Two posts in one day?! It's a Christmas Miracle! 😃 🎄🎅
Sure, these posts won't get a lot of views/comments since most folks are busy with family stuff today, but screw it, I'm more concerned with my goal of besting last year's post total. This post at least ties 2023 for my lowest annual total ever (35) and I'll still have a few days to catch and pass 2024's count of thirty-six. And yeah, Christmas Day just happens to be the best day to post about 12/25 cards and the subject of this post: Rickey Henderson!
I've been a bit nuts for refractor reprints lately, and one I really wanted to score was a shined-up Rickey rookie. This is the 2019 version (write-up back), and I'm still on the hunt for the 2014 version (original back). (Surprisingly, this card didn't get reprinted in Topps' big "50 Years" revue in 2001.) I've got an original in my 1980 Topps complete set, but not in the PC. (And I've told the story of how I had a poor-condition Rickey rookie briefly in middle school that got swindled by Dustin Engel for a pocketful of change that I still kinda hold a grudge about. [Dustin, you out there? Never too late to apologize, bro. lol.])
The refraction continues with this Hall Bound diecut insert from 1998 Chrome. I've got the Gwynn of these already, and when I stumbled upon this Rickey at auction, I threw in a competitive bid and ended up winning it. Just love the look of these cards, though the "ascending into heaven" vibe of the design adds a touch of melancholy to Tony and Rickey (on the Angels, at that), both taken from us sooner than we'd have liked.
I've got a couple Topps Tek cards of Rickey, and those are fun to play with, like putting them on a glow-in-the-dark surface and then checking out the "scar" they leave behind.
Not to blow your mind, but there are zero cards in the above photo, just the mark from where cards used to be.
Sneaking in some cardart, I made 3 or 4 "full-bleed border art" cards in 2025, a couple years after first messing around with the concept back in 2023, with this '91 Fleer Rickey (slash Tony Fernandez) being one of the better ones I've done.
I also ended up with a Ginter refractor mini earlier this year. Nice little card.
And speaking of Rickey minis, I've been making a bunch of these "logoman" silhouette cards. This one changes color, glows in the dark, and even changes color in the dark!
If this video uploaded successfully, it'll show it in action.
A page worth of the other Rickey minis I've made recently. These are a lot of fun to whip up and try new combos, finding out what looks cool together.
And some highlights of the full-size cardart mods I've been whipping up with Sharpies and holographic layers. They're a mixed bag; some look kinda cool when you catch them in the light. And of course a lot of attempts are failures that look like shit or I fuck up somehow, but that's par for the course with creative endeavors. Ultra-junk like '88 and '89 Topps are good for toying around with since they're virtually worthless but still kinda cool because it's Rickey.
That'll do it for this post. Happy Rickey Henderson's Birthday, everybody!
No comments:
Post a Comment