher wrote in to correct him the famous phrase was replaced, rebranded and the rest is hot history.
Although these cards are affordable, they aren’t the easiest to find as they were pulled in one in every 48 packs, and with a decent 25-card checklist, it was tough to snag the player you wanted, let alone piece together the full set. My personal favorite card in the set is the Patrick card followed closely by the Barry Bonds offering where he’s following through on his classic swing. You will only have to expect to pay a few bucks each for these eye-catching pieces of cardboard. Do yourself a favor and build this fun set and add it to your collection.
1996 Pacific Prisms Flame Throwers
We stick with the year 1996 (and the heat) for our next selection. This time we head over to the late great Pacific Trading Cards and catch the Prism Flame Throwers insert set. This had 1990s artistry and design (and maybe even NASCAR apparel) written all over it. The beauty lies in that uniqueness and time sensitive design. The 10-card set features some of the hardest throwing hurlers in the game, including all time greats like Randy Johnson and Roger Clemens right down the lineup card to Ramon Martinez and Jose Mesa.
The horizontally designed card is die cut in the form of a full length foil flame on the left hand side that transitions to the bright white, red laced baseball on the right hand side of the card with a cool, circular die cut to round off the card. The pitcher featured is shown releasing one of his signature fastballs (presumably) with his name in gold foil at the bottom along with the Pacific logo. These literal fireball cards are so unique and affordable that we had to add the set to our short list.
My personal favorite fire from the set are the Mike Mussina and Hideo Nomo cards, which show both pictures of these pitchers in full intensity mode ready launch their fastest fastball past the helpless batter in front of them. All of these cards can be had for ten dollars or less in raw form.
1997 E-X2000 A Cut Above
Hitting in the sixth hole in our affordable insert set is one that’s not super affordable, but it still makes our list. We hit the time machine and go back to 1997 to the E-X 2000 A Cut Above set. The players featured are a cut above the rest of the league and this set that takes that term literally as the card is fully die cut top and bottom in the form of a table saw blade. Said blade has a can’t miss silver holographic foil backdrop in a die cut form really pops, even by today’s standards. The player is featured prominently in the center of the card and the Cut Above logo is featured with the player’s name directly below it in similar font.
This has mid-90s insert set written all over it with the die cut nature and the overabundance of foil.
The E-X 2000 set was definitely considered a premium at the time, and the fact that these bad boys were inserted one in every 288 packs makes them a dangerous insert set to piece together. The players featured in the set are also very dangerous, as it’s 10 of the biggest and best power hitters of the day, from Ken Griffey Jr. and Mark McGwire all the way down to Manny Ramirez and Fred McGriff.
Collectors can expect to pay $30 or more for semi stars and $100 or more for the bigger stars in the set. Hey, you would happily pay $50 for a pack of nothing today’s market. These bad boys have had 30-plus years of staying power.
My favorite card is the gorgeous Junior Griffey card in which he’s shown completing his sweet swing, apparently ripping a ball to the right side of the field. That one is the most expensive in the set.
1997 Fleer Lumber Company
We’re going to continue with the theme of super cool die cuts. This particular set could give collectors paper cuts as we travel to the 1997 Fleer Lumber Company lumber yard in search of this wood grain inspired set. This 18-card set featured the batters who walk softly and carry the big stick, or something like that. This was a pretty mild-mannered subset and insert set until Fleer went to chop down some giant sequoias to create this completely upgraded die cut oval insert set on what appears to be a tree stump or chopped piece of wood. You could almost count the rings on these unique cards. The player himself is also die cut from the neck up and hangs off the card itself. The Fleer logo, the player’s name, the team logo are featured and the Lumber Company logo is seen at the bottom left of the card.
This set was exclusive to series one packs, with cards inserted one in 18 retail packs. The stars of the set were of course, Junior, Barry Bonds, and Mark McGwire to name a few. The all-timers kept good company with other future Hall of Famers and greats of the time, including Jeff Bagwell, Juan Gonzalez, Mike Piazza, Frank Thomas and more. Heck, you could even find Ellis Burks, Todd Hundley and Ryan Klesko in the set.
You could pick up the vast majority of these cards for between $5-$10 a piece with the Griffey commanding more. My personal favorite card in the set, as you might imagine if you’ve been playing along, is the Griffey. He was at the height of his superpowers, with a career-high 125 runs, the first of his back-to-back 56 home run seasons as well as a career-high 147 RBI, the AL MVP and a Gold Glove Award winner and of course, an AL All-Star that season. This season is the reason I have a dog named Griffey today. The man, the myth, the legend.
1997 Ultra Thunderclap
Found one and every 18 series two hobby packs, this 10-card set features the players known to swing a power bat during that era. Whether it was directly or indirectly, the design harkens back to the classic movie The Natural that clearly ties to the superpower hitting abilities that many of these sluggers showed at the dish. It’s also eerily reminiscent of the Fleer basketball version of the Scoring Kings, which also sees cracks of lightning in a thunderous rainstorm, which would make my list of 1990s basketball inserts.
My favorite card, aside from, you guessed it, Griff, would be card number three featuring Mark McGwire. Check out those long curly locks, the perfect 90’s goatee and the huge guns. Yes, the power may have been ‘enhanced’ but there’s no debating that he was bringing as much thunder at the plate as anyone during that time frame and was a no-brainer of a choice in this fun and very inexpensive set.
1998 Metal Universe Diamond Heroes
There is such a wide range of cool inserts to choose from during this era that it’s hard to select only ten. My next choice is found in 1998 when we turn on our DVD player and pop in a great super hero flick. Metal Universe produced the newest issue of baseball’s Diamond Heroes and it looks like you would have to go to the newsstand and grab one off the shelf. All joking aside, this insert set paints the super heroes of baseball on a design that looks like a comic book cover. The player is shown in action with all types of super-powered images and fantastical designs in the backdrop. The cards have the Diamond Heroes title across the top of the card the team’s logo and then comic book fashion prices and dates of the issue. The player’s name is listed at the bottom next to the Metal Universe logo with a starburst of the title for each issue. Check out the Iron Man inspired Cal Ripken card/comic cover for a great example of the concept.
The checklist has only six cards but does include Griffey and Thomas. These were inserted in packs at a rate of one in 18 packs. This is the definition of a condition sensitive set with all the grandiose foil and artwork. Diamond Heroes are super tough in high-grade but in ungraded form they can be had for $30 or less–even Junior.
1999 Topps Chrome Lords of the Diamond
Our top 10 is rounded out at the end of the decade and millennium when we head over to the 1999 Topps Chrome Lords of the Diamond insert set. Not overly difficult to find as they reside one in every eight series one Chrome packs but if you are looking for something more difficult, feel free to track down the much more expensive refractor parallels.
This intricate, ornate and rather busy insert set is pulled off well. The top of the card offers a diamond or triangle die cut with the words Lords of the Diamond scrolling across like a movie title. The players are featured in a crisp action shot and the backdrop (especially the refractor versions) is all kinds of levels of holographic shiny technologies. The shapes and visual is hard to capture well in a picture, so you’ll have to pick one up yourself. These are very reasonable in terms of price as basically any card in the set can be found for 10 bucks or less but like we mentioned earlier, if you’re looking few more diamonds to add to your crown, start tracking down the refractors in PSA 10 slabs.
That wraps up our second half and, in turn, our full decade of awesome and (generally) affordable 1990s baseball insert sets. Here’s hoping this piece inspired you to go track down some of these great cards from three decades ago.
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