With Spring in the air and thoughts turning to the pleasant days ahead, our ‘national pastime’, baseball, is just around the corner. The familiar sounds: the crack of the bat, the thud of the ball in the glove and the sounds of the cheering crowd bring back memories of summer days at the ballpark and the many players we have come to know and love. In downtown San Rafael amidst the coffee shops, restaurants, banks, and retail shops, Diamond Sports Cards has been celebrating and preserving the love and interest in baseball and all other sports for 25 years. Manager, Bobby Michener, helped his parents open the store in June of 1996 near the corner of 4th and B streets where fans can find cards, signed balls, jerseys and memorabilia from all the major sports.
Bobby grew up in the East Bay in a sports loving family. As a kid, he often went to baseball games with a buddy seeking autographs at the Oakland Coliseum or venturing to Candlestick with his folks to see his beloved Giants. He recalled recently how he and his friend used to dream of one day opening their own Sports Card store when the trading hobby began to take off in the early 1980s. His love of the game was also kindled by his uncle in Portland, who Bobby says, had the second largest baseball card collection in the United States that spanned the entire 20th century and included complete, signed sets of cards from the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s. Two of his favorite players were Willie McCovey in his
second stint with the Giants and later, Will Clark and Robby Thompson. He also remembers sitting next to the field watching Nolan Ryan warm up for 40 minutes and memorizing his grips on the baseball and trying them out at home.
When he was just a teenager, his mom and dad opened the first Diamond Sports Card store in Concord. When asked why they chose the name, Bobby said the name represented many things, including the baseball ‘diamond’, the many facets of the sports-collecting world, and the fact that the 4 major sports (Baseball, Football, Basketball and Hockey) were represented by the points of the diamond. Incredibly, although the name was already chosen, their first store was on Diamond Way in Concord. Within a few years they had opened a second outlet in Novato and then opened their third store in San Rafael when Bobby was 25.
Open 7 days a week, the store has been a fixture and a haven for sports fans and collectors ever since the day it opened. When asked what he wanted people to know about the store, Bobby thought for a while before answering. “I want people to know that I am a huge fan of the game, and sports in general. I also want to serve my community by creating a community of sports fans and collectors. With the hobby evolving into a more digital business model that relies heavily on online sales, I still value and look forward to the personal, face-to-face interactions that I have with my customers. Whether they are kids just starting out in the hobby or adults trying to improve and fill out their collections, all are welcome at Diamond Sports Cards.”
(Originally appeared as History Watch article in the Marin Independent Journal)