Rickey Henderson 1987 O-Pee-Chee

Rickey Henderson 1987 O-Pee-Chee

A few weeks ago I showed off my Wade Boggs card from the 1987 O-Pee-Chee baseball card set.

Well, I have scored another card from that same set for another PC that I am working on.

This time around, the featured payer is Rickey Henderson of the New York Yankees.

 

And just like that Boggs card from a few weeks ago, the lone difference on the front of the card is that the Topps logo in the lower-left corner has been replaced by the logo of O-Pee-Chee.

Great action image of Rickey here.  He definitely connected on this one!

Rickey Henderson 1987 Donruss Pop-Up All-Star

Rickey Henderson 1987 Donruss Pop-Up All-Star

As a kid that was an avid baseball card collector in 1987, I don’t recall ever knowing about these Donruss Pop-Up cards.

I now know that these Pop-Ups were part of a larger All-Star set that Donruss issued in 1987 that followed the design of the base product from the same year.

These Pop-Ups are actually fold-out style cards that are pretty neat.

But, I would never pop mine out or stand mine up.  At least I wouldn’t do that if I only had one…

Here is the card of Rickey Henderson from that set:

 

That’s the Metrodome in the backdrop, right?

Rickey Henderson 1991 Donruss American League All-Star

Rickey Henderson 1991 Donruss American League All-Star

As a crazed collector in the mid-to-late 1980’s and into the early 1990’s, I had some pretty large player collections brewing.

One of which was of Rickey Henderson.  Not only was Henderson one of the best in the game, but he almost always had great-looking baseball cards.

Like this All-Star card from the 1991 Donruss set:

 

Donruss really knew how to put together an All-Star card – so much better than Topps back in the day!

The card gives us action – not a posed, super-cropped portrait.  It shows us one of the many skills possessed by the player that earned him his All-Star status.

I am a fan.

Rickey Henderson 1987 Fleer “Baseball’s Exciting Stars”

Rickey Henderson 1987 Fleer “Baseball’s Exciting Stars”

Ah, the oddball baseball card.

How can you not like these gems from the 1980’s?  As every kind of company under the sun was trying to capitalize on the baseball card boom of the 1980’s, both Topps and Fleer were also creating limited edition products with their own branding with the goal of keeping fish around the boat.

And result was a lot of 30 and 40-card sets, and a ton of cards for player collectors to chase down as these small sets were released.

This card of Rickey Henderson is from the 1987 Fleer ‘Baseball’s Exciting Stars’ set.

 

And yes, Rickey Henderson was as exciting as it could get!

Rickey Henderson 1988 Topps Mini League Leaders

Rickey Henderson 1988 Topps Mini League Leaders

Gotta love me some Rickey!

And by the looks of his swing and his head positioning, it looks like he really got ‘good wood’ on this hit.

Check it out:

 

This card comes from the 1988 Topps ‘Mini League Leaders’ set.

I quickly looked at Rickey’s numbers from the 1988 baseball season.  And yes, he was certainly a league leader.

Can you guess which statistical category Rickey led the AL in?

Come on now, that could be one of the easiest questions ever asked at 30-YOC…

It was stolen bases, of course.  Henderson paced the AL with 93 steals at the conclusion of the 1988 season.

Rickey being Rickey.

Rickey Henderson 2002 Topps Heritage

Rickey Henderson 2002 Topps Heritage

It’s always interesting to me to see cards of Rickey Henderson suited up in a non-Yankees or non-Athletics uniform.

Rickey played for nine different clubs during his 25-season career.  His third longest tenure with any single team came with the San Diego Padres as he played with them for three seasons, from 1996 and part of 1997 and then again in 2001.

This is Rickey’s card from the 2002 Topps Heritage baseball card set:

 

He still looks in incredible physical condition, doesn’t he.  Not bad for a 42-year old legend.

Rickey Henderson 1991 Topps

Rickey Henderson 1991 Topps

Here is another great action-packed shot of Rickey Henderson courtesy of Topps.

 

This card comes from the 1991 Topps flagship base set of cards, and as you can see it features a neat ’40th Anniversary’ logo in the upper-left corner of the card.

I love when Topps gives us action images of Rickey – it is a perfect fit for a player that packed so much energy and excitement into each and every game in which he played.  I wish they still did that with today’s product…

Rickey Henderson 1988 Topps Glossy All-Star Send-In

Rickey Henderson 1988 Topps Glossy All-Star Send-In

As a youngster collecting baseball cards in the mid-1980’s, I remember one of the very few things that I could look forward to getting in the mail was baseball cards.

Sure, I got my Ranger Rick magazines.  And Beckett Magazine too.

But, it was baseball cards that excited me the most.

Topps did a phenomenal job in keeping collectors, both older and younger, happy and eager to wait for these mail-in sets to arrive.  And I was right there along for the ride too.

Known as ‘Glossy All-Star Mail Ins’ these sets were limited in production and always featured the best players and prospects in the game.  To get them, one had to obtain pull specially inserted redemption cards from wax packs of the 1988 Topps product.  Once obtained, that redemption card and payment of $1.25 would net you one of 6 10-packs that made up the 60-card set.  The results were random, unless you opted to send in 18 of the special offer cards and a payment of $7.50 which netted you the complete set.

This is the card of Rickey Henderson from the 1988 Mail-In set:

 

Man, those were the days!!!

Rickey Henderson 1990 Post Cereal – 1st Collectors Series

Rickey Henderson 1990 Post Cereal – 1st Collectors Series

It’s not Upper Deck.

It’s not Panini.

It’s not Pinnacle.

And it is not Fleer.

 

It is Post.  Yes, Post – the cereal company.

And back in the early 1990’s Post thought that they could take the easy way out and save money by not working for a MLB license.  Had they tried to partner up with Topps or another major company, their product may  have been more likable.

Instead, we got airbrushed, tightly cropped baseball cards like the one of Rickey Henderson above.

Thankfully they are one of the very few that took this route…

Rickey Henderson 1991 Topps All-Star

Rickey Henderson 1991 Topps All-Star

Even as a 12-year veteran, Rickey Henderson still worked his tail off to keep himself on top of the sport.

Always in pristine condition, and with an eye on the prize, Rickey did a fantastic job of asserting himself and putting his skills to work multiple times in each game he played.  His ability to disrupt the pitcher/catcher tandem was superb, and I have to believe that he drove opposing managers nuts with his ability to determine the pace of the game.

Rickey was chosen as an All-Star in 10 of his 25 big league seasons.

This is his cared from the 1991 Topps set that honors his selection to the AL squad.