Today's top prospects remind me of chasing rookie cards in 1973

As card collectors, we are all prospectors, digging for (cardboard) gold like explorers searching for treasures in the Old West.

Even old-school collectors who compile carboard for the pure joy of collecting are prospectors, looking far and wide for special cards to add to their collections.

The most serious prospectors today are investors, new-age collectors betting big dollars on the speculative value of both modern and vintage cards.

Old and new collectors alike are often chasing the same thing — the coveted rookie cards. Rookie cards of Hall of Famers. Rookies of your favorite players and sets. Rookies of popular players with cool names or who made their mark in other special ways. And rookie cards of top prospects expected to be great one day.

Those are the cards we covet most, giving us a thrill when we pull one from a new pack or run across a Rated Rookie at a card show or in an online auction.

In the last issue, I shared my hopes of putting together a complete set of 1973 Topps Baseball — the set and cards I chased as a kid. Compared to most sets from the 1970s, the 1973 series was a bit light on rookies. But it did produce two gems — Mike Schmidt and Rich “Goose” Gossage.

Schmidt struggled as a rookie, hitting .196, but he quickly became one of the most feared hitters in the game, leading the National League in home runs the next three seasons and giving him one of the most valuable rookie cards of the ’70s.

I remember owning a Schmidt rookie as a kid, but back then we didn’t know or care about value, so Schmidt’s card was handled, played with and flipped against the wall before being tossed in a shoebox and shoved under my bed.

I have fond memories of Gossage, who quickly became one of the best relievers in the game, leading the American League in saves in 1975. What I remember most about Gossage, though, is the nickname, which he got from White Sox teammate Tom Bradley, who said Gossage looked like a goose when he leaned in to pick up the catcher’s signs.

I met Gossage at The National last summer and it was a thrill seeing the pitcher with one of the game’s all-time greatest nicknames.

Both Schmidt and Gossage are Hall of Famers, but their rookie cards are in different stratospheres. While a Gossage rookie can be had for a few hundred bucks or less, a Schmidt rookie goes for several thousand, with a Gem

Mint 10 selling for as high as $234,000.

As I do my own prospecting for

1973 cards, I won’t be shelling out a small fortune for a Schmidt rookie any time soon. For now, I’ll focus on securing a Goose or an even more affordable Dwight Evans, the other key prospect from the 1973 set.

As the new season gets under way, I wonder who will have the hottest rookie cards of 2022?

As SCD’s Greg Bates outlines in our cover story, there are several hot prospects to keep an eye on, including four who appear to be poised for stardom.

Bobby Witt Jr. will follow in the footsteps of his father, who pitched for five different teams in his 16-year big-league career. Witt Jr. will start his rookie season for the Kansas City Royals and is already drawing comparisons to some of the game’s top shortstops and infielders.

Baltimore rookie Adley Rutschman, considered the game’s next great catcher, provides hope to an Orioles franchise that seemingly hasn’t had any since Rick Dempsey was behind the plate.

And Julio Rodriguez is already bringing back memories of Ken Griffey Jr. in Seattle.

Along with Detroit first baseman Spencer Torkelson and others, these elite prospects will grace the rookie cards collectors will chase and covet this season.

Maybe there will be a future Schmidt or Goose in the bunch.

— Jeff Owens is the editor of SCD. Got a story idea? Email him at jowens@aimmedia.com and follow us on Twitter at @ SCDmagazine.