5 Baseball Cards of Opening Day Past

These beauties were born of diamon firsts and greats

You know what week it is, right?

Yeah, it’s Opening Day Week.

Celebrate good times! Take a stiff shot of optimism!

And bear down.

Because it’s a long, bumpy, glorious, sweet, sweet road from here to October.

To help us celebrate the bounty that’s been laid in our laps with a new season upon us, here are a few baseball cards that really wouldn’t be what they are — or even just be — without Opening Day.

1974 Topps Hank Aaron (#1)

Aaron was a lead-pipe lock to break Babe Ruth’s all-time home run record heading into the 1974 season … so much, in fact, that Topps went ahead and anointed him as the new king on card #1 of their new set.

Hammer made short work of catching the Babe, smacking #714 on Opening Day in Cincinnati to tie the record. After some wrangling between MLB and Braves management about whether Hank had to play the rest of the series against the Reds, Aaron sat out the second game and wen homerless in the third.

Then, at the Braves’ home opener on April 8, Aaron made the record his alone.

1983 Donruss Hall of Fame Heroes Bob Feller (#36)

For decades, you really couldn’t have an Opening Day discussion without bringing up Feller’s no-hitter against the White Sox to open the 1940 season.

It’s not brought up as often these days, which is a little understandable considering 83 years have passed, but Rapid Robert’s feat will be tough to match any time soon.

Unless you count “combined” no-hitters as matching up.

I don’t.

As for the card here, it’s part of a splendid set that Donruss sneaked onto candy store shelves in 1983 and that gave me grade-school palpitations.

1983 Topps Tom Seaver (#580)

In keeping with the vernacular of our day, consider this the “hybrid” option on our list.

Because, while Reds fans got to revel in this striking shot of Tom Terrific popping out of our wax packs that Spring, the man him self had other plans for Opening Day of 1983.

To wit, Cincy traded Seaver back to the Mets in December of 1982 for Jason Felice, Lloyd McClendon, and Charlie Puleo. That set up a record-tying 14th Opening Day start for The Franchise.

A year later, he was with the White Sox and would log two more openers to put the record at 16.

There it remains.

1987 Hygrade Baseball's All-Time Greats Jackie Robinson

There has never been a more impactful single appearance on Opening Day than when Robinson took his place at first base in Ebbets Field in the top of the first inning against the Boston Braves on April 15, 1947.

Not only did Jackie bring a new, brilliant talent to the Brooklyn Dodgers, he changed the sport forever and made a courageous stride in the Civil Rights Movement that would blossom in the 1950s.

Of course, as a collector kid in the 1980s, Robinson’s cards were pretty much out of reach. But we always had these bandwagon options, where everyone with access to a printer of some sort was whipping out baseball cards left and right.

The Hygrade All-Time Greats set gave us (surprise) greats like Robinson and 118 others on the cheap. They look pretty cool, too.

2009 TRISTAR Obak Green William Howard Taft (#99)

No, that’s not a David Wells rookie card with the negative flipped.

That is none other than William Howard Taft, 27th President of these here United States, and a guy who probably didn’t get stuck in the White House bathtub.

What Taft did do, though, is initiate the tradition of Presidents throwing out the first pitch on Opening Day.

On April 14, 1910, Taft launched his toss from behind a flag-shaped banner to christen the new season as the Washington Senators took on the Philadelphia Athletics at American League Park, more accuratley known as American League Park II and aka Boundary Park, aka National Park.

The Obak card above does not show Wells Taft throwing out that inaugural first pitch (not as redundant as it sounds), but instead shows him tossing colored eggs across a lush lawn on a golden Easter morning.

Same basic idea.

—

Whatever you have planned for this week, try to make a little time to catch some baseball.

‘Tis the season, after all.

And, of course, make a little time to give your baseball cards some love. They’re always there for you, after all. At least until the next big wind gust.

As for me, well, I’ll be down on the Oh-HI-Oh, marching through the streets of Cincinnati with thousands of others on our way to Riverfront, where the reigning world champs will greet us.

Well, in my heart, at least.

Thanks for reading, and PLAY BALL!

— Adam