HR History for Week of 8/26 + Sports Cards That Make Us Happy: Bo Jackson
Get a sneak peek at what I'm sharing on social media this week before others see it & learn about one of the most epic sports cards out there.
Each week on social media, I share home run videos. They’re more random in the winter, but during the season, I look at what happened on that specific day in home run history.
Since you’re on this email list, you get a sneak peek of what I’ll be sharing for the upcoming week before everyone else sees it. Enjoy!
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Monday, 8/26
8/26/1990: After missing more than a month because of injury, Bo Jackson returned to the Royals lineup and hit this home run. It was his fourth in four straight plate appearances. The distance was estimated at 450 feet.
8/26/2001: Sammy Sosa reached the 50-homer plateau for the fourth time in his career.
8/26/2002: Alex Rodriguez crushed an eephus pitch from Orlando Hernandez.
Tuesday, 8/27
8/27/2017: Rhys Hoskins needed just 18 games to hit his first 11 MLB home runs. He finished the year with 18 dingers in 50 games played.
8/27/2005: Jeff Kent hit his 300th home run as a second baseman.
8/27/2013: Aramis Ramirez hit the 350th home run of his career.
Wednesday, 8/28
8/28/2003: A 20-year-old Jose Reyes became the youngest player in MLB history to slug homers from both sides of the plate in the same game.
8/28/2017: Adam Jones hit his 250th career home run.
8/28/2008: Christian Guzman became the second Nationals player to hit for the cycle.
Thursday, 8/29
8/29/2015: Edwin Encarnacion enjoyed a three-homer performance for the Blue Jays. He added this grand slam as the exclamation point.
8/29/2010: Brian McCann hit a walk-off homer for the Braves.
8/29/2002: Mark Bellhorn hit homers from both sides of the plate in the same inning.
Friday, 8/30
8/30/1987: Kirby Puckett went 6-for-6 with two homers. His final hit was this dinger, and it came with an A+ call from the booth.
8/30/1996: Luis Castillo hit his first career MLB homer.
8/30/1999: Edgardo Alfonzo went 6-for-6 with three homers for the Mets.
Saturday, 8/31
8/31/2006: Ryan Howard broke the Phillies’ single-season home run record with his 49th dinger of the year. He’d finish his NL MVP campaign with 58 homers and 149 RBI.
8/31/2005: Prince Fielder slugged his first career walk-off home run.
8/31/2005: Jeremy Hermida hit a grand slam on the third pitch he saw in the big leagues.
Sunday, 9/1
9/1/2014: Adam Dunn immediately got on everyone’s good side after getting traded to Oakland by hitting a home run in his first plate appearance with the club.
9/1/2001: Sammy Sosa’s 53rd home run of the season traveled an estimated 471 feet.
9/1/2002: Miguel Tejada’s three homers help the A’s extend their winning streak to 18 games.
⚾🏈CARDS THAT MAKE US HAPPY: 1990 SCORE BO JACKSON #697
I want to thank David Gonos of the Happy Hobby Newsletter for providing some background on this epic Bo Jackson card! If you are a sports card collector and you are working with a limited budget – or you just enjoy fun, interesting sports card content without complaints, bragging and finger-pointing – then you will enjoy this newsletter. Subscribe today!
What better way for us to welcome another football season and prepare to say goodbye to another baseball season than to talk about THE greatest combined baseball/football card ever created?
Yes, it came in 1990, the bulging bicep of the junk-wax era, with many companies producing sports cards at this point. But this card was special – and not just because it was about a player who was special.
A year earlier, Nike created a poster (which by the way, kids, posters were a BIG deal in the ‘80s and ‘90s) called “The Ballplayer,” for a Nike Air campaign. While Bo wasn’t much of a speaker because of a stutter he developed as a child, Nike turned him into a brand like no other, reaching athletes in all sports.
When this card was released (in Score’s baseball product) in January of 1990, Bo Jackson was at the height of popularity, coming off 1989, his best season as a football player with the Los Angeles Raiders. He rushed for a career-high 950 yards in just 11 NFL games after playing with the Royals through the baseball season. His NFL output made him the best Fantasy Football player in 1989 for that 11-game stretch on Pro-Football-Reference.
With the Royals, Bo had just finished his first and only All-Star season, cracking 32 homers with 105 RBI, and 26 stolen bases. (Imagine playing second base against the Royals, with Bo on first base, as your shortstop fumbles the flip to start a double-play, knowing Bo is barreling at you!)
January of 1991 saw the end of Bo’s football career after his hip was dislocated against the Bengals in the NFL Playoffs.
Another interesting nugget surrounding this card is that Nike was sued by photographer Richard Noble for this amazing photo in 2013. Noble alleged that he granted a limited license to Nike and that they used it for other things (like this card?) without his consent. The lawsuit was settled out of court in August 2013, about six weeks after it was filed.
Despite the love of this card, there are 19,938 copies of it graded by PSA, with 3,375 getting a PSA 10 (17% gem rate). You can buy a PSA 10 version of this card for about $180.
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