Sunday, December 21, 2008

My Top 5 Rickey Henderson Wish List

With Christmas closing in, I thought it would be an appropriate time to put together my ultimate Rickey Henderson "wish list." If money was no object (which of course it is), the list below is of the top five Rickey "collectibles" I'd most like to own. It was hard to limit it to just five, and I know I'll think of something to add in the future, but you can't go wrong with anything on the list below!

5. Game-Used Neon Green Batting Gloves



As if Rickey wasn't flashy enough on the field, he had to go find him self some neon green batting gloves to wear. While with the A's from approximately 1989-1991, Rickey wore both black and white Mizuno batting gloves with bright green padding on the backs of the fingers. I'd love to have a pair of gloves he actually wore in a game, and it would be even better if he stole a base while wearing them! It was this style of gloves that he was wearing when he broke Brock's all-time stolen base record.

4. 1977 Chong Minor League Rookie Card



The only card to make the top five is Rickey's 1977 Modesto A's Chong Rookie card, the first card of Rickey ever produced. The copy above recently sold on eBay for almost $2,500, so you can see why it's on my wish list, and not already in my collection. I'm usually not a fan of graded cards, but I would definitely make an exception for this one. Note the spelling of his name as "Ricky," since this was his first card, it's the only time that it's slightly acceptable, but any future occurrences are just not right.

3. Early Oakland A's Jersey



As you probably know if you read this blog, I'm a sucker for "retro" Rickey items, and nothing is cooler than one of his jerseys while first playing for the A's. Shown above is a 1982 home jersey, which he wore during the season that he set the single-season stolen base record with 130. It belongs to Steve, who also owns Rickey's high school yearbook, which I posted about back in April

2. A Stolen Base



This was an obvious choice, and one that I knew had to be near the top of the list! How cool would it be to own a base actual "stolen" by Rickey Henderson. I don't need #939 (I'm hoping that's already in Cooperstown), but #512 or #1,123 would be just fine.

1. Getting to Meet Him and Talk About the Blog!



The last item on the list is obviously not an object, but an experience! I'm hoping to finally meet Rickey while in Cooperstown for the Hall of Fame induction ceremony next summer. I would love to talk to him about the blog, and would welcome any input that he would like to provide. If I found out that Rickey had actually heard or even seen the blog, I don't know what I'd say. I'm planning on having some business cards printed up, so even if he hadn't heard of the blog yet, maybe he'll go check it out in the future.

8 comments:

Josh said...

I have a pair of those batting gloves from 89-91.....

coachlaing said...

At one point, I thought that I was getting pretty close to a "complete" Henderson card collection. I did not have his '77 or '78 Minor League cards, but I was down to about 5-10 other cards that were needed (including all of those incredibly strange, oddball cards). I stopped collecting for awhile, but need to get back to my Henderson collection to check in on what I have and what I do not have. It should be interesting. I love reading about your "top 5 wish list."

ManOfSteal said...

Congrats on the almost complete early Rickey collection. You can find the 1979 fairly cheaply now, but the 1977 will still set you back quite a bit. I've got a fairly extensive Rickey trade/sell list if you're interested, just send me an e-mail. I'm also a big fan of the oddballs, and am always on the lookout for more! I can also send you an updated checklist to help fill in the gaps of your collection.

Anonymous said...

i actually had this card.got it from a modesto athletics game as a kid.wish i still had it.when i got rid of it the card was valued at 900.00.but,the card dealer,as usual,found flaws and beeing young i believed him.cant believe its selling for 2,500.

john francis said...

well i still need his 77 modesto card but i do have a pair of his green neon batting gloves and a game used 1979 jersey

Richard said...

Do you still have the rickey henderson batting gloves....want to sell them

Richard said...

Would love to see what you have for sale and checklist

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