THE RATASS GAZETTE

Rickey Henderson 1982 Topps #610 RANDOM THOUGHTS ... Awesome card here featuring the great Rickey Henderson on the base-paths, which is fitting because in 1982 he set the Major League record with 130 stolen bases. The previous mark had been 118, set by Lou Brock in 1974. Henderson had put himself on the map with 100 steals in 1980, but in 1982 it all came together. ...  He led the league with 116 bases on balls, helping him to a .398 on-base percentage, which means he was getting on base a ton. And if he got on, he was taking second base in a hurry. And maybe third base, too.  ... Henderson was also caught stealing 42 times in 1982, which seems like a lot (and it is), but when you consider his 75% success rate that season (130 steals in 172 attempts), it's acceptable. ... He was 80% for his career, which is phenomenal. ... Henderson, a Hall of Famer,  led the American League in stolen bases in seven consecutive seasons (1980-1986), and topped the century ma...

Ozzie Smith 1984 Topps #130 RANDOM THOUGHTS ... Here we see Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith hustling down the baseline on his 1984 Topps card. Smith played 124 games in 1984, posting a stat line of .257/.347/.337 (.684 OPS). Yikes, that .337 slugging percentage is hard to look at... but at least he was hustling! He also added 791 cart-wheels, which was right around his career average. And, oh yeah, he was named an All-Star and won a Gold Glove. ... I've always admired the 1984 Topps card design, going as far as to say it's my favorite Topps baseball card design of the 1980's. A bold statement, for sure, but this design is top-notch. You've got the player inset photo, with the player photo exploding out of the top of the frame, which is cool. The vertical team name, with matching team color, is a nice touch as well. Player name and position are presented cleanly in all-caps in the lower-right hand corner of the card. Just a really nice-looking design. Awesome card from ...

Tony Gwynn 1987 Topps #530 RANDOM THOUGHTS... It's fitting that Tony Gwynn is shown here in the batter's box because he was definitely focused on the ball that year. He'd post a major league-leading .370 batting average in 1987, which was the highest number he'd posted in his career to that point. He also stole 56 bases that season! I was surprised to learn that Gwynn stole 319 bases over his 20 year career. ... Gwynn had a great offensive year in '87, adding 13 triples that contributed to an impressive .370/.447/.511 stat line. He also led the league with 218 hits, and those 56 SB were good for 2nd in the NL. His gaudy .958 OPS ranked ahead of NL sluggers such as Mike Schmidt (35 HR's in 1987) and Andre Dawson (a league-leading 49 bombs). Now that's raking it! ... Gwynn hit over .350 in a season a whopping 7 times! I already knew he was great, but now I'm starting to think he was  really  great. Tony Gwynn is the man.

Deion Sanders 1990 Topps #61 RANDOM THOUGHTS ... An awesome card featuring Deion Sanders as an up-and-coming phenom. Prime Time before his prime. Check out the badass photo! A young man on his way to conquering the sports world. It's a really cool picture that captures Neon Deion at a very exciting time in his career. ... He was entering his second MLB season in 1990, and he appeared in just 57 games for the Yankees that year, but then again, he did play 16 games with the Atlanta Falcons in the NFL that fall as a kick returner/ punt returner/ shutdown corner. So we'll cut him some slack. ... The 1990 Topps set, as any baseball card collector will tell you, was the first set to feature colored borders, and it's one of my favorite Topps card designs ever. There were many border colors, varying by team or whatnot. The other design features -- like the player photo showing in front of the team name, and a parallelogram (a parallelogram!) containing the player ...