Now this card right here takes me way back.  Back to a time when Rickey Henderson was the most exciting baseball player on the planet!!!

Rickey could do it all – and some of it very well – and some of it better than anyone else!!!

The ‘better than anyone else’ reference is about his skills on the base paths.  In that case, Rickey was unreal - a true pace setter!!

Here is the card:

The headline of the card reads, ‘Athletics Single Season Stolen Base Leader’.  And while it could say so much more as Rickey’s base stealing history has made some major headlines during and after his playing days, I understand the theme of the card.  And I am more than OK with it!!!

Enjoy.

Autographed Ozzie Canseco 2008 Newark Bears team set card from my collection

The Newark Bears have had some famous players wear their uniform over the years: Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson, the infamous Jose Canseco, 2004 Boston Red Sox closer Keith Foulke, former New York Mets stars Edgardo Alfonzo and Armando Benitez and a number of others.

While it’s clear that Henderson is the best baseball player to appear in a game for the Newark Bears, it’s not as easy to say who was the best Newark Bears player in franchise history. Henderson is definitely in the running – in 147 games for Newark in 2003 and 2004, he hit .302 with 17 home runs, 64 RBI and 46 stolen bases.

Jose Canseco didn’t spend that long in Newark, and he didn’t put up a lot of big numbers. His brother Ozzie is a different story. In 2000, Ozzie Canseco hit .299 with 48 home runs and 129 RBI in 138 games. The team added a second level of netting beyond the left field wall because his home runs kept ending up clearing the ballpark and landing in the road, according to stories I’ve heard from fans who were going to games then.

Outfielder Jose Herrera spent four years with the Bears, from 2005-2008 and hit over .300 every season. He didn’t have a lot of home run power (he topped out at 16 home runs in 2005 and 2008), but there weren’t many other players you’d rather have at bat if you needed a clutch hit.

Shortstop Ramon Castro was a starter for the 2007 and 2008 Newark Bears teams, and appeared in a couple of games for the 2009 club that used nearly 100 different players. In 2008, Castro hit .352 with 28 home runs and 84 RBI in 117 games. He is the best Newark Bears player I saw during my time following the team, from 2006 through 2011.

I’d like to know your thoughts, though – especially if you’ve been following the Newark Bears longer than I have.

2012 Newark Bears News:

Danny Santiesteban (Photo credit: Paul Hadsall)

In December, the Bears acquired the rights to infielder Danny Bomback and pitcher Mike Smith in the Brockton Rox dispersal draft.  Brockton had previously obtained the rights to Bomback in October’s Pittsfield Colonials dispersal draft. He hit .355 with five home runs, 47 RBI and 26 stolen bases in 91 games for the Colonials last year. Smith, who has 15 games of major league pitching experience, had an 8-5 record with a 3.99 ERA in 15 starts for the Rox last year while also serving as the team’s pitching coach.

On Monday, the New Jersey Jackals signed 2011 Newark Bears outfielder Danny Santiesteban, according to the league website. Santiesteban hit .326 with 13 home runs and 74 RBI in 91 games last year.

Upcoming Events:

• The second annual Newark Bears Mardi Gras Masquerade Ball is set for Saturday, February 18th, with tickets starting at $200.
• The Bears will hold auditions for dance team members, national anthem singers and mascot performers on Saturday, February 28th.

It has been roughly 5 months since my last ‘Evolution’ post so I thought I would start 2012 off right by showing you a snapshot of my collection in its entirety.

I’ve had to shuffle cards around quite a bit to make room for some of my rapidly expanding player collections, but everything still fits in eight boxes.

Have a look:

Still wildly organized, I am very happy with the appearance of my collection and the place that I am currently at.

Here is a description of what you are seeing in the above photo:

Top Row, Box 1 – Cubs – Ernie Banks, Ernie Banks Heroes, Billy Williams, Ron Santo, Greg Maddux, Mark Grace.  Paul Molitor, Wade Boggs, Tony Gwynn, Kirby Puckett

Top Row, Box 2 – Reds – Morgan, Bench, Perez, Foster, Concepcion, Griffey Sr.  Mike Schmidt, Bo Jackson, Dale Murphy

Top Row, Box 3 – Jim Palmer, Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson, Eddie Murray, Willie McCovey, Rod Carew, Lou Brock, Ozzie Smith, Bob Gibson

Top Row, Box 4 – Rickey Henderson, Dave Winfield, Darryl Strawberry, Dwight Gooden, Gary Carter, Dennis Eckersley, Tim Raines

Bottom Row, Box 1 – Subsets, Team sets, Autos, Game-Used, Misc cards, supplies

Bottom Row, Box 2 – Reggie Jackson, Fergie Jenkins, supplies

Bottom Row, Box 3 – Andre Dawson cards 2000-2011, autos, game-used, supplies

Bottom Row, Box 4 – Andre Dawson cards 1977-1999

I should be able to wrap up some player collections in the coming months, which will force me to once again re-evaluate the way my cards are stored so I can continue to add new ones.  But I don’t want to think about that just yet…

Thanks for reading!!

Ask any collector to give you their ‘Top 5′ rookie cards to own from the 1980′s and the odds are pretty good that the 1980 Topps Rickey Henderson rookie card makes the list more often than not.

A classic design and great photo have kept this iconic card as a collecting goal for many almost 30 years after it’s release to the hobby.

Topps did a great job with this one…  Perfect photo choice.  Perfect colors used on the banners to compliment Rickey’s uniform.  And a perfect facsimile signature of one of the game’s brightest stars!! 

The 1980 Topps Rickey Henderson rookie card – I’ve got mine, do you have yours??

Rickey Henderson offered the baseball card companies something different.  They didn’t have to rely solely on posed photography or shots of Rickey in his batting stance at the plate.

Instead he gave the card companies beauties like these:

The anticipation of the next pitch…

Head-first slides…

Base stealing dominance….

Pictures where you can almost see the gears in his head spinning…

Rickey gave all of us handfuls of unique collectibles!!!  Thanks Rickey!!