F*ck Face or Junior? The Most Iconic Card of 1989
As much as the word iconic gets thrown around in the Hobby, relatively few cards are truly deserving of the label. 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle? Yes. The T206 Honus Wagner? Certainly! A Topps NOW card of Shohei Ohtani's 50-50 season? Probably not!
Throughout the long history of the Hobby, I would argue that most years—even most decades!—the number of genuinely iconic baseball cards has been zero. How crazy is it then that the 1989 season produced two!
Old school collectors will no doubt balk at either of these two cards being mentioned in same breath as the Flying Dutchman and the Mick, but facts are facts. For better or worse, the Fleer Billy Ripken card (affectionately known as "F*ck Face") and the Upper Deck Ken Griffey, Jr., rookie card are absolutely iconic. The only real question is which of the two is more iconic!
The Case for F*ck Face
Let's start with F*ck Face. Billy Ripken never won an MVP, made an All-Star team, or landed his own video game. On the other hand, his 1989 Fleer card has a veritable mythology surrounding it, complete with conspiracy theories around its origin. How did Billy end up with the NSFW bat? How did the photographer not notice? How did the card get through Fleer's quality control? (Wait, Fleer had quality control?) And what's with the card's multitude of corrected versions?
Completed the full run of the 1989 Fleer #616 Bill Ripken FF error a few months ago. #89F616 #RipkenFF #BillRipken @PSAcard #collect #thehobby #orioles #89Fleer pic.twitter.com/q8xH134OK2
— KoreanCardboard (@koreancardboard) August 27, 2019
What's more, if you pulled F*ck Face in 1989, every kid at school wanted to see it, not just the card collectors or baseball fans. It was a cultural phenomenon that transcended the Hobby and even the sport. Not only that but the card's unique place in pop culture has stood the test of time. Just the other day, my friend's wife told her colleague that a bunch of us were getting together to rip some wax. His response: "Does anyone look for the F*ck Face card?" 🤣
Even Topps hopped on the F*ck Face bandwagon this year with its short-printed card, dubbed "Fun Face," of Orioles rookie Jackson Holliday. (And for the maniacs out there, Topps even mimicked the legendary Fleer variants such as sawtooth and black box.)
Jackson Holliday Is in 2024 Topps Series 2 — And He's Got 1989 Fleer Bill Ripken Vibes https://t.co/lkITO1s9o2 pic.twitter.com/b7Ffws0YW6
— Ryan Cracknell (@tradercracks) June 10, 2024
So yeah, F*ck Face is a legendary card, but it's not like the competition is some slouch.
The Case for Junior
To appreciate the iconic nature of the Griffey card, let's travel back in time to 1989. Hobby stalwarts Topps, Fleer, and Donruss were seemingly printing more cardboard than there were atoms in the universe, only to be joined by upstart Score in 1988. Baseball cards were literally everywhere: supermarkets, gas stations, hardware stores, you name it. And then, in the spring of 1989, the Hobby changed overnight.
Enter Upper Deck, a complete newbie to the trading card space, seemingly out of nowhere, boasting a premium offering, available at Hobby shops only, with next-level photography, hologrammed backs, tamper-proof packaging, a higher end card stock, and (most dramatically) the sport's hottest prospect occupying the top slot on the checklist. These weren't your father's trading cards. Heck, they weren't even your older brother's trading cards. Generation next was here.
Even before Junior had a single at-bat, his Upper Deck card was sizzling hot. But then, something that almost never happens...happened. Griffey lived up to the hype, and then some! He was Willie Mays talent with MC Hammer swag, absolute must-watch TV, and day after day he did the unimaginable: he made baseball cool again.
Fast forward to today when the other 799 (!) cards in the 1989 Upper Deck set have more or less met the same "junk wax" fate as their Topps, Fleer, Donruss, and even Score contemporaries. Yet, one card stands alone, the exception to the rule. One card is still hot, even sizzling hot. Junior. His card has pretty much been THE card for 35 years!
The Winner?
So which card is more iconic, F*ck Face or Junior? At the end of the day, it probably depends who you are. If you appreciate the sport played at its highest level, the most gorgeous swing since Ted Williams, and more drip than a Slurpee on a hot day, you're going with Griffey. On the other hand, if you spent your formative years passing notes in class, knew the middle school detention teacher on a first-name basis, and viewed Bart Simpson not merely as a cartoon character but as a role model, then Ripken was your guy.
As for me, I love them both, but if you want the honest to God truth, I was hoarding an altogether different card that year! 😛
Jason A. Schwartz is a collectibles expert whose work can be found regularly at SABR Baseball Cards, Hobby News Daily, and 1939Bruins.com. His collection of Hank Aaron baseball cards and memorabilia is currently on exhibit at the Atlanta History Center, and his collectibles-themed artwork is on display at the Honus Wagner Museum and PNC Park.