Ken Griffey Jr.'s 1989 Fleer card is #548, in a 660-card set arranged by the standings. Oakland came first, every other team followed in order of its 1988 record, and the players ran alphabetically within each team.
The design is gray with thin white pinstripes, with yellow stripes slanting across the picture. KEN GRIFFEY JR. and OUTFIELD are printed at the top, the Mariners' M's logo sits in the corner, and FLEER at the bottom. Griffey wears a batting helmet and the blue jersey, a bat on his shoulder, batting gloves on.
For all that, his was not the card everyone talked about in 1989. That was #616, Billy Ripken, whose bat knob carried an obscenity, and whose several corrected versions kept collectors busy all year.
The set's famous card was Billy Ripken's. Griffey's was the rookie.
Fleer also issued a glossy factory set, packed in a tin, in a run of about 30,000. Its Griffeys are often off-center.
He hit 16 home runs that first season, at nineteen, and won the first of ten straight Gold Gloves the year after.
