When you think of two-sport superstars, the names likely to come to mind are Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders. But John Elway? He was back in the day. And 2005 Topps Fan Favorites Baseball marked the first set to include a John Elway card in an MLB-licensed set.
The quarterback is a hobby legend on the football side of things, but his early career includes baseball. Elway was drafted by the New York Yankees back in 1981. In his first season of pro-ball, Elway wasn’t too bad either, hitting .318 and had a team-high 25 RBIs in 42 games. However, as history has played out, Elway never did much else on the diamond.
Elway appears in the 2005 Topps Fan Favorites base set as well as on Refractor (/299), Gold Refractor (/25) parallels and four different one-of-one Printing Plates. He’s also got an autograph that has a confirmed print run of 40 copies. The autograph has a Rainbow version that’s serial numbered to 10.
Before this set, Elway appeared on a handful of minor league cards dating all the way back to the 1982 TCMA Oneonta Yankees set.
Since 2005, Topps has put the Broncos Hall of Famer in 2008 Topps Triple Threads Baseball with a small number of autographed memorabilia cards as well as an autograph in 2014 Topps Five Star Baseball.
