Back in Time

This post is a few months late.  I originally wanted to publish this back in early March when some of us shifted our clocks one hour forward for Daylight Saving Time.  

1989 Topps #70

The contents of this post feature two oddball Oakland A's items from the Junk Wax Era that have one thing in common.  They both keep track of time.

Let's flashback to 2016.  A local sports fan reached out to me and donated a few boxes of newspapers, books, media guides, pins, ticket stubs, cards, and other oddball items.  One of those oddball items was this San Francisco Examiner Dot Racing wristwatch:

According to the paperwork included with this watch, it was part of a special giveaway sponsored by the San Francisco Examiner and the Oakland Athletics:

He even tossed in the newspaper clipping that featured his name in the list of recent winners:

This watch is one of the most unique memorabilia items sitting in my Oakland A's collection.  I couldn't find another one on the internet.  But it's uniqueness isn't the thing that makes it special.  Dot Racing was part of every A's home game at the Coliseum for as long as I can remember and this watch will forever keep those memories fresh in my mind.

Back in December, I added another wristwatch to my Oakland A's collection:

1989 Nelsonic MLB Card Watch

Ryan (@ SumoMenkoMan) sent me this watch in his 2025 Holiday Haiku Advent Calendar.  Here's the haiku clue he wrote for it:

I couldn't find a lot of information on this watch, but I did find a checklist and other interesting facts in a Sport Card Info blog post.

Nelsonic used a similar image from McGwire's 1989 Topps card.  When compared side by side, it's easier to see the the differences:

At first glance, it looked like this was the same at-bat, but McGwire is wearing a black wristband in the watch photo... plus not all of the fans in the background match perfectly.  If I had better detective skills and more time, maybe I could narrow down when and where these pictures were taken.  But I don't.

Regardless... both of these items are fantastic additions to my Oakland A's collection.  Thank you Bruce and Ryan!  And sorry it took so long for me to sit down and hammer out this thank you post.  Time sure flies by.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!