Young Superstars II #23 - Roger Clemens

What do you think? Is this our first potential Hall of Famer? His reactions and attitudes after the steroid allegations are suspicious, at best. But he had a remarkable career.

Is that a Mariners away jersey standing on first base? The number looks like 38, but Jerry Narron wore 38 for four games with the Mariners in 1987, and that's not him on base. It could be the first base coach. Any ideas?

By the time this picture was taken, Clemens was already a highly decorated veteran. By 1988, he'd already won two Cy Young awards (on his way to winning six), an MVP award and made the first of his eleven trips to the All Star game in 1986 where he won the All Star MVP.

His two World Series rings came as a member of the Yankees and in 2004 while pitching for Houston, he picked up a National League Cy Young award.

The numbers are really astounding. 354 wins against 184 losses, 4672 strikeouts in 4916+ innings and a 3.12 career ERA. His numbers are comparable to Maddux, though Clemens walked over 500 more men than Maddux (but also picked up 1300 more Ks). Clemens' ERA was just a hair lower than Maddux's, though his WHIP was just a bit higher.

I think he's a Hall of Famer. I don't particularly like him, but I think he'll be in.

Roger Clemens' career statistics

Young Superstars II #1 - Don Mattingly

This is our first Yankee Young Superstar. With all their success starting in the mid-90s, a lot of people forget that the late 80s and into the early 90s were a pretty bleak time for the Yankees. Between 1987 and 1992, they finished no higher than fourth place.

There were bright spots in the lineup but an aging pitching staff limited their ability to win games.

One of the bright stars was of course Donnie Baseball. In 1988 Mattingly had been in the league for parts of six seasons and was regarded as one of the top players in the game.

It's interesting that we see Mattingly bunting here. Baseball Reference doesn't show any sac. bunts or attempts in 1987.

I'm not sure about the front (both at Yankee stadium), but the photo on the reverse was taken in the same place, more than likely at the same time.

Mattingly went on to have a great career, though the chances of him entering the Hall of Fame are slim despite his popularity. He was a six time All Star, nine time Gold Glover, three time Silver Slugger, 1985 American League MVP and in 1997 the Yankees bestowed the highest honor upon him by retiring his number 23.

Don Mattingly's career statistics

Young Superstars #30 - Jose Canseco

Here we go. This is the biggest card in the set, at least in 1988 terms.

Canseco's got the rubber bat thing going on that Andy has mentioned several times on the 88 Score Rookies & Traded blog. And the ball is coming into the picture right along the righthand border. I wonder where that ball landed?

He's also got the field cap under the batting helmet look here, which is always nice to see.

What can you say about Jose Canseco's career that hasn't already been said? For all the things that he did wrong, I don't think there's a whole lot of us who grew up in the 80s who can honestly say we didn't like him (late 80s Dodger fans are .

Like I said months back when we were looking at the base release, I don't have a lot of respect left for Canseco, but I still like him. He was fun to watch in his prime, and he was almost painful and embarassing to watch as his career declined.

There are some who would argue that Canseco never really reached the potential he was capable of. In light of the steroid issue I don't know how valid of an argument that is. I'm sure side effects of the steroids played some role in the injuries he suffered later in his career.

But I'm not here to criticize him for what he did to baseball and what steroids have done to baseball. I'd like to, and I have a lot to say about it. But in the end, in 1988 there was no one in baseball that was more popular, larger than life and more fun to watch than Jose Canseco. And for that reason I'll always like him, even if I do know the truth about him.

Jose Canseco's career statistics