A Rom Tripper

If you think it heresy that many kids would rather collect Pok�mon cards than baseball cards, the Upper Deck Company agrees. But how can Upper Deck lure young fans back to the genre?

Digitize. Upper Deck recently introduced its PowerDeck series, trading cards of 25 big leaguers in the form of miniature CD-ROMs (roughly the size of traditional cards) that include game-action video, music, a photo gallery, stats (alas, only through the 1998 season) and a brief biography. Remember when your Tito Fuentes card only made a sound if you placed it between the spokes of your bicycle? Now you can download a Mark McGwire card that shows footage of Big Mac cracking his record-breaking 62nd home run in 1998, accompanied by Joe Buck's call.

PowerDeck cards also are available for the NBA and NFL. The baseball series is sold in three-card packs (two traditional baseball cards, one CD-ROM) retailing for $4.99. A digitized card will occupy as much as 10 minutes of viewing and reading time. Some of the background music sounds suspiciously similar to U2's I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, which, after all, is the anthem of every card collector.

The best bargain is Power-Deck's four-CD-ROM Athletes of the Century collection ($19.99), which features Wayne Gretzky, Michael Jordan, Joe Montana and Babe Ruth. Our only quibble is that none of Jordan or Montana's college highlights are included, but the rare photographs of the Sultan of Swat are a grand slam.