2008 Upper Deck Yankee Stadium Legacy
Description
The Yankee Stadium Legacy set is a 6743-card compilation chronicling every single New York Yankees game ever played at Yankee Stadium, and other notable events. The card set was manufactured by Upper Deck and made its official debut by being randomly inserted into packs of 2008 Upper Deck Series One Baseball.
As part of a promotion related to the set, the first five collectors who completed the set of all 6661 cards inserted into 2008 Upper Deck Baseball products, were to travel to New York during the 2009 New York Yankees season to attend a game at the new Yankee Stadium and meet Yankee Captain, Derek Jeter. The Yankee Stadium Legacy cards representing the 2008 New York Yankees season appeared in 2009 Upper Deck Series One Baseball packs in February 2009 and put an end to the Yankee Stadium Legacy promotion. The five contest winners would receive the 82 cards representing the final season at Yankee Stadium.
Tommy Baxter, a 36-year-old from Little Rock, Arkansas, was the first collector to put together Upper Deck’s Yankee Stadium Legacy (YSL) Collection. Baxter was an avid Cubs fan, and seized the opportunity to become the first collector to piece together the insert set. Baxter's accomplishment was commemorated with a card in 2009 Upper Deck Series One Baseball.
World's biggest card set? Not quite
According to a January, 2008 Upper Deck press release, The Guinness World Book of Records would certify Yankee Stadium Legacy as the largest baseball card set ever produced, once all the cards are released. However, unbeknownst to Guinness, Yankee Stadium Legacy fell over 1350 cards short of the 8100-card 1998 Topps TEK set.
Distribution
The various sets where the Yankee Stadium Legacy cards were inserted into were: Spectrum; Piece of History; SPx; Upper Deck Series Two; SP Legendary Cuts (Hobby-only); SP Authentic; UDx; and UD Masterpieces. Upper Deck started the website www.OwnTheLegacy.com so that collectors could find out more about the Yankee Stadium Legacy set. Alphanumeric codes found on the backs of Yankee Stadium Legacy cards can be entered at the site, and collectors will can use the site to manage their collections online, and track their collections against other collectors via a leader board.
2008 season
The cards commemorating the 2008 New York Yankees season were featured in 2009 Upper Deck Series 1 baseball. Two of the more notable cards include YSL-AG (commemorating the 2009 Major League Baseball All-Star Game) and card YSL-6742 featuring Andy Pettite commemorating the final game at Yankee Stadium).