Showing posts with label barry bonds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label barry bonds. Show all posts

Monday, December 30, 2024

Wrapping Up 2024

Do you know what Rickey Henderson, Kobe Bryant, Kurt Suzuki, Charles Woodson, Barry Bonds, Doug Wilson, and Marshawn Lynch all have in common?  They all wore #24 at some point in their careers and they're all athletes I really like and collect.

That's why I'm wrapping up 2024 with a celebration of these athletes and twenty-four of their cards featuring clear shots of #24.

The cards will be presented in chronological order... so you'll see streaks of certain players.  That's because some of these players wore #24 during specific parts of their career.

For example, Barry Bonds wore #24 for most of his tenure in Pittsburgh which lasted from 1986 to 1992.  Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of quality examples of his cards featuring #24.  However I was able to dig up two of his early oddball issues with nice photos:

1987 Classic Travel Update #113

1988 Kenner SLU #NNO

Three of my all-time favorite athletes wore #24Rickey Henderson wore #35 his first stint in Oakland and #22 right after the Yankees traded him back.  However... he only wore #22 a minute amount of games in 1989.

1992 Donruss Elite Legends #NNO

He worked out a deal with Ron Hassey to acquire #24 (the number he wore in New York) which is the number he wore with the A's from 1989 to 1993, 1994 to 1995, and in 1998.

Charles Woodson wore #24 for the Oakland Raiders.

1998 Bowman Chrome Interstate Refractor #181

He was such a fun player to watch... that I liked him immediately after entering the NFL.  But I became an even bigger fan when he signed with the Green Bay Packers in 2006.

2000 Crown Royale Game Worn Jersey #6

Not sure why he ended up wearing #21 for the Green & Gold.  But when he returned to Oakland in 2013, he went back to #24.

Another one of my all-time favorite athletes is Kobe Bryant.  You won't see any of his early cards featured in this post though, because he wore #8 the first half of his career from 1996-97 to 2005-06.  But he switched to #24 in 2006-07:

2006-07 Finest Green Refractor #25

I acquired most of these Kobe cards during the late 2000's when they were still affordable and I was still opening basketball products.

2007-08 Bowman Draft Picks & Stars Triple Relics #BR-KB

2007-08 Fleer Feel the Game #FG-KB

2007-08 Stadium Club Beam Team Relics #BTR-KB

This one isn't valuable, but it does feature a fantastic action shot of him:

2007-08 Topps #24

Don't worry... there's more baseball coming up.  Just two more Kobe relics:

2008-09 Topps T-51 Murad Relics #T51R-KB

2008-09 Topps Treasury Relics #TTR-KB

Okay... let's transition back to baseball and another all-time favorite player of mine:

2009 Allen & Ginter Mini Printing Plate #105

Kurt Suzuki wore #24 for the Oakland A's in 2008.

2009 Topps Heritage Clubhouse Collection Relics #CC-KS

I'm not sure why he opted to switch to #8 in 2009, but that's the number he wore the majority of his tenure in Oakland.

I've always thought it was cool that Kurt and Kobe both wore #8 and #24.

Okay... one final jersey card of Kobe:

2009-10 Crown Royale King on the Court Materials #10

Okay... transitioning from the hardcourt to the gridiron, we go from The Black Mamba to Beast Mode:

2012 Topps Prolific Playmakers Autograph #PPA-ML

Marshawn Lynch started his NFL career with the Buffalo Bills where he wore #23.  However he was traded mid-season to the Seattle Seahawks in 2010 and wore #24.  That's the number he wore in high school and his freshman year at CAL.

If you're a baseball fan who patiently stuck around, here's a few more baseball cards:

2012 Topps Retired Number Patch #RN-RH

2013 Topps Five Star Autographs #FSBA-RH

2015 Gypsy Queen Autographed Relics #AR-RH

2016 Topps Tribute Ageless Accolades Autograph #AA-RH

2017 Topps Definitive Autographed Relic #DCAR-RH

I'm not sure when it happened, but sometime around
2013 or 2014... Topps started inserting a ton of Henderson on-card autographs into their products.  This flooded the market and allowed collectors like me to start adding them to my collection for $50 or less.

2017 Topps Five Star Heart of a Champion Autograph #FSHC-RH

The Hobby Boom of 2020 changed the way people collected... and drove Rickey's autograph prices through the roof.  I haven't bought a single one since.

Switching sports... here's a San Jose Sharks legend:

2019-20 UD Chronology Canvas Autographs #CA-WI

Doug Wilson only played two seasons in San Jose, but he spent sixteen seasons in the NHL.  He wore #24 the entire time.  After he retired, he would return to the organization in 2003 as their general manager where he built a perennial playoff team.

Let's wrap things up with one last Rickey:

2020 Topps 1985 Topps Baseball Relics #85R-RH

Well there you have it... twenty-four cards of seven guys who wore #24.

Now I know there are a bunch of legends like Willie Mays, Ken Griffey Jr., Miguel Cabrera, Rick Barry, and a bunch of others that I left out of this post.  But I wanted to narrow it down to guys I really, really liked to root for... and collect.

Not a fan of my selections?  Create your own list of 24 cards showing of #24.

Happy New Year and sayonara!

Sunday, August 18, 2024

The Last Battle

As I begin writing this post... the San Francisco Giants are over at the Oakland Coliseum likely playing the final Battle of the Bay game between these two teams.  Sure... they'll play each other again.  Next February, they'll play each other in Arizona during Spring Training.  They'll also face each other six times during the regular season.

However... with the A's scheduled to play their home games in Sacramento the next three seasons... it'll no longer be considered the Battle of the Bay.  It's something Bay Area fans have been talking about for months, but now that the final game is here... it's pretty sad.

I'm guessing most of you know that I've been a big fan of the Athletics since the early 80's... possibly earlier.

My relationship with the Giants has been much more complex and convoluted.  Being a lifelong Bay Area resident, there have been times when I have rooted for them.  Sometimes I do it to support my family and friends.  I'll also cheer them on when I go to see them play at Oracle... like I did during the 80's and 90's at Candlestick.

Game Update #1: Heliot Ramos just hit a home run to tie the game.

However... I'm loyal to the A's and Padres.  The Giants are rivals to both of them... so most of the time... you won't find me showing them a lot of love.  I told you... it's complex.

That being said... today being sort of a special occasion... I wanted to show off some cards from my collection that feature both Bay Area teams.

1984 O-Pee-Chee Album Stickers #175-202

Although I might not root for the Giants... they always seem to have at least one guy I liked on their roster.  Atlee Hammaker was one of them.  I mainly remember him for his fantastic 1983 campaign, but he was also a part of that Giants pitching staff for most of the 80's.

He shares this sticker with my all-time favorite Oakland AthleticFive years later, the two would face off against each other twice during the 1989 World Series:

1989 World Series Program

Rickey singled off of him in Game 1, but flew out against him in Game 3.

1990 Fleer '89 World Series #7

The A's swept the Giants in four games... that spanned fifteen days... thanks to the Loma Prieta earthquake.

Heading into the 90's... Mark McGwire and Will Clark were the two biggest names in Bay Area baseballTopps capitalized off of them...

1993 Stadium Club Superstar Duos #NNO

Upper Deck did too...

1993 UD Fun Pack All-Star Scratch-Off #AS3

Unfortunately... neither of these guys were all-stars in 1993.

Game Update #2:  They're headed into extra innings.

A few years later... Barry Bonds was the face of the franchise in San Francisco and McGwire's days in Oakland were numbered.  But in 1996 they combined to hit 94 home runs and Topps produced this card in anticipation for inter-league play:

1997 Topps Inter-League Matches #ILM1

 Game Update #3:  The Giants just hit back to back home runs to give themselves a 4 to 1 lead.

2005 Topps Home Run History #BB677

In fifty-two games against the A's, Bonds crushed eighteen home runsEight of them were hit at the Coliseum.

Game Update #4:  The A's have cut the deficit down to two and have the bases loaded.

Barry Zito spent his first seven seasons with the A's as part of the Big 3.  But after the 2006 season, he left to play for the Giants:

2007 Topps Trading Places #TP10

Final Game Update:  The Giants beat the A's 4 to 2 and split the season series.  Although they lost today... the A's were 76-72 over the course of twenty-eight seasons of inter-league play.

2014 Topps Super Veteran #SV-9

Zito spent the next seven seasons in San Francisco.  He took the year off in 2014, but returned to the A's organization in 2015.  The A's kept him in AAA for most of the season.  But he joined the club in mid-September and pitched in three games.

In his second to last start of his career, he faced off against San Francisco's Tim Hudson at the ColiseumMark Mulder was in attendance for the Big 3 reunion.

Props to Topps for partnering the A's and Giants up on several occasions for their album stickers:

2013 Topps Stickers #293-314
2015 Topps Stickers #147-164
2016 Topps Stickers #151-159

The two teams shared their 2014, 2017, and 2018 stickers as well.  And for the past fifty-seven years... they shared the Bay Area baseball fanfare.  It'll be interesting to see how many A's fans switch their allegiance to San Francisco, how many stick with the A's, or how many find another favorite team.

I still haven't decided what direction I'm gonna go.  There's still over one month of baseball in Oakland... and until they leave... I'm 100% loyal to them.

Happy Sunday and sayonara!

Extra Innings

Back in May, Reader X sent me a shoebox full of cards:


Finally got around to opening up his care package and sorting out the goodies today:


His care packages are usually filled with tons of A's and Giants, so it's not surprising to see this card:

2023 Stadium Club Red Foil #293

I'll show off highlights of the other stuff in a few separate posts over the next couple of weeks.  Until then... thanks in advance Xavier.