I wouldn't necessarily count the Bird/Magic card, because it technically wasn't a multi-player rookie. It was from an entire set that was produced in strips of 3 cards. Basically, while being connected, each individual card is still it's own entity and is numbered as so.. I will not argue with the fact that complete panel is a great card though.
Anyways, my vote goes for the '82 topps Ripken. Not just because it was a great card, but also because without it, we wouldn't have the '82 Topps Traded Ripken, which is an absolutely great card.
I've always liked when multiplayer rookie cards resulted in a player getting his first individual card in the same year's traded set...'76 Willie Randolph. '81 Tim Raines and Fernando Valenzuela cards, '82 Ripken, so on and so on.
Multi-player rookies also led to the '78 Burger King Tigers set being quite nice. The Jack Morris, Alan Trammel and Lou Whitaker cards are great, and would be somewhat irrelevant, had these 3 not appeared on multiplayer cards in the regular Topps set.
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