These Donruss Rated Rookies Just Didn’t Rate the Hype

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If there was a single trend that defined baseball cards and the hobby in the 1980s, it was the explosion of the rookie card.

We began the decade with the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle (not-really-a) rookie card stirring long-dormant poetry in the hearts of thickening and balding Baby Boomers, and we ended it drooling over the 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey, Jr., (true) rookie card.

In between, the 1984 Donruss Don Mattingly rookie lit the hobby on fire and stoked our imaginations … how great would Mattingly become? How high would his card prices rise?

That same year, Donruss rolled out an innovation they called “Rated Rookies” that really wasn’t an innovation at all. Borrowing from Topps’ old “Future Stars” and “Rookie Catchers” concepts, Rated Rookies was Donruss’s attempt to let collectors know which young players were really going to be something, someday.

And, of course, to cash in on the burgeoning rookie card craze as best they could.

Through the years, Donruss Rated Rookies gave us gems like this 1986 mugshot of Jose Canseco with his puberty ‘stache and a still teen-greasy Greg Maddux the next year.

But not all of Donruss picks made it big.

In fact, some of them were pretty much busts.

Just like big brother Topps!

The great thing about busts, though, is that they are often more fun to rehash than the guys who became great.

So, if you’re ready for some Rated Rookies fun, here are Donruss’s 10 worst picks, one for each year from 1984 through 1993.

Sit back and enjoy the show, because these are some great cards … just don’t expect much in the way of gaudy stats or resale value …

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1984 Donruss Rated Rookies

The hobby was really just starting to pick up steam when the first Donruss cards of 1984 rolled off the press, and there wasn’t nearly the amount of pre-release information available as there would be even a few years later.

So, for many collectors, the “Rated Rookie” logo that appeared on some of the cards sliding out of our wax packs was confusing.

Rated by whom?

Rated on what scale? And where were the scores, the ratings themselves? Certainly not on the cards anywhere that I could find.

Still …

These were rookie cards … they said so right there on the obverses.

And they were rated, somehow, which seemed like it had to be better than not being rated.

So, we definitely wanted these babies, and the inclusion of Kevin McReynolds gave the subset a gravitas it might not have had otherwise. Even in those prehistoric days, McReynolds had received plenty of advance press, and we all knew — knew — he was going to be a huge power hitter.

When you looked at Tim Teufel or Dion James or Mike Stenhouse, and he had the same waving RATED ROOKIE banner that Kevin Mac had … well … you knew you were looking at another special player. A future star, even.

Donruss did pretty well with their picks, too. I mean look at the RRs from that first group who would eventually go on to be All-Stars:

Ron Darling (#30)
Tony Fernandez (#32)
Joe Carter (#41)
Sid Fernandez (#44)

That’s a pretty solid list, even if McReynolds is a notable exclusion. To be fair, he did bang 211 home runs in a 12-year career and finished third (behind Kirk Gibson and Darryl Strawberry) in the 1988 National League Most Valuable Player vote.

So Donruss didn’t really whiff on him.

Also missing from that All-Star list is Chris Smith.

By the time Smith was a Rated Rookie, he had appeared in 31 games for the Montreal Expos and San Francisco Giants over the course of three seasons (1981-1983). He was also 26 years old and, despite a solid .328/.403/.493 for San Fran at the end of 1983, Smith never appeared in another Big League game.

He is our “winner” here in this inaugural version of Rated Rookies.

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1985 Donruss Rated Rookies

By the time Donruss went all 1971 with their black-bordered 1985 set, collectors were getting the hang of this Rated Rookies thing.

We were ready.

And Donruss rewarded us with solid guys like Danny Tartabull, Larry Sheets, Calvin Schiraldi, and Shawon Dunston.

They all had some degree of success in the Major Leagues.

Donruss also rewarded us with Russ Stephans, a 26-year-old catcher in the Kansas City Royals farm system. He had spent five years working his way toward the Majors, landing with the Triple-A Omaha Royals in 1983.

Unfortunately, he would stay in Omaha through 1986 without ever tasting the Bigs.

That’s a whiff-winner on Donruss’s part if you’re scoring along.

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1986 Donruss Rated Rookies

The 1986 Rated Rookies subset is the one that really put the brand on the map thanks to a slew of sluggers: Fred McGriff, Cory Snyder, Andres Galarraga, Paul O’Neill (slugger light), Danny Tartabull (again), and (of course) Jose Canseco.

Snuggled in there among all the bash muscle was 23-year-old Chicago Cubs pitching prospect Johnny Abrego, who made six appearances on the North Side in 1985 but would never return to the Majors.

Dave Shipanoff nearly mirrored Abrego, as the rightly logged 26 appearances with the Philadelphia Phillies in his only Major League action in 1985

Shipanoff gets the nod here since he was already 26 by the time his RR card made it to collectors.

And, more deliciously, because his name sounds an awful lot like “ship ‘im off,” which is exactly what the Phils did after 1985, Donruss’s mysterious rating system be darned.

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