The single coolest Topps baseball card from each year: the 1990s
In honor of National Baseball Card Day on Aug. 11, we're selecting the coolest baseball card from every year since Topps' first set in 1951. Rather than simply focus on the most famous or valuable cards, we asked some of the best minds in baseball to provide us with their favorite. It could be because of a great photo, a hilarious story, or just a personal memory they have with the card.
If you're a devotee of '90s baseball cards, then your hero is probably Mike Oz. A baseball writer for Yahoo Sports, Oz hosts "Old Baseball Cards," a baseball card-driven nostalgia show where he opens almost 30-year-old packs with former athletes and celebrities like Pedro Martinez and Joel McHale.
It's made him the voice of nostalgic baseball card collectors.
"I collected cards with my Grandma when I was like 6, 7 years old," he told MLB.com in a phone call. "The first card we chased was the Jose Canseco Donruss Rookie in 1986. We started collecting cards after that. A lot of the cards I use on the show [are packs] that my Grandma bought that were unopened."
He also harbors a love for some of the most underrated '90s Topps cards. "In retrospect, there is a lot of funky '90s stuff that I don't know if we appreciate enough," Oz said. "Like 1995 Topps is pretty cool, with the fonts and the gold foil and all that."
What are Oz's favorite cards from each year? And why? Read on to find out:
