30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Sunday, August 7, 2016

Rickey Rolled

1991 Cracker Jack I #18

I've enjoyed watching and following baseball since I was four or five years old.  To put things into perspective... that's around forty years.  And during that time, Tony Gwynn has been my #1 favorite player for at least thirty of those years.

1991 Topps Micro #391

But before Gwynn, there was Rickey Henderson.  In the early 80's, Henderson was tearing up base paths and winning the hearts of Oakland A's fans around the Bay Area.

1990 Panini Stickers #138

Unfortunately the A's didn't think they were going to be able to re-sign him, so the shipped him off to New York for a bunch of young talent.

1990 Kay-Bee #15

This ultimately led to me finding a new favorite player... which eventually turned out to be Mr. Gwynn.  And that's pretty much been the case since the mid 80's.

1990 Topps Glossy Send-Ins #37

In 1989 the New York Yankees traded him back to Oakland.  He didn't actually unseat Gwynn, but he did instantly become my favorite Oakland Athletic.

1990 Classic Yellow #T27

Eventually he'd leave Oakland again and become teammates with Gwynn, which was kind of cool.  But in terms of collecting, he's always taken a back seat to Mr. Padre.


A while back (start of summer???), I received a huge care package from fellow Super Traders member, Cards on Cards... and inside were hundreds of Oakland A's cards.

1991 Classic II #T75

I wanted to show off some of the Hendersons I received, because they were the inspiration behind the renewed interest in my Man of Steal collection.

1990 Baseball Card Magazine #48


So far... I've already picked up two new autographs for my collection that I'll share in a future post.  Today... I'm focusing all of my attention to these nine new additions to my Rickey Henderson collection.


2015 Gypsy Queen Mini #190

Thank you Kerry!  I've already begun putting together a package for you as well as a few other Super Traders out there that I owe.  Should get them shipped out to you this week.

Oh yeah... one more thing...


Happy Sunday and sayonara!

5 comments:

  1. Shame on the A's for trading Rickey to the Yankees. To me, he's a vastly more interesting player than Gwynn and that trade probably killed the excitement many collectors felt.

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  2. Rickey would have helped Bryce Harper make baseball fun again

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  3. Gwynn and Boggs ,kings of the batting average!Funny because neither was an "average batter".

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  4. Henderson was with Oakland four different times, if I'm not mistaken. I know he spent a few months getting a ring in Toronto, alongside a Jay who would return two more times in Tony Fernandez.

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  5. night owl - i was devastated by the trade... and being a kid at the time, I think i somehow blamed rickey. thankfully canseco and mcgwire helped a's fan forget, but it took a couple of years.

    matthew scott - maybe he could teach harper the patented snatch catch

    big tone - super true

    mike matson - yeah... he was traded to toronto, where he won a ring, then turned around and signed with oakland in the offseason. i was also fortunate enough to have him play on my other favorite team... the padres... twice.

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