Description

1998 Donruss Crusade is a 130-card, cross-brand, insert. The first 40 cards (Denoted below with a "D") were randomly inserted into packs of 1998 Donruss Series One as a "stealth" insert, the next 30 into 1998 Leaf ("L"), and the next 30 into 1998 Donruss Update Series ("U"). Cards 101-130 were inserted into packs of 1998 Leaf Rookies & Stars.

The fronts feature color player photos with a Medieval design theme, printed on chromium stock with a holographic foil sheen that gives it the appearance of a Finest Refractor.

There are three different versions of each card: Green (serial-numbered to 250 copies), Purple (numbered to 100), and Red (numbered to 25).

All of the "Call to Arms" (CTA) subset cards were mistakenly printed without card numbers. Corrected copies were never made.

A number of "Sample" cards are also known to exist. These cards are serial-numbered either "XXX/250" (green), "XXX/100" (purple), or "XX/25" (red). It is believed that these cards were produced for Donruss' staff and were used in-house for final approval before production. We believe that 1 to 3 copies of each player for each color were produced.

Donruss had plans for extending the Crusade set into 1999 and beyond, however with the bankruptcy of their parent Pinnacle Brands, those plans never came to fruition. However, in the years since a number of Crusades with card numbers above 130 have surfaced. It is that many of these cards were "backdoored" after the Pinnacle Brands bankruptcy.

Checklist

1 Tim Salmon U
2 Garret Anderson U
3 Jim Edmonds CTA L
4 Darin Erstad CTA L
5 Jason Dickson D
6 Todd Greene D
7 Roberto Alomar CTA D
8 Cal Ripken, Jr. D
9 Rafael Palmeiro CTA U
10 Brady Anderson U
11 Mike Mussina L
12 Mo Vaughn CTA D
13 Nomar Garciaparra D
14 Frank Thomas CTA U
15 Albert Belle CTA L
16 Mike Cameron D
17 Robin Ventura U
18 Manny Ramirez L
19 Jim Thome CTA L
20 Sandy Alomar, Jr. D
21 Dave Justice D
22 Matt Williams U
23 Tony Clark U
24 Bubba Trammell L
25 Justin Thompson D
26 Bob Higginson L
27 Kevin Appier D
28 Paul Molitor L
29 Chuck Knoblauch CTA U
30 Todd Walker L
31 Bernie Williams U
32 Derek Jeter CTA U
33 Tino Martinez D
34 Andy Pettitte L
35 Wade Boggs CTA L
36 Hideki Irabu D
37 Jose Canseco D
38 Jason Giambi U
39 Ken Griffey, Jr. D
40 Alex Rodriguez CTA L
41 Randy Johnson L
42 Edgar Martinez D
43 Jay Buhner CTA U
44 Juan Gonzalez CTA U
45 Will Clark D
46 Ivan Rodriguez L
47 Rusty Greer D
48 Roger Clemens L
49 Carlos Delgado U
50 Shawn Green D
51 Jose Cruz, Jr. D
52 Kenny Lofton D
53 Chipper Jones D
54 Andruw Jones CTA L
55 Greg Maddux U
56 John Smoltz CTA L
57 Tom Glavine U
58 Javy Lopez L
59 Fred McGriff L
60 Mark Grace U
61 Sammy Sosa CTA U
62 Kevin Orie D
63 Barry Larkin CTA U
64 Pokey Reese L
65 Deion Sanders D
66 Andres Galarraga L
67 Larry Walker D
68 Dante Bichette CTA D
69 Neifi Perez U
70 Eric Young L
71 Todd Helton D
72 Gary Sheffield CTA U
73 Moises Alou L
74 Bobby Bonilla D
75 Kevin Brown D
76 Ben Grieve L
77 Jeff Bagwell CTA U
78 Craig Biggio D
79 Mike Piazza L
80 Raul Mondesi U
81 Hideo Nomo CTA U
82 Wilton Guerrero D
83 Rondell White CTA U
84 Vladimir Guerrero CTA U
85 Pedro Martinez D
86 Edgardo Alfonzo D
87 Todd Hundley CTA U
88 Scott Rolen D
89 Francisco Cordova D
90 Jose Guillen D
91 Jason Kendall L
92 Ray Lankford D
93 Mark McGwire CTA D
94 Matt Morris D
95 Alan Benes L
96 Brian Jordan CTA U
97 Tony Gwynn L
98 Ken Caminiti CTA L
99 Barry Bonds CTA U
100 Shawn Estes D

Unreleased Cards

It appears that a number of additional Crusade cards were produced by Donruss for future 1998 baseball card sets, but were never released due to the bankruptcy of Pinnacle Brands. Many of these cards were "base" Crusade cards of players who appeared in the "Call to Arms" subset, and vice versa.

Unlike the cards that were inserted into packs, all cards from the "Call to Arms" subset are sequentially-numbered. None of the cards, however, are serial-numbered. We believe that one copy of the red and purple and two copies of the green of each player were produced.

Green, Purple and Red cards are known to exist for some players.

113 Ken Griffey, Jr. CTA

141 Henry Rodriguez (Green, Purple and Red)

171 Craig Biggio CTA

177 Greg Maddux CTA

189 Mark McGwire

196 Mo Vaughn CTA

??? Mark Grace CTA

314 Frank Thomas

Description

Checklist

Leaf Rookies & Stars Series

Unreleased Cards