The Makers of 2002 Donruss: Apparently Not Griffey Fans


In my collection: 2 regular

Griffey looks: attentive

Is this a good Griffey card? Yes.  Though light in the Griffey category, this is one of Donruss' best designs in years.

The set: When Donruss returned to the market in 2001 after spending two years getting their shit straight, they came back like gagbusters with a positively absurd number of inserts, parallels, and parallels of inserts.  2001 Donruss contains 25 Griffeys, and that's only counting the flagship set.  I feel like you, the reader, need to know this in order to appreciate the near-Griffeylessness of 2002 Donruss flagship.

This is a set that certainly has it's share of inserts, parallels and auto/relic cards, but it doesn't touch the complication of trying to peice together what they did in 2001.  Griffey is given no special treatment - no inserts, GU or AU cards.  In fact, there are only three Griffey cards in 2002 Donruss, and two of them are parallels of the base.  That's only 12% the Griffey output of the previous year.  As a Griffey collector, a completist, and a card blogger, this set is a damn vacation.

The base set has a great classic baseball design.  This is a change as their design had been slanting more modern in the mid-to-late 90s' and in 2001.  Here banners, logos, and baseball diamonds abound; and every card is pinstriped on the front and back.  And that back is great, putting the Kid against a blue background (of empty seats - yowch) that complements all the red in the card nicely.  Overall, an aesthetically pleasing design.

Let's check out that Griffey:

The Kid is attentive here, focused on the ball he just crushed, watching to see if it will clear the fence or drop into the gap at the warning track.  Either way, that swing probably just brought Barry Larkin home from 2nd base.

The only Griffeys I am missing are parallels, and here they are:

#79 Career Stat Line Parallel #/296 (career average)
#79 Season Stat Line Parallel

Griffey didn't even make it as a Diamond King for the 2001 set, drastically reducing the number of Griffeys in this set.  This is a blessing and a curse as I do love Diamond Kings but hate holes in my collection.

Then again, as a Griffey collector I'm used to living without.

The City of New Orleans is 295 years old today - celebrate with a hurricane, some fried catfish, or by urinating behind a dumpster on a side street and getting tackled by an undercover police officer and made to spend the night in parish lockup while your parents wait for the bank to open to get bail money that one time when I was 19.