WTHBALLS CUSTOM SPECIAL: 1980 RICKEY HENDERSON PEPSI ALL-STAR

Good day all!

On the blog today, we have a fun card I created for my latest WTHBALLS release, a reprint of the never-released 1980 Pepsi All-Stars baseball set, with a bonus Rickey Henderson you see here:

I thought it'd be fun to add in one special card to the 22-card reprint set, and the Rickey rookie card was a natural choice.

Imagine if this was part of the very valuable test set!?

In his first taste of the Majors, Rickey appeared in 89 games with the Oakland A's in 1979, hitting .274 with 96 hits in 351 at-bats, stealing 33 bases and scoring 49 runs.

Coming into 1979 Henderson was on fire in 1977 and 1978 playing for Modesto and Jersey City in the Minors.

In '77 with Modesto, all he did was hit .345 with 120 runs scored and 95 stolen bases to go along with a sick .465 on-base-percentage.

The following year, getting promoted to Double-A ball, Henderson kept on hitting, this time to the tune of .310 with 81 runs scored and 81 steals.

So at the dawn of the 1979 season Henderson was ready to just about take over the game, straight to the Hall of Fame some 25 years later.

Just a glimpse of the dynamic player that was about to take over the baseball world over the next quarter century!

Greatest lead-off man the game has ever seen!

SPECIAL REQUEST: 1979 "MISSING" HOSTESS RICKEY HENDERSON

Special request that was posted to Twitter a couple months ago that I created for my buddy Alan gets the spotlight here on the blog today, "missing" 1979 variations for Rickey Henderson Hostess cards:

Fun idea that I was happy to whip up!

Coming into 1979 Henderson was on fire in 1977 and 1978 playing for Modesto and Jersey City in the Minors.

In '77 with Modesto, all he did was hit .345 with 120 runs scored and 95 stolen bases to go along with a sick .465 on-base-percentage.

The following year, getting promoted to Double-A ball, Henderson kept on hitting, this time to the tune of .310 with 81 runs scored and 81 steals.

So at the dawn of the 1979 season Henderson was ready to just about take over the game, straight to the Hall of Fame some 25 years later.

Greatest lead-off man the game has ever seen!

BY SPECIAL REQUEST: 1979 A'S ROOKIE PROSPECTS REDONE

On the blog this fine day, a special request that to be honest, I'm very surprised I didn't think of myself, a 1979 "A's Prospects" card with a small revision, that being the inclusion of some young up and coming outfielder named Rickey Henderson:

When you think about it, the fine folks at Topps easily could have had Henderson on that card instead of any of the three originally appearing on it, being that he was tearing through the Minors while posting high stolen base totals in his three full years before his call up.

In 1978 for example, Henderson hit .310 for the Jersey City A's in Double-A while stealing 81 bases, while in 1977 playing for the Modesto A's he hit .345 with 95 steals, scoring an incredible 120 runs in only 134 games.

Granted, I'm glad Topps DIDN'T do this since his 1980 rookie card is the stuff of legend, and I absolutely abhor the black and white prospect cards of the 1979 set.

But it indeed would have been something if this was what was issued instead.

ONCE AGAIN, I KNOW I'M DREAMIN' HERE...1979 TOPPS RICKEY HENDERSON

Just as I was dreaming when I designed a 1978 multi-player rookie card featuring Ozzie Smith, Paul Molitor, Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker, I know I'm stretching it when I designed a 1979 Topps card for Rickey Henderson, who was still a half a season away from any Major League action when the card would have come out.

But take a look at my card design anyway…

But considering what Henderson was doing in the Oakland minor league system those day, it was only a matter of time before he was promoted and tearing up the base-paths in the Major Leagues.

Henderson was on fire in 1977 and 1978 playing for Modesto and Jersey City.

In '77 with Modesto, all he did was hit .345 with 120 runs scored and 95 stolen bases to go along with a sick .465 on-base-percentage.

The following year, getting promoted to Double-A ball, Henderson kept on hitting, this time to the tune of .310 with 81 runs scored and 81 steals.

I guess the thing to realistically do was design an Oakland A's prospects card with Henderson as one of the three players depicted in BLAZING black and white. (ugh)

However, any of you who have been following this blog know just how much I hate those cards! 

So here you go, a card that would have made that '79 set so much better.