San Rafael’s haven for sports fans
With spring in the air and thoughts turning to the pleasant days ahead, the start of 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 roar 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 amid the coffee shops, restaurants, banks and retail shops, Diamond Sports Cards has been celebrating and preserving the love and interest in baseball and other sports for 25years. Manager Bobby Michener helped his parents open the store in June 1996near Fourth and B streets, where fans can find cards, signed balls, jerseys and memorabilia.
Michener grew up in the East Bay in a sports-loving family. As a kid, he often went to baseball games with a friend seeking autographs at the Oakland Coliseum or venturing to Candlestick with his parents 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, Michener 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. Some 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 Cards store in Concord. The name represents many things, including
the baseball diamond, the many facets of the sportscollecting world and the fact that the four major sports (baseball, football, basketball and hockey) were represented by the points of the diamond. Within a few years, his family opened an outlet in Novato and then in San Rafael.
The San Rafael store has been a fixture and a haven for sports fans and collectors since it opened. “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,” he says. “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 I have with my customers.”
Watch is written by Scott Fletcher, a volunteer at the Marin History Museum, marinhistory.org. Images included in History Watch are available for purchase by calling 415-382-1182 or by email at info@ marinhistory.org