⚾ 2024 Topps Now Shohei Ohtani #731SP Passes Henderson With 14th HR/SB Game Baseball Card – The 2024 Topps Now Short Print Real-Time Issue Card of Shohei Ohtani Commemorating His Record-Breaking 14th Career Game With Both a Home Run and a Stolen Base, Surpassing the Career Mark of Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson, MLB's All-Time Stolen Base King

⚾ Rickey Henderson stole 1,406 bases. He scored 2,295 runs. He was the most disruptive offensive force the sport had seen for three decades, the kind of player who changed the geometry of a baseball game every time he stood on first base. He also hit 297 career home runs – more than most leadoff men dream of – and he did it while stealing those bases, forcing pitchers to think about two different disasters at once. In his entire Hall of Fame career spanning 25 seasons, Rickey Henderson had 13 games in which he both hit a home run and stole a base in the same contest. Shohei Ohtani – in his first year with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2024 – passed that number. Card #731SP in the 2024 Topps Now set is the official real-time commemoration of the game in which he did it.

⚾ Shohei Ohtani was born on July 5, 1994, in &Omacron;shu, Iwate Prefecture, Japan, and grew up in Hanamaki where he attended Hanamaki Higashi High School and became a two-way pitching and hitting phenomenon that drew national attention before he had ever thrown a professional pitch. The Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters selected him in the 2012 NPB Draft and developed him as both a starting pitcher and a designated hitter – a dual role that had not been attempted seriously since the dead-ball era of major league baseball. He arrived in MLB with the Los Angeles Angels after the 2017 season carrying a 100 mph fastball, a devastating splitter, and a left-handed swing that generated exit velocities that made scouts look at their radar guns twice. The unanimous 2021 AL MVP Award and the 2023 AL MVP followed, along with statistics across pitching and hitting that no one had compiled since Babe Ruth walked the earth. 🌟

⚾ After the 2023 season, Ohtani signed the largest contract in North American sports history: 10 years, $700 million, with the Los Angeles Dodgers. What followed in 2024 was a season that redefined what “complete baseball player” means – he hit over 50 home runs and stole over 50 bases, joining a vanishingly small group to achieve 50/50 in a single campaign. And along the way, in the game documented by this card, he logged his 14th career game with both a home run and a stolen base, passing Rickey Henderson's career record of 13 and establishing a new standard in a category that no one had thought to measure until Ohtani made it worth tracking.

⚾ 2024 Topps Now issues cards in real time, typically within 24 to 48 hours of the game or milestone they document. The SP (Short Print) designation means this version carries a lower print run than the standard base card, making it the scarcer of the two configurations. Collectors who follow Topps Now SPs understand that the combination of a significant milestone – particularly a record-breaking moment – and a short print run creates lasting demand. This card is the direct physical record of the day Shohei Ohtani rewrote a number that had stood since Rickey Henderson's retirement.

⚾ Shohei Ohtani. Oshu, Iwate, Japan. Los Angeles Dodgers. 2024. Topps Now. #731SP. Short Print. Home Run. Stolen Base. Rickey Henderson. Record. 14th Game. Hall of Fame Sports Memorabilia. Condition: NOS.