Baseball card stories from Steve Woltmann

Photographer Steve Woltmann has been shooting professional and college sports for over 40 years. He has been the team photographer for North Central College and Loyola University for over 20 years, and has photographed numerous championship series across all the major professional sports. His work has included book and magazine covers (including Sports Illustrated), as well as Upper Deck cards in several sports. He kindly answered my questions about baseball cards.

"I started working for Upper Deck in 1992.  The first couple of years I worked for them, they sent me all over the country shooting minor league baseball.   As I tell people, I started out in the minors shooting all the up & coming prospects.

   Yes I am a collector, though I only collect Upper Deck’s cards, I’m a very loyal & traditional person, and since UD has been very good to me....  I try to put together a complete set of UD hockey every year.    I like to collect the cards that I’ve taken the photo of, but I also still enjoy the thrill of opening a fresh pack to see what I might find.   I collected when I was a kid, my first set was Topps 1969 Football.   The biggest difference from when I was a kid till now is that I don’t put them in my bicycle spokes like I used too.  I ruined many a Bart Starr  (being a Bears fan) card when I was young.

My favorite card(s) would have to Derek Jeter’s 2nd year card.   I shot this in Greensboro while he was in Class A ball.   I arrived early to set up for the session & walked into the gift shop where I saw a barrel of cracked bats for sale for $ 5.    On the knob, I saw the name ‘JETER’ written.   So I bought it with the thought of using it for the photo shoot (the year earlier when I shot his rookie card in Ann Arbor, he was doing fielding poses).   And yes, I still do have the bat!  My goal is to one day, have that bat & all my Jeter card mounted into a case.   The other BTS story on Jeter is the year earlier (1993) UD sent me to Ann Arbor with a full Yankees uniform, to shoot his rookie card.   He was a freshman at University of Michigan.   I picked him up at his college dorm, along with his roommate.   We went to the HS field across the street from the Michigan football stadium and did the photos there.  Dropped him off, thanked him, wished him luck, and told him I hoped to see him again.  The next year, I did in Greensboro.
 

My 2nd fave is my Jordan card from the Bulls 2nd Championship rally after they won the NBA title. "

 

Thanks!