2015 ASG: Rickey Henderson?? 1983 Topps #391

Rickey Henderson played for nine different teams during his 25 year career, but he is most synonymous with one. The Oakland A's. They are the club he collected 867 of his Major League Record 1406 Stolen Bases with, They are the club he won his 1990 MVP award with and the are also the club with whom he won the first of two World Series titles. Unfortunately his other Ring came as a member of the 1993 Blue Jays and we all know who they beat.

 1983 Topps #391 Rickey Henderson All-Star

So what does all of these Hall of Fame Accomplishments of a guy who hasn't played in over a decade have to do with next weeks All-Star Game?

Nothing, Except for his 1983T AS Card.

 1983 Topps #391 Rickey Henderson All-Star (b-side)

 In 1983 Topps did something interesting on the back of the All-Stars. Each of the 22 cards in the subset features an All-Star Game from the past. There is a synopsis followed by a line score and along with a list of Winning and Losing pitchers and Home Runs.

It is an interesting use of the All-Star cards that I don't believe Topps has done before or since.

The #391 Card occupied by Rickey Henderson also happens to be the card that discusses the 1938 All-Star Game which was held in Cincinnati.

It was the first All-Star Game hosted by the Reds. The NL won 4-1. This game had to be one of the greats in All-Star history - Johnny Vander Meer got to start the game for the NL in front of his home crowd just weeks after his back to back no-hitter - That is Awesome.

Vander Meer and Cubs Pitcher Bill Lee (not Spaceman Lee) were the starts of the game. For six shutout innings they held the formidable AL line up to two hits. There were no offensive standouts on either side, 3 of the NLs four runs were unearned as the AL Squad had four Hall of Famers commit errors.

The Phillies sole representative in the 1938 All-Star Game was Hersch Martin. It was the only All-Star squad that Martin ever made, and he didn't even get to play in the game. 

1983 Topps/OPC #391 Rickey Henderson (AS)

Just presenting the OPC version of this card which is basically the same up front with the added French Text and a different logo.

but boy look at the back:

1983 OPC/Topps #391 Rickey Henderson AS  ( b-side)

OPC really squished up the font to get all the information on there. 

One final note. During the 1938 All-Star Game Leo Durocher hit what is referred to as a "Bunt Home Run" on the above Topps Card(s). During the recent SABR 45 in Chicago Chuck Hildebrandt gave an excellent (and funny) presentation on what he referred to as "Little League Home Run". To read more about Little League Homers click here.   

Sources and Links
Phungo 2015 ASG Coverage
baseball-ref
SABR

Card Show Report 2011 12 10 - Bucks Technical High School

This was my first show at Bucks Technical.  After going to a pair of more larger regional shows over the last month the Bucks show was a little disappointing.  There were many 10-15 dealers with a decent variety of items.  There wasn't much of a selection in the cheap vintage category, which hurt my day a bit.

Still Team Phungo was able to bring home some cool items:

2007 Topps Finest Ryan Howard ($4 #d to 50)

I try and collect cards that relate to games I have been to, so yeah I am the one guy that is interested in annoying stuff like UD Documentry or Moments and Milestones.  Trouble is, I am only interested in specific cards in those set.  Howard actually hit a pair of homers in this game as I remember.  The Philllies pummeled Matt Cain.  I think Moises Alou took out his knee running into a wall. 

2007 Topps Finest is actually pretty decent as far as these cards go.  The Description on the back is actually particular to the game specified on the card and the player pictured on the card is the one talked about on the reverse (unlike documentry and M&M)

More Phils

83 OPC Mike Schmidt
89 Topps Mike Schmidt Special (Card Number = L)
06 A&G Ginter back mini Chase Utley
75 Topps Mini Greg Luzinski
87 OPC Mike Easler

The OPC Schmidt, Utley Mini and Luzinski cards all went for a buck each while the remaining cards were dimers, I believe.  The Easler is a bit of an oddity in the OPC Phils collection as it isn't part of the Topps set for 1987.  The Utley card is a mini from the first issue of A&G.  A buck is typically higher then I would go for a 75 mini but the bull is worth it.  The 89 T Schmidt card appears to be a box bottom, I haven't bothered to find out where exactly this card originited.
 
Noteworthy

2007 A&G Box Loader N43 Joe Frazier ($2)

Couldn't lett this one got for $2,  this is the 2nd A&G boxtopper I have picked up pretty cheaply in the last year.  Kind of a pain to store, but nice to have a few.

Hall of Fame

All-Star Stand Up Ricky Henderson
2000 Topps #44 Hank Aaron

These were both dimers - Henderson is a popout/stand up card made by Leaf in the mid 80s to commemorate the All-Star game.  These are similar to the 60s era standups that were homaged in 2011 Lineage.

In 2000 card #44 in the Topps set was dedicated to Hank Aaron, ala #7 for Mickey Mantley both prior and since.  As far as I know this is the only year which Topps reserved #44 for Aaron.  2000 Topps is a minimalist design, which I like and consider a hidden gem in the Topps Pantheon.

Card Show - Moorestown Mall, NJ

I visited a card show in Moorestown New Jersey this weekend and these are the results:

$20.00 - 12 packs of 2009 Topps Hobby. This is what I am calling my Card Show 09 Topps Blaster. I Will feature the results in a future post.

20.00 - 4 packs of 2009 UD Hobby. This would be my Card Show 09 UD Blaster. The dealer was good enough to toss in a grab box of cards with the cards. As with the Topps cards above this will be the subject of a future post.

1.00 - 1 pack of Beavis and Butthead cards. couldn't pass them up.

5.00 - dime box 1

5.00 - dime box 2

3.00 - 6 vintage Tipton's from 1954-70 in pretty rough condition

Total damage 54.00.

The vintage Tipton's consisted of a 1954 Topps Ray Murray, a couple of 58s and a 1970 Denny McClain card.

1958 #414 Sammy White
1970 #400 Denny McLain

The bulk of my picks from Dime Box 1 were 1994 Fleer Flair cards. I don't like the look as much as the 1993, but it is still a good looking card. The rest of that batch was basically HOF and star cards from all those overprinted late 80s series.

1992 Action Packed #69 Bill Mazeroski
2005 Bowman Chrome #131 Jeff Kent
1994 Fleer Flair #334 Rickey Henderson
1982 Donruss #483 Eddie Murray

From Dime Box 2 I went after more of the HOF and star cards including some Schmidt and Carlton Cards. I was also inspired by 30 Year old Cardboard and picked up about a half dozen 83 Super Veterans. Other cards in this lot included about a dozen chrome stars and a couple of 1973 and 1974 commons.

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After hearing horror stories on pack prices I was really happy to pick up the Topps cards at 12 for 20. Of course I could be the victim of dealer pack searching, but if not the price for the topps cards is cheaper then the per pack price works out to if I had bought a Box from D&A. I was thinking of doing a Retail v Hobby of 09 Topps, getting $20 of each product. But I am pretty sure the retail blaster cannot compete with 12 hobby packs.

The 4 for 20.00 for the UD Hobby was what I was shooting for, I asked for the grab box as part of a volume discount and the dealer was good enough to oblige. I figure if all the cards in the bag are worthless, I can still use the plastic case.

Like I said I was pretty happy. I figure the two dime boxes yielded over a hundred cards of HOFs, Superstars, Phillies, or interesting oddballs for half the price of a blaster.

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The most consistently Phungo posts to be accessed via Google Search are my Card Show posts. For this reason I have put together a post just for Card Show resources and information in the greater Philadelphia area. The informational Post can be accessed here and also via a link on the sidebar.

Hall of Fame Thursday - Rickey Henderson and Topps 1983 homage to Topps 1963

1983 Topps #180 Rickey Henderson
1963 Topps #434 Johnny Callison

No, I am not drawing a comparison between recent Hall of Fame inductee Rickey Henderson and Johnny Callison. There is little linking Henderson and Callison other than in the years that each of these cards were produced both players were 24 years old.

I really wanted to take this opportunity to present an 83 Topps card paired with a 1963 card. As you can tell the cards are definitely siblings. With the Round mini-photo at the bottom right side of the card and player team and postion on the bottom left. It is a good design - I prefer the framing on the small photo in the 1983 design. The 1963 mini photo sort of ends abrubtly - sort of has a clip art feel to it. Regardless it is a worthy older brother of the 1983 topps.

Henderson is an easy choice this week. Yes I am sort of mailing this one in. I don't know if I need to run much of a profile on Henderson, there are plenty of other sources for that this week. I will note that I was a Lou Brock fan when I was a kid so I didn't much care for Henderson showboating when he broke Brock's stolen base record. Other than that it doesn't bother me if Henderson or anybody ever gets in with 100% of the HOF vote. It is something for everyone to talk about, and makes for interesting arguments. My opinion comes down to if Babe Ruth wasn't unanimous, it certainly should not bother anybody else to not be unanimous.

Some pieces of personal trivia from the Phungo annals and Baseball-Reference. I can now add Henderson to the list of Hall of Famers that I have seen play. And he is one of only two Hall of Fame players I have seen play in a World Series game (Paul Molitor). Henderson stole 1406 bases, I was present for stolen base number 1336. I don't really remember that game other than thinking at the time, the guy is still a threat to get on base and steal bases even if he can't hit the Mendoza line. He was also a bit of a liability in left field by then. Had no arm left by that point in his career as I remember.