shohei ohtani surpassed his 2024 home run total in 2025, but he didn't steal nearly as many bases so his 55 home runs this past season were largely unheralded. in 2024, you'll recall, he exceeded both 50 home runs (54) and 50 stolen bases (59), becoming the first player to post a 50/50 season.
there were plenty of opportunities to be reminded of that fact in 2025. here's a 2025 topps finest finest timelines insert
topps put out a special 50/50 shohei ohtani set in 2024, and i've added a couple more to my collection - one stolen base and one home run
2025 topps included ohtani's achievement in the "2024 greatest hits" insert set
noting that he reached the milestone as part of a historic single game offensive performance. his 6 for 6, 3 home run, 10 rbi line was the subject of a 2024 topps now card
here's the back that gives more detail
note that i already had his topps now 50/50 card - two cards for one game is par for the course for topps now.
i would imagine that ohtani 50/50 parallels go for a hefty sum - these were both pretty cheap. i don't expect any 2026 cards to focus on ohtani's 50/20 season in 2025, but we can be sure that there will be plenty of his cards throughout every release.
of course, he didn't reach 50/50 without hitting 40/40 first. that achievement was also marked with a "2024 greatest hits" insert
the other members of the 40/40 club are all true 40/40 except for ronald acuna jr who is 40/70. i wonder if shohei purposely stopped at 59 stolen bases as 50/50 sounds better than 50/60.
however, this post is about different ways to 50/50. sometime last year, i picked up this 2020 topps tyler white card
it's his mother's day pink parallel that is numbered to 50. this one is numbered 50/50
as is this 2021 topps joc pederson father's day blue parallel
On the Greatest Hits card, is that a celebrity lurker in sunglasses and black jacket? In that getup and in those seats it's probably someone famous but don't know who.
ReplyDeleteIt’s interesting that Topps used a photo from the game after he hit 50/50 (in Miami) for this card. Most of the celeb types at dodger stadium are more towards the home side but there is a highly sought after Topps now card that has Kobe in these seats near the first base dugout. I’ll guess it is more likely someone connected to a money person than a celeb.
DeleteOh man... how cool would it be to own a tribute card of Ohtani's 50/50 season... serial numbered 50 out of 50. I'm sort of over the excessive use of parallels and 90% of the inserts produced these days... but that's a card I would definitely treasure.
ReplyDeleteChecking my collection, I do have a 2017 Steven Matz Topps auto which is 50/50.
ReplyDelete