Collector Stories | Rookie Cup Collector

Mark Stover’s Rookie Cup Collection

Date: Aug 11, 2025

Author: Greg Bates

Topics: Baseball, Cards and Culture, Collector Stories, MLB

Length: 1026 Words

Reading Time: ~6 Minutes

As a kid, Mark Stover loved when Topps would honor the All-Rookie Team members with a Rookie Cup trophy. That little gold Cup signifies that a player was the best at his respective position during his rookie season. Big name stars have proudly displayed the Cup on their second-year cards, including Baseball Hall of Famers Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Willie McCovey, Rod Carew, and Ken Griffey Jr. More recently, multiple MVP winners Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge have been Cup recipients.

In August 2024, Stover rekindled his love for the Rookie Cup, deciding to collect every All-Rookie Team member card dating back to its start in the 1960 Topps release. According to Stover’s count, there have been 687 players who have been named to the All-Rookie Team — 10 to 12 members each year — in the 66-year run of the award.

Stover has a card of every All-Rookie Team recipient.

“It’s been fun,” the 53-year-old collector says. “I really enjoy just picking them up, getting them, looking at them, reading the back. A lot of these players, I had no idea who they were.” While the big names are fun, Stover has particularly enjoyed learning about the less famous Rookie Cup honorees. “Some of these guys are household names now, but a lot of them aren’t,” he says. “Learning about some lesser-known players that may have had one or two good seasons and then fizzled out has been pretty fun.”

Stover keeps his Rookie Cup cards in a massive binder. “It’s just page after page of Cups,” he says. “I can look at them all day.”

Stover’s Favorite Rookie Cups

The first card Stover inserted into his Rookie Cup binder was Jay Buhner’s 1989 Topps. That piece of cardboard still holds a lot of sentimental value.

“It’s one of the first Cup cards I remember and probably one of my favorite players,” Stover says. “I have very few cards from my childhood days. Moving back and forth with a military family, they just didn’t make it quite often. That one, to survive, has always been special.”

Stover hadn’t thought about baseball cards in decades when he stumbled upon a card show in early 2024. Just a few months later, he embarked on his massive Rookie Cup project.

“They’re very affordable compared to a rookie card,” he says. “Obviously, a few of the vintage ones are higher in price, and some of the more modern parallels can get high value. For the most part, everything’s been under $3. It’s been very affordable.”

Stover — who resides in Windham, Maine, about two hours outside of Boston — is a big fan of Nomar Garciaparra’s Rookie Cup card from 1998.

“That’s the only one I actually have a 1-of-1 of from a buyback in 2016,” Stover says. “They bought back Rookie Cup cards from Nomar’s year. Somebody sent in an Opening Day variation and that was the only one, got marked 1-of-1, and it somehow ended up in my binder.”

History of the Rookie Cup

The first All-Rookie Team was announced after the 1959 season, giving that class the first Rookie Cup trophies in the 1960 Topps Baseball release. McCovey, who won National League Rookie of the Year, highlighted the group. Rose has a trophy on his 1964 Topps card. Four years later, Carew got his Cup trophy, as did Bench the following year.

“Just that picture, he’s so young,” says Stover about the Bench card. “I know Johnny Bench from toward the end of his career. I didn’t know him like a child like that. It’s just a great card.”

In Flagship releases from 1979 to 1986, Topps did not use the Rookie Cup trophy. Stover fills in those gaps in his project with a player’s regular card. In ’87, the Cup was back on, with Jose Canseco leading the way. Mark McGwire was the following year, and Griffey Jr. in ’90. Jump ahead to 2002, and Albert Pujols got a Cup. Judge has a Cup trophy on his 2017 card, and Ohtani on his 2019 card.

The older players with the Rookie Cup trophy have only their base card to collect. When Topps started making parallels of players, that gave Stover many more options. He makes sure to pick up a player’s base card, and any parallels beyond that are just icing on the cake. Currently, Stover has 1,537 Rookie Cup cards in his collection. He accomplished that large milestone in just about one year of collecting.

“I have a really short attention span, so I know that if I don’t get it done in a certain time, I might lose interest or get a little fatigued,” Stover jokes. “I just concentrated on the Cups and avoided everything else.”

Wrapping it Up

Stover’s final three cards were of Rose, Joe Torre, and Jim Gentile. One reason he had to wait on a Gentile card was due to the fact that it was in the high series in 1961, and he hadn’t found a suitable example. However, he generally hasn’t been too picky.

“I’m not really into condition, especially with the vintage,” he says. “I kind of like the soft corners and roughed up edges a little bit.” Seeing his project all the way to completion was the more important thing. “All too often I have started a set build, and my interest fades quickly, or something else strikes my fancy and I move on and never complete them,” Stover says. “This is truly my biggest achievement to date in The Hobby.”

One of the main reasons Stover loves collecting the Rookie Cup cards is because the chase never truly ends. Every November, following the World Series, he can prepare to add more players to his collection.

While those yearly additions are fun, completing the initial project was the main goal. “I had to do it before they name the next All-Rookie Team,” Stover says. “That way I could say, ‘Well, now I’m done — for now.’ Take a breath until the next team is named.”