The Brilliantly Irreverent 1992 Triple Play

1992 was the year a lot of card companies decided to target younger collectors all at the same time. They did it by taking the seriousness down a notch and making baseball cards more fun and youth-friendly. It was the year Topps gave us the cartoon backgrounds of Topps Kids, Upper Deck added Bugs and Daffy to cards with Comic Ball (and Fun Pack the following year), and Leaf/Donruss produced Triple Play, arguably the best set of cards out of all these.

In fact, Triple Play is the only one of these that would have a lasting impact. Donruss was able to make a fun yet enduring set of cards that collectors young and old could appreciate. This was not an easy feat; and yet to this day I continue to see a lot of love for this set, more so even than the later, more “evolved” Triple Play sets.

The reason? Neat cards. That’s it. Not just your All-Star-centric subsets and run-of-the-mill action shots (although those do make an appearance), but cards of ballparks, players as kids, “Fun at the Ballpark,” throwback uniforms, cameos, mid-air leaps, and some of the first and greatest mascot cards ever printed. I honestly believe Collector’s Choice which would debut just two years later took a cue from this very set. They’re like peas and carrots.

Seriously, go to COMC, type “1992 Triple Play” into the search field, and just enjoy the show. This set rules.

1992 Triple Play #152

You are looking at one of the craziest photos ever to grace a Griffey card: the infamous floating bat. Somehow between the camera and the Kid, there is a bat floating, perfectly centered, in mid-air, and it is making contact with a ball. This is one of those rare photos that you would have a very tough time recreating if you had to.

Also that blurb stings Griffey fans a little even to this day.

1992 Triple Play Preview #1

The preview is actually pretty rare, selling consistently in the $20+ range and possibly even more now. The only difference apart from the word “Preview” printed on the back is a slightly darker front photo and a narrower name font similar to that of the '92 Donruss Preview. This card, along with a few of the early-90’s Donruss previews, is part of the reason for the sudden popularity of promos and samples in the middle ‘90’s.

1992 Triple Play Gallery of Stars #GS-8

This card confused me as a kid with that big “Donruss” printed across the top because it's actually a Triple Play insert (I was not yet super familiar with who owned who). It’s also one of my favorite Dick Perez art cards with that great banner and multicolored stars strewn across the black background. They were kind of rare, too, seeded at 1:40 jumbo packs; but it won’t cost you nearly as much as that preview card.

While Panini recently brought the Triple Play brand back for a couple of years, it didn’t resemble its predecessors at all. The closest set we have now to 1992 Triple Play is Topps Opening Day wherein we get to see a slightly more irreverent Topps as shown via fun photos and inserts.

Would a set like this survive in today’s card market? Perhaps, if sports cards get popular among today’s middle school young’uns again which, if you think about it, is kind of up to us – the aging original market for this first Triple Play set. I’ll definitely be doing my part.