Mark on History Indeed: 1999 Upper Deck Challengers For 70

It was 1999, a year after the whirlwind season wherein Roger Maris’ long-time single-season home run record of 61 was shattered by not one but TWO different sluggers (asterisk, asterisk). We were in the afterglow of a media frenzy, and everyone was wondering what was next.

It seems Upper Deck was looking to build excitement about the next home run champ with a set of cards pitting all the league’s top sluggers against stupid McGwire’s stupid benchmark of 70 cheater-hits. I assume the ’98 race sold a lot of cardboard, so of course there were those that stood to benefit from continuing the momentum with another race. I always assumed that was the reasoning behind this set.

One of these guys eventually did end up being a “challenger for 70” albeit not in 1999; but we don’t talk about that around here. Because it, too, is total crap.

And even though I've been away for a while I assume no one has beaten Aaron's record recently, and this card remains relevant. I mean, what are the odds someone was able to do it in the two measly years I was away?

*Googles it*

Yep, Google says the record holder is "Aaron." Guess I haven't missed much...

You might think there’d be no pitchers anywhere in the checklist – only sluggers and a lot Lot LOT of asterisks – but that is not the case. Check out card #79 featuring Cubs pitcher Kerry Wood. 

I remember when he hit that home run (I actually followed baseball pretty closely in part thanks to that 1998 home run race). Sportscenter had a field day. I never realized until writing this that he got a card in this set of almost-all sluggers. Fun move by Upper Deck.

The base set is divided into several subsets most of which resemble inserts. It's hard to say which of the following we can call Junior's base card, so we'll just go in numerical order.

1999 Upper Deck Challengers for 70 #3
Power Elite

I had no idea this card came from this set. I always assumed it was a flagship insert or something. Don’t give me any guff about it, though – the brand name is nowhere on this thing. I'll give you one guess as to where the serial numbering goes on the parallel...

How ‘bout that chart? I am absolutely smitten with it. Man, I wish it had been him.

1999 Upper Deck Challengers for 70 #56
Home Run Highlights

Junior makes three appearances in the Home Run Highlights subset, and this one is my favorite. I love that image of him looking up at his moonshot like the ho-hum, everyday occurrence it was. I'm also partial to the blue jersey in Mariner-era images, all things being equal.

They simply doubled up the front image on the back which is forgivable given we get some alleged context in the blurb. I'll take it.

1999 Upper Deck Challengers for 70 #56
Home Run Highlights Challengers #/600

The #/600 Challengers parallel features holofoil in lieu of the standard gold foil of the regular base set. These aren't particularly cheap (though they used to be), so I only wanted to pick up one to showcase on the blog. I went with #56 as it is one of those numbers (along with 24, 30, 3, 17, and 630) that I immediately associate with Junior. The others are decent enough – his career #300, his 1500th RBI – these are all things to celebrate, but that big ol’ #56 hits different for Griffey collectors. Plus it's cool that the card number matches the home run number here - no way that is not intentional.

The serial numbering appears on the back of the HR Highlights cards along with a nice gold fade effect where the regular card is silver. Prices vary wildly for lord-knows-why. Mine was $18 and I feel like I overpaid. They are just a little unfulfilling.

1999 Upper Deck Challengers for
70 #80 Home Run Highlights

UD also gave The Kid card #80 which we can only assume is the number of home-runs they believed he would hit in 1999. Whether or not that happened is anybody's guess, but I'm not looking it up. Don't wanna harsh the ol' mellow.

Just look at the focus on this guy. Man, HE WANTED IT. This set is killing me.

1500th RBI and two dingers in a division win. June 14th was a pretty good day. This also happens to be the date the Chicago Bulls won their third straight title behind the stellar play of MVP Michael Jordan, or as most of us know him, "Basketball Griffey."

1999 Upper Deck Challengers for
70 #84 Home Run Highlights

And Griffey getting card #84 is obviously an homage to 1996 Nintendo Power Magazine Volume #84 which featured a 12-page spectacular on Ken Griffey, Jr's Winning Run on SNES.

Yes, I have it. The game, not the magazine. I want the magazine, but it's $66. I am not the man I once was.

1999 Upper Deck Challengers for
70 Challengers #C3

The Challengers insert looks way too much like the common Home Run Highlights base cards, but at one per pack your expectations shouldn’t have been too high to begin with. There is a holofoil parallel of this one that is #/70, but there is a card coming up that is almost certainly less scarce but that I prefer by a mile. This parallel remains on the need list (not the want list).

1999 Upper Deck Challengers for
70 Longball Legends #L1

Is it just me or does this really, really look like an insert from 1993 Pinnacle? Or even 1992 Upper Deck? That’s not a complaint – I just didn’t see it coming. Even the back is so simple in the same way those first few early-90’s inserts were. It’s probably good that they eased into the eye-frying insert designs. Personally I consider this design a throwback, whether that was intentional or not.

1999 Upper Deck Challengers for 70
Swinging for the Fences Autograph #JR 

This is the “big get” of 1999 Upper Deck Challengers For 70. I mean, maybe if you’re a collector of stupid McGwire you might be focused on the 25-card Mark on History (gross, btw) insert parallel checklist or somethin' weird like that; but no, the Griffey autograph is what everybody else would probably want. Also, quick question for you McGwire collectors out there: Really??

We don’t know how many of these things there are as they are unnumbered and there is no insertion ratio for them. If we had the odds for any of the other numbered parallels in this set we would be able to figure out a rough insertion ratio, but even that would bring us no closer to learning how many of each player’s autographed SFTF card were released.

Strangely we do know how many total autographed SFTF cards were made. BBCP says there are known to be 2700 autographed cards total across all six players in the checklist. Simple math would want us to believe there are 450 of each player, but there is no way to be certain that is the case. There may be 1000 each of the Travis Lee and Gabe Kapler and 175 each of the other four players, including the Griffey. Or there could be 2200 Griffeys and 100 of each of the other guys. I doubt we’ll ever know for sure.

What we do know is that this is one of those hallowed few pre-2000, on-card, true Mariners-era autographs that generally carry premiums befitting all those characteristics. It’s also one of a small group among those that I don’t feel gets much attention from collectors despite its pedigree. My guess is that it’s just not quite as pretty as the 1998 SP Authentic Chirography or even the 1999 Upper Deck Century Legends Epic Signatures, both of which sell for far more.

So I’ll just come out and say it: I don’t have the vanilla Swinging For the Fences insert card. I don’t particularly care for it, and the six dollars it seems to sell for just feels like too much. Maybe I’ll spot one in a dollar box someday, but until then this is one that’ll have to wait.

I probably sound a little harsh on this set, and I guess I am. The overall theme kinda bums me out as a Griffey guy because were were all just so damn sure it was gonna be him, and if it wasn't for his totally dumb personal ethics and personal morality it totally would have been. But no. He had to go and be an honest, respectable, forthright beacon of sportsmanship - a KING AMONG MEN, if you will - and ruin everything.

Also there's just, like, too much red. Ugh.

So apart from the Harmon Killebrew 500 HR Club insert there are only three cards from this one I would keep: base #56, the Kerry Wood card, and the Griffey Auto. Everything else just feels like filler from another set.

Here are the Griffeys I need from 1999 Upper Deck Challengers for 70:

#3 Power Elite Challengers #/600
#80 Home Run Highlights Challengers #/600
#84 Home Run Highlights Challengers #/600
Challengers #C3 Holofoil #/70
Swinging For the Fences #S1

Plus I do kinda want this, but don't we all?

I'm not back don't say anything just let it happen.