# Baseball Stars' "Rookie Year" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 30, 2001, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-stars-rookie-year/63783 "2001-04-30T01:17:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2001, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-stars-rookie-year/63783/1 "2001-04-30T01:17:49Z")
What was Sammy Sosa’a and Mark Maguire’s rookie years? And, What would each of their (Topps) rookie cards, in excellent condition, be worth to a collector today? ---
**Author:** ![DynoSaur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DynoSaur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DynoSaur)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2001, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-stars-rookie-year/63783/2 "2001-04-30T02:02:41Z")
Sosa’s first year was 1989. Came up with Texas, was traded to Chicago. No, not the Cubs, the other Chicago. Y’know, the team with the crappy stadium… McGwire first came up for a bit in '86, but I think his rookie year was considered '87. Didn’t do half bad for a rookie, what with the 49 HR and all…and that was back when 49 was a lot. As for card value…I have no idea. ---
**Author:** ![Crunchy\_Frog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ebca7d/32.png) [@Crunchy\_Frog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crunchy_Frog)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2001, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-stars-rookie-year/63783/3 "2001-04-30T04:37:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by DynoSaur \* > **McGwire first came up for a bit in '86, but I think his rookie year was considered '87. Didn’t do half bad for a rookie, what with the 49 HR and all…and that was back when 49 was a lot.** 49 is _still_ a lot. Sosa led the league last year with 50 homeruns. And McGwire’s 49 set the rookie record for homeruns in a season IIRC. As for worth, I saw one online going for $475.00. It was graded a 9 by the PSA. I don’t know what that means exactly, since I’m not a card collector, but I’m guessing that may be a 9 out of a scale of 1-10. ---
**Author:** ![Crunchy\_Frog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ebca7d/32.png) [@Crunchy\_Frog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crunchy_Frog)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2001, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-stars-rookie-year/63783/4 "2001-04-30T04:39:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Crunchy Frog \* > \*\*. Sosa led the league last year with 50 homeruns. > \*\* That is, Sosa led the Natinoal League. I believe Troy Glaus of the Angels led the American League with 47 homeruns. ---
**Author:** ![mouthbreather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a698b9/32.png) [@mouthbreather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mouthbreather)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2001, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-stars-rookie-year/63783/5 "2001-04-30T13:37:41Z")
Re: The PSA grading scale – You send cards into this company, and they are scrutized down to the smallest detail. They are then given a “grade” on a scale from one to ten. Most cards that look like they are Mint to the naked eye often come back as only rated as sevens or eights. The true 10s(Gem Mint) are a very rare find. On ebay, PSA 10 McGwire rookies (his 1985 Topps Olympic Card) sell for around $4500. the 1990 Sosa Leaf Rookie sells in the $500 range for PSA 10. Keep in mind that this is not a linear scale. While the PSA 10 McGwire sells for around $4500, PSA 9s only sell in the $350 - $400 range, while PSA 8s sell in the $80-$120 range. ---
**Author:** ![mouthbreather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a698b9/32.png) [@mouthbreather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mouthbreather)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2001, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-stars-rookie-year/63783/6 "2001-04-30T13:42:09Z")
Sosa played 33 games with the Chicago White Sox in his rookie year of 1989. McGwire played Oakland Athletics in his rookie year of 1986. I don’t know what the cutoff point is, but under X amount of games played in your first year can still qualify you as a rookie for the next year. I do believe that in McGwire’s breakout 1987 year, he was still considered a “rookie”. ---
**Author:** ![mouthbreather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a698b9/32.png) [@mouthbreather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mouthbreather)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2001, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-stars-rookie-year/63783/7 "2001-04-30T13:43:34Z")
“McGwire played Oakland Athletics in his rookie year of 1986.” Should read: McGwire played 18 games with Oakland Athletics in his rookie year of 1986. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2001, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-stars-rookie-year/63783/8 "2001-04-30T15:16:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by mouthbreather \* > \*\*Sosa played 33 games with the Chicago White Sox in his rookie year of 1989. > > McGwire played Oakland Athletics in his rookie year of 1986. > > I don’t know what the cutoff point is, but under X amount of games played in your first year can still qualify you as a rookie for the next year. I do believe that in McGwire’s breakout 1987 year, he was still considered a “rookie”. \*\* The standard is that a player who has LESS than: - 45 days on a major league roster or - 130 plate appearances or - 30 innings pitched, or maybe it’s 50 …is still a rookie, so McGwire was a rookie in 1987. However, his “rookie card” for baseball card purposes is the FIRST card he ever appeared on. Whether that’s 1986 or 1987 I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![mouthbreather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a698b9/32.png) [@mouthbreather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mouthbreather)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2001, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-stars-rookie-year/63783/9 "2001-04-30T15:30:50Z")
It’s 1985. That year Topps put out cards for the 1984 Olympic Team which included future MLB’ers McGwire, Cory Snyder, Mike Dunne, Oddibe MCDowell, Shane Mack and some others I’m probably forgetting. ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2001, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-stars-rookie-year/63783/10 "2001-05-02T16:55:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by mouthbreather \* > \*\*It’s 1985. > > That year Topps put out cards for the 1984 Olympic Team which included future MLB’ers McGwire, Cory Snyder, Mike Dunne, Oddibe MCDowell, Shane Mack and some others I’m probably forgetting. \*\* Yeah, but would my complete (unopened) set of 1985 Topps baseball cards contain his rookie card? - Jinx ---
**Author:** ![mouthbreather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a698b9/32.png) [@mouthbreather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mouthbreather)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2001, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baseball-stars-rookie-year/63783/11 "2001-05-02T18:28:36Z")
Yes. It’s card # 401, IIRC. Keep in mind what I said above, though. Don’t get too excited – unopened does not always = mint. Printing errors (Off centered, smudges, etc.) can and very commonly do turn those (potentially) $4000 cards into $80 cards pretty quickly.