Thursday, September 1, 2016

Coaches Center Part 8: 1999 Topps #495 Steve Henderson Coach

Steve Henderson played in the Majors from 1977-1988.  He played for the Mets from 1977-1980. He played for the Cubs for the next 2 seasons, then saw time with the Mariners from 1983 to 1984. He played for the Oakland A's from '85-'87, and then spent his final season with the Astros in 1988. After his playing career, he coached for the Astros from 1995-1996, got 1 season with the Devil Rays in 1998, coached in the minors for a while, then coached again for the Rays from 2006-2009, and then with the Phillies from 2012 to now.
He got Topps cards from 1978-1986, was skipped in the '87 set, and got a final card in the 1988 set. He is missing cards from the 1987 and 1989 sets from his playing career and from the '96, '97, '99, '07-'10 sets, and '11-'16 sets from his coaching career.
I met Steve in 2002 when he was coaching in Orlando with the Rays organization, and he was nice, signing his '84 and '86 Topps cards for me. I think I've met him a few other times over the years when he was coaching for the Rays.
I wish I would've taken a picture of him and the other Devil Rays coaches in 1998 and 1999 during the dozen or so games that I went to during that period. I was unable to find a picture of him in the original Rays uniform that was worn during their first 2 years ('98-'99). The best I could do was find this picture from 2006 I believe, and photoshop the old Rays logo on it, but the colors on the sleeves and hat totally don't match the old logo. Oh well. This custom crosses his 1999 Topps card off of the list.
I'll have some free time tomorrow night and Friday, so I hope to work on some customs. I think I'm going to try to do some cards of a friend that plays in the minors, maybe in the '17 Topps design and finish the back to a '16 Pro debut card. I also kind of want to try some '89 Topps cards and other sets that have a curved writing style ('98 -'99 prospects, '99 draft picks, '02 and '06 Topps mainly), since I recently got Microsoft Office and I believe that Word will let me write text on a path. I will let you know how that goes. I also might try to post some templates on here. They will probably be random ones, but hopefully someone will be able to use them.
Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy

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