Scott Rolen baseball cards may not move the hobby needle like, say, a hot young prospect, but those old Rolen cards might need a dusting off in the next few years.
After all ..
Rolen spent much of his 17-year big league career on the shelf, sidelined by a string of injuries that limited him to under 150 games every year after 2003. In fact, he never even broke the 130-game barrier after 2006.
Still, when he was on the field, Rolen was one of the top ten or so third basemen of all time if you believe advanced metrics like WAR.
And, even if you’re more of a traditionalist when it comes to your baseball numbers, Rolen stands out — .281, 316 home runs, 1287 RBI, 2077 hits.
Still, Rolen has found the going a bit rough in his first three years on the Hall of Fame ballot, picking up 10.2%, 17.2%, and 35.3% of votes from 2018-2020 (as of the time of this writing). But that jump last year, coupled with a weak first-year class in 2021 could make for an interesting election this time around.
To gear up for the superstar’s next run at Cooperstown, here is a rundown of every early Scott Rolen baseball card, beginning with his 1994 minor league issues and rolling through his 1995 rookie cards.
1994 Classic Spartanburg Phillies Scott Rolen (#1)
Classic made a name for itself in the hobby back in 1987 with their Classic Baseball Board Game and Cards — it’s an awesome collectible that has held up well with time.
Then, in the early 1990s, Classic splashed into other sports and became THE card maker of choice if you wanted to chase draft pick cards, rolling out pretty big sets as Classic/Best.
By 1994, they had dropped the “Best” and were just Classic again, issuing a set of 200 prospects, in two series.
Rolen made the cut, along with other future-legend upstarts like Alex Rodriguez, Andy Pettitte … and Michael Jordan.
The Rolen card can usually be yours for about a buck in raw condition.
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1994 Classic/Best Gold Martinsville Phillies Scott Rolen (#120)
OK, so maybe Classic didn’t completely jettison the “Best” affiliation, issuing their 1994 Gold set under that title.
You get a different look at Rolen here, suited up as he is with the Martinsville Phillies (Rookie) rather than the Spartanburg Phillies (Single-A).
You also get a little gold foil on the card front, but the same inexpensive price.
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1994 Fleer Excel Scott Rolen (#246)
By 1994, Fleer had 13 years of Major League issues under their belts, and they were deep into the fray of ever-escalating card quality … and retail prices.
Who can blame them for trying to diversify a bit, safeguard their brand by covering all the bases they could, so to speak?
Not I, that’s for sure.
So it’s little surprise to see a Scott Rolen minor league card from the Philadelphia gum maker who wasn’t allowed to include gum with their baseball cards because of Topps’ continued monopoly on that front.
This design would look right at home in the late 1950s, if you ask me, which kind of fits, since Rolen was the sort of hard-nosed, fundamentals guy that would have excelled in the middle of the 20th century (or any time, likely).
This card can bring a bit more than the Classics above, but it won’t break your bank under most circumstances.
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1994 Fleer Procards Spartanburg Phillies Scott Rolen (#1731)
And here we have yet another Fleer product, this time a team effort with longtime minor league card maven ProCards.
This was a massive, massive effort, as evidenced by Rolen’s card number here — 1731!
And that wasn’t even halfway home for this gargantuan set that stretched to more than 4000 cards.
This is another card that’s not super expensive, but one that sees some decent action when slabbed in top grades.
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1995 Reading Phillies Scott Rolen
In 1995, Rolen moved up to Double-A, where he helped the Reading Phillies win the Eastern League championship. The team issued a set of cards to commemorate the event, and Rolen naturally was front and center.
This card doesn’t seem to be quite as plentiful as some others on the list, and it can sell for double digits in nice graded condition.
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1995 SP Top Prospects Scott Rolen (#120)
It wasn’t just Fleer among the major card manufacturers who decided to branch out into the minor league market in the mid-1990s, and Upper Deck used their SP brand to make the leap.
SP Top Prospects was a 165-card issue that took the challenge head-on, with Rolen joining the likes of Vladimir Guerrero, Todd Helton, Bartolo Colon, Nomar Garciaparra, and other future luminaries among the roster of then-hopeful prospects.
Like most of the cards on this list, you can usually grab the Rolen SP on the cheap.
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