Brien Taylor Auto And The Complete Topps Gold Card Set
For never having made the Major Leagues, Brien Taylor sure is talked about a lot both in the hobby and in the sport of baseball. A cautionary what-if tale.
Brien Taylor was a presence on the mound as a 6-foot-3 high school fireballer when the Yankees took him No. 1 overall in the 1991 Major League Baseball Draft. A seemingly 'can't miss' prospect he was awarded a $1.55 million signing bonus, a record at the time.
The stage was set for another star pitcher in the Big Apple following in the Dwight Gooden steps. In his first professional season he pitched so a sub-3 ERA with 187 strikeouts in about 162 innings. Then he got hurt. He was allegedly in an altercation related to an incident with his brother when the injury to his shoulder occured.
He never made it higher than double A.
Regardless of his small, minor league career, Taylor has a card that has become infamous, with a cult-like following. And it happens to be one of the early, pack-pulled, on card autos available to collectors.
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In 1992 Topps released their factory set. But they also released a special 1992 Topps GOLD set. The gold set included card number 739, a gold, on card autographed card of Brien Taylor. The card features a portrait-esque shot of Taylor, holding the ball in his hand close to his glove just below his chin with his face tilted toward the camera. His name and team name embossed in the gold foil.
The blue ink signature is near his face, the only open space available for a signature on the card. Though as you can tell from the photo, there is not a white gradient space for the auto like on modern cards. The verbiage on the box is a sign of the times too. Right on the package, it says 'hand signed card.' It's obvious that the pack pulled card is a new thing in 1992. The marketers at Topps felt they had to literally say 'hand signed' for buyers to know what they are getting.
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On eBay, one of these raw cards can be bought from between $20 and $40. Though many listings are for more than the $40 mark, a search of sold listings will show the true price sellers have been getting on the market. The real gem though would be a PSA 10. According to the PSA pop count, this card has a single graded version and it happens to be a GM 10.
It really is a tragedy. A young guy with so much promise with a career cut extremely too short. What's make is more a difficult 'what-if' scenario is the fact that Taylor would have been on a timeline to hit the majors with the likes of Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada and company. Who knows what higher heights the Yankees could have reached in the late 90s and early 2000s. And what cards the hobby would have seen.
After graduating from the University of North Dakota in 2008, Cole worked as an advertising copywriter until shifting to print journalism a few years later. Managing three weekly newspapers in the Dakotas, Cole won numerous awards from the North Dakota Newspaper Association including Best of the Dakotas and, their top award, General Excellence. He returned to collecting in 2021 and has since combined his passion for writing with his love of cards. Cole also writes for the Sports Cards Nonsense newsletter and has made guest appearances on multiple sports card collecting podcasts including Sports Cards Nonsense, and the Eephus Baseball Cards Podcast. IG: coleryan411 X: @colebenz