The first thing you'll likely notice about the 2009 Topps baseball checklist is its lack of any big-time rookie cards.
Like it or not, rookie card talent is usually one of the biggest draws for most hobbyists.
But even though this set comes up short in that department, it doesn't make it a dud.
There are plenty of young superstars and big-name Hall of Famers inside...
Frank Thomas, Greg Maddux and Mike Mussina all had their last flagship Topps base cards in 2009 Topps and they're joined by huge names like Ken Griffey Jr., Clayton Kershaw, Derek Jeter and more.
And one of the most memorable things about this set, aside from the parallels (especially the infamous Wal-Mart and Target parallels), were the short print variations spread across Series 1 and 2 packs.
So, even though it flies a bit under the radar, there is still plenty to like about 2009 Topps.
And in this guide, we'll take a look at the 15 most valuable.
Let's jump right in!
2009 Topps #24 Frank Thomas
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Value: $125
After an underwhelming age-40 season in 2008 split between Toronto and Oakland, "The Big Hurt" quietly stepped away from the game in 2009.
Thomas' meager hitting numbers in '08 were a far cry from what he accomplished at his peak.
From 1991-97, there was no better power threat or all-around hitter in the Major Leagues.
Named AL MVP in back-to-back seasons in 1993 and 1994, Thomas finished no worse than eighth in the Junior Circuit's MVP balloting during those seven years.
Elected into the Hall-of-Fame on his first ballot in 2014, Thomas won four Silver Slugger Awards and was named to five All-Star teams during his 18-year MLB run.
Thomas is one of just eight players to end his career with a batting average of .300 or better (.301) and 500 or more home runs (521).
And his 1,704 RBIs rank him 26th all-time.
After stepping out of the limelight to enjoy life after baseball in '09, Thomas signed a one-day contract with the Chicago White Sox on February 12th, 2010.
Thomas officially announced his retirement at a team-coordinated press conference, and the Sox retired his number 35 on August 29th, 2010.
This is Thomas's last base Topps card, giving it a boost in price.
2009 Topps #30 Ken Griffey Jr.
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Value: $50
Ken Griffey Jr.'s best days as a player were well behind him in 2009.
But, did it really matter?
Griffey's return to the Seattle Mariners on a one-year deal in '09 was a moment M's fans had been waiting for since the turn of the millennium.
The Kid was finally back in the Pacific Northwest where he belonged.
Griffey's arrival infused the Mariners' clubhouse with life.
After winning just 61 games in '08, the Mariners won 85 in Junior's return and looked like a team on the rise.
Yes, the 39-year-old outfielder's numbers weren't great.
He posted a .214/.324/.411 slash line with 19 homers, 19 doubles, and 57 RBIs in 454 plate appearances (387 at-bats).
A younger, healthier player would likely have brought better production to the table in Seattle's quest to contend.
However, what Griffey lacked at the plate was made up for by his good humor and attitude behind the scenes.
"His humor and presence is something I feel only he can do," teammate Ichiro Suzuki said at the time. "Everybody considers him to be a genius as a player, but he's a genius in that respect as well."
2009 Topps #287 Greg Maddux
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Value: $50
Baseball was just different without Greg Maddux in 2009.
For 23 years, Maddux gave all of us a doctorate-level education about the finer points of pitching.
An eight-time All-Star, the crafty right-hander joins Randy Johnson as the only two pitchers in MLB history to win four consecutive Cy Young awards (1992-95).
He also won four ERA titles, a World Series title in 1995, and an MLB record 18 Gold Gloves.
He commanded the strike zone and its fringes like no other pitcher before or after him, and his stellar reflexes took away hundreds of singles up the middle during his march to Cooperstown.
Maddux’s final outing was far from a defining moment, a two-inning relief appearance as a member of the Dodgers against the Phillies in which he surrendered two unearned runs to the eventual World Series champs.
It was a humble ending to an extraordinary career.
In today’s game, a velocity-light pitching artist like Maddux may never even sniff the Major Leagues.
He was, perhaps, one of the last of a dying breed.
“He can throw you a strike and still not give you anything good to hit,” said former Braves pitching coach Leo Mazzone. “He’s a master at that. It’s the greatest command I’ve ever seen on a consistent basis.”
This card marks the final time that Maddux would appear on a Topps base card.
2009 Topps #320 Miguel Cabrera
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Value: $35
Before the 2009 MLB season, Miguel Cabrera spent some quality time with a handful of his Detroit Tigers teammates in the World Baseball Classic.
Alongside Magglio Ordonez, Armando Galarraga, and Carlos Guillen, Cabrera led Venezuela to a third-place finish out of a field of 16, the country's best WBC finish.
The sweet-swinging 26-year-old first baseman parlayed that early spring momentum into a fantastic second season with the Motown Kitties.
Finishing fourth in the AL's MVP balloting, Cabrera slashed .324/.396/.547 with 34 home runs, 34 doubles, 198 hits, 96 runs scored, and 103 RBIs in 611 at-bats.
He also became just the fourth Venezuelan player to cross the 200 home-run mark on August 23rd, doing so in just 1,000 career games.
And thanks to his contributions in the heart of the Detroit lineup, the 86-win Tigers notched their third winning season in four go-rounds and earned a winner-take-all AL Central tiebreaker with the Minnesota Twins.
Sadly for Detroit and its fans, Game #163 was a heartbreaker.
Cabrera almost lifted the Tigers over the playoff hump, going 2-for-5 with a double, a homer, and two RBIs.
Yet, Detroit still ended up on the wrong side of an all-time classic thanks to Alexi Casilla's walk-off single in the bottom of the 12th.
6-5 Twins.
And just like that, Detroit's promising season was over in a blink.
2009 Topps #575 Clayton Kershaw
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Value: $35
When things came together for Clayton Kershaw early in the 2009 season, it was obvious he had the tools to be a perennial All-Star and legit ace.
On April 15th, Kershaw made a statement against the rival San Francisco Giants, striking out 13 batters against just one hit in seven innings.
The 21-year-old lefty became the youngest Dodgers hurler since Sandy Koufax in 1955 to hit the 13-strikeout mark.
That was just the start of a top-notch sophomore year for the Dallas native.
Despite poor run support en route to an 8-8 record, Kershaw paced the Majors in hits per 9 innings (6.26), opposing slugging percentage (.282), and opposing batting average (.200).
When Kershaw could find the zone, he was nearly unstoppable.
When he couldn’t, though, it could be an ordeal.
His 91 walks were the second-worst in the National League in ‘09, often costing him chances at longer outings as the season wore on.
They also cost him in the playoffs.
The third youngest starting pitcher in history to get the ball for a playoff series opener, Kershaw went 0-1 with a 6.07 ERA and 1.58 WHIP in three postseason starts against the Cardinals and Phillies.
He walked seven batters and surrendered 14 hits in just 13.1 innings pitched.
2009 Topps #643 David Freese Rookie Card
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Value: $35
Two years before his iconic World Series walk-off, rookie St. Louis Cardinals third baseman David Freese was the odd man out at Busch.
When St. Louis placed Troy Glaus on the injured list to start the 2009 season, Freese seemed like a solid bet to take his place at the hot corner.
However, a left ankle injury suffered during Spring Training began to rear its ugly head.
Cardinals manager Tony La Russa opted for a healthier platoon of Joe Thurston and Brian Barden.
Optioned back to Triple-A in mid-April, the former ninth-round pick wouldn't return to St. Louis until September 23rd.
In the interim, he'd undergo surgery that cost him two months of action on the farm.
Overall, Freese played just 17 games for the NL Central champs in '09, slashing .323/.353/.484 with a homer, two doubles, and seven RBIs in 31 at-bats.
He may have been excluded from the team's postseason roster that year, but he'd have a historic impact in the Fall Classic a couple of years later.
2009 Topps #353 Derek Jeter
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Value: $30
Nearly a decade removed from his last World Series championship in 2000, Derek Jeter had a Bronx-sized chip on his shoulders heading into the 2009 MLB season.
Following the ‘08 campaign, the New York Yankees captain shouldered the blame for the franchise’s first playoff miss in fifteen years.
And as talks of his tense relationship with teammate Alex Rodriguez dominated the tabloids, Jeter stewed and waited for his chance to counter the noise with his work on the field.
When the ‘09 campaign finally rolled around, Jeter was a man possessed.
Leading the Yankees to a 103-win season for the first time in seven years, the 35-year-old shortstop slashed .334/.406/.465 with 18 home runs, 27 doubles, 30 stolen bases, 107 runs scored, and 66 RBIs.
Coupled with his Gold Glove work at the six, Jeter's fourth 200-hit season (212) in five years reminded the world just how damn good he was.
Finishing third in the league's MVP voting, the now ten-time All-Star also earned his fourth consecutive Silver Slugger and Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year award.
In the playoffs, he was even better.
In 15 games for the World Champs, Jeter hit .344 with a .995 OPS, three homers, 14 runs scored, ten walks, and six RBIs.
The Yankees ran through the Twins in three straight and clipped both the Angels and Phillies in six to bookend the Aughts with pinstriped championships.
2009 Topps #475 Chipper Jones
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Value: $30
On the heels of a four-year, $61 million extension which ensured he’d remain in Atlanta for the remainder of his playing career, Chipper Jones hoped to pay back the Braves organization with a stellar 2009.
"I’ve been good to the Braves, but they’ve been better to me,” Jones said. “They never even let me get to a free-agency year.”
Jones, the reigning NL batting champion, had plenty of reason to bank on his age-37 season as yet another notch in his Hall-of-Fame belt.
That’s what made the ‘09 campaign so dang frustrating for the Braves legend.
Troubled by an oblique injury and other aches and pains, Jones nosedived from the top of the NL batting charts into the muck.
His batting average dropped 100 points from .364 to .264, and his OPS dropped over 225 points from 1.044 to .818, which was his worst output since his rookie season in 1995.
With Jones stuck in neutral, the 86-win Braves failed to make the playoffs for the fourth consecutive year.
Rumblings of Jones’ impending retirement followed as the future of Atlanta baseball was as uncertain as ever.
2009 Topps #41 Mike Mussina
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Value: $25
There aren't many MLB legends that have gone out on top.
Mike Mussina is one of the few who have.
Elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2019 in his sixth year of eligibility, Mussina was one of the steadiest pitchers of an era in which video-game offenses (and controversial health regimens) dominated.
Critics pointed to his relatively high career 3.68 ERA as a reason to exclude him from Cooperstown consideration.
Yet, context is key when looking at Mussina's resume.
His ERA was 23 percent better than the league average during his 18 MLB seasons, and his bWAR of 82.7 ranks him 24th all-time among fellow pitchers.
A five-time All-Star and seven-time Gold Glover, Mussina finished sixth or better in the AL's Cy Young balloting eight times across ten seasons from 1992-2001.
However, he couldn't put together a 20-win season until his final year with the Yankees in '08.
Mussina went 20-9 for the 89-win Bombers, earning Cy Young and MVP consideration in his age-39 season.
He also became the oldest pitcher in MLB history to reach 20 wins for the first time.
You'd think Mussina would cash in on this late-career showcase.
Instead, he went the opposite way and announced his retirement.
In doing so, he is one of just three pitchers to call it quits after a 20-win season.
2009 Topps #290 Albert Pujols
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Value: $25
2009 was the peak of Albert Pujols' Hall-of-Fame career, at least from an individual standpoint.
Named National League MVP for the second consecutive year and third time in a half-decade, the 29-year-old first baseman joined Stan "The Man" Musial as the only three-time MVPs in St. Louis Cardinals history.
There was no better hitter in the Majors in '09.
And there was no more popular of a player, either.
Beloved everywhere by fans of all 30 MLB teams, Pujols set a new National League record for All-Star votes to earn another starting spot at first for the Senior Circuit.
By season's end, Pujols paced all of baseball in home runs (47), runs scored (124), intentional walks (44), slugging percentage (.658), OPS (1.101), OPS+ (189), and total bases (374).
He also set a career-high for walks (115), drove in 135, and hit .327.
With Pujols on a different astral plane and the acquisition of Matt Holliday at the trade deadline, the 91-win Cardinals ran away from the field in the NL Central.
The playoff party didn't last long.
Pujols went 3-for-10 against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLDS with an RBI, but the rest of St. Louis' bats were held in check in a blink-and-you'd-miss-it three-game sweep.
2009 Topps #300 Ichiro Suzuki
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Value: $25
In parts of his 14 seasons with the Seattle Mariners, Ichiro Suzuki made the playoffs exactly once: his rookie season in 2001.
He'd have to wait until he was traded to New York in 2012 for another taste of postseason play, which made his championship runs with Japan in the World Baseball Classic that much sweeter for the title-starved baseball savant.
Suzuki led his native country to victory in the inaugural WBC in '06 and did so again in '09, slashing a championship game-winning two-run single to lift Japan past South Korea in ten.
The 35-year-old right fielder kept the beat going during the MLB season, slashing .352/.386/.465 with an MLB-best 225 hits, 11 home runs, 31 doubles, 88 runs scored, 46 RBIs, and an AL-best 15 intentional walks for the 85-win M's.
Ichiro finished ninth in the league's MVP race and earned his ninth-straight All-Star appearance, his ninth-straight Gold Glove, and his third Silver Slugger.
Regardless, the M's once again squandered Ichiro's greatness, missing the playoffs for the eighth consecutive year.
2009 Topps #390 Joey Votto
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Value: $25
One of this generation's most refreshingly frank players, Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto experienced some of his highest highs and lowest lows in 2009.
Votto opened the World Baseball Classic for his native Canada with a bang, notching four hits in five at-bats in a back-and-forth 6-5 loss to the United States.
That led to an eye-opening 2009 MLB season in which the 2008 NL Rookie-of-the-Year runner-up landed near the top of the league's leaderboards in OBP (.414), slugging percentage (.567), and batting average (.322).
The 25-year-old slugger also mashed 25 home runs and posted 38 doubles, 82 runs scored, and 84 RBIs.
Receiving down-ballot MVP votes despite Cincinnati's mediocre 78-84 record, Votto was on the verge.
Before he'd fully break through, however, he'd have to attend to his mental health.
Following his father's passing in August of '08, Votto struggled to stay afloat.
He missed time in '09 due to bouts of dizziness, stress and panic attacks.
Votto would later get his panic attacks under control, seeking treatment and therapy on his way to multiple All-Star Games and the 2010 NL MVP award.
2009 Topps #50 David Ortiz
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Value: $20
During the 2009 campaign, David Ortiz was named in a New York Times piece as one of several players with a positive result in MLB's first round of steroid testing back in 2003.
Thirteen years later, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred called the validity of these initial results into question.
But in 2009, Ortiz was forced to defend himself and passionately deny any wrongdoing, even though all tests in '03 were supposed to be conducted under the condition of anonymity.
Things weren't much less stressful on the field.
Mired in an early-season slump that kept going and going, Ortiz scuffled through an uncharacteristic 149-at-bat homerless streak.
As the season progressed, the 33-year-old DH threw his hands up and went into "Little League" mode.
Simplifying his mindset and approach, Ortiz recovered to hit 28 home runs and 99 RBIs with 35 doubles and 77 runs scored.
His .238 average and .794 OPS were far from ideal, but they were much better than where the season could have ended up.
Ortiz's late-season surge helped the 95-win Red Sox lap the field of AL Wild Card hopefuls, setting up an ALDS date with the Angels.
That date was a short one.
Ortiz went just 1-for-12 with a single, and the Halos swept the Sox out of October in three games.
2009 Topps #224 Max Scherzer
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Value: $20
Mad Max's first year as a full-time starter left him with plenty to be angry about.
That doesn't mean it was a bad year altogether.
Slotting in at the back of the Arizona Diamondbacks rotation, the former first-round pick notched his first career win on May 16th with six innings of scoreless four-hit ball against the Braves.
And Scherzer's chaotic delivery and baseball smarts confounded hitters at his best, resulting in 174 strikeouts in 170.2 innings pitched.
However, the 24-year-old righty was unpolished and got rocked more often than he would have liked.
In 30 starts, Scherzer went 9-11 with a so-so 4.12 ERA and 1.344 WHIP, one of the worst WHIPs of his career.
He gave up 8.8 hits per 9 innings and 1.1 homers per nine, and big hits seemed to plague him at the worst times.
Scherzer often wore his frustrations on his sleeve, which often snowballed into more control issues.
That effectively ended his time in Arizona, as he'd be dealt to Detroit in late '09 as part of a three-team deal that sent Curtis Granderson to the Yankees.
2009 Topps #35 David Price Rookie Card
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Value: $15
The 2009 Rays fell on their collective faces the year after the franchise's first AL pennant, meandering to third in the AL East at 84-78.
And most of that landed on the shoulders of the pitching staff.
In '08, the Rays finished second in the AL and third in the Majors with a composite 3.82 ERA.
In '09, Tampa regressed to below league average (4.33) with a 4.35 ERA.
An inexperienced David Price was one of the main culprits.
In his first full year as an MLB starter, the young Tennessee native struggled to a 4.42 ERA in 23 outings.
He surrendered 119 hits and 54 walks in 128.1 innings pitched, rounding out to a troublesome 1.348 WHIP and 8.3 H/9.
And then there were the home runs.
Price gave up 17 bombs during the '09 campaign, equating to 1.2 homers surrendered per nine innings.
He had yet to develop a consistent out pitch, and hitters punished him regularly when he caught too much of the plate.
One year later, Price would become the ace that Tampa invested in with the first overall pick of the 2007 MLB Draft.
His '09 season was filed away as a valuable learning experience for future successes, rather than an abject failure.
2009 Topps Baseball Cards In Review
Again, this set likely won't come up near the top of any polls for the top sets of the modern era, but for the hardcore hobbyist and set builder, 2009 Topps is decent overall.
The short print variations that featured many big-name legends of the game like Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, and Jackie Robinson, too name a few, were certainly a nice touch.
And the design is straightforward and offers plenty of top-notch action shots of the biggest names of the day.
The checklist is also loaded with subsets, including:
- Managers
- Postseason Highlights
- Award Winners
- Team Checklists
- Legends of the Game
The hobby was certainly still in a lull when this set debuted.
The Great Recession was well underway, leaving many hobbyists sidelined with the lack of job and financial security among their bigger concerns.
Many won't recall this set for that reason alone.
And even though none of the rookies in this set will likely end up in Cooperstown, it's still worth a second look if you consider yourself a pure hobbyist and set builder.