THE LYONS EDGE • ARIZONA • 2001 DIAMONDBACKS
AN OLD FRIEND, A CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM, AND THE CARDS THAT KEEP THE MEMORIES ALIVE
An old friend. A championship team. Twenty-five years of memories.
Tom Lyons and Reggie Sanders reconnect in Arizona as the Diamondbacks celebrate 25 years of championship memories.
The photograph is of two friends catching up. For me, that is where this story starts.
During my Arizona trip, I reconnected with Reggie Sanders. Our friendship goes back to his St. Louis Cardinals years, around 2004 and 2005, when I was working in hotel ownership and executive sales and marketing across Hilton and other hotel brands. We talked and reminisced about those days.
Seeing an old friend can bring back a chapter of your life surprisingly quickly. Seeing Reggie also sent me back to a baseball team worth remembering in full: the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks.
The timing made that connection especially meaningful. On September 19, 2026, Arizona celebrated the 25th anniversary of its World Series championship at Chase Field—with the Yankees, its opponent in that unforgettable Series, back in town. A quarter century later, that team still gives people a reason to gather, remember and tell stories.
And the anniversary night had its own fitting ending. Pavin Smith hit a two-run, ninth-inning walk-off home run to beat New York, 5–3. Different players, a different season, another Arizona celebration at the Yankees’ expense. Baseball occasionally gives you a little extra help with the storytelling.
My visit with Reggie brought the personal memories back. The anniversary brought the championship back into focus. And the hobby gave me another way to explore both.
My son, Connor, and I co-founded Lyons Cards because we enjoy the people and the collecting as much as the cards themselves. This is a good example of why. A card can send you looking up a player, a season or a moment you have not thought about in years.
Sometimes the name you recognize immediately gets you started. The names you rediscover make the collection interesting.
Twenty-five years later, remember the whole team
Ask someone about the 2001 Diamondbacks and you will probably hear Randy Johnson, Curt Schilling and Luis Gonzalez first. Fair enough. But a championship roster is bigger than its most familiar names.
Reggie was part of that team. So was Mark Grace. So were the players whose contributions might come back to you only when you see their names on a card.
There is an important distinction here: everyone who appeared for Arizona during the regular season was not necessarily on its World Series roster. The accompanying collecting research follows the 25 players on the World Series team, checked against the Series’ batting and pitching records.
That gives us a manageable collecting project: 25 people, one championship, and plenty of choices about how to tell the story.
You could pursue a card of every player in an Arizona uniform. You could collect their earlier cards and trace the different careers that eventually met in Phoenix. You could choose a few favorite players and spend more time finding the exact photograph, design or autograph that means something to you.
There is no requirement that every page of the collection cost the same amount.
Reggie Sanders: the friendship comes first
When I look at the photograph of Reggie and me, I remember our St. Louis connection. A baseball collector may look at Reggie and remember a completely different city or season.
That is part of what makes a player collection more interesting than a single price chart. A career can connect several fan bases, each with its own memories.
For Arizona, Reggie supplied real power: he hit 33 home runs in the 2001 regular season. He also hit .304 in the World Series, with seven hits in 23 at-bats. He was a contributor to the championship, not simply a familiar name attached to it.
His earlier cards offer an accessible way into that career. SportsCardsPro’s completed-sale records list an ungraded 1992 Topps Reggie Sanders #283 at $2.95 on July 1, 2026. That is a Cincinnati card, not a photograph of Reggie with the championship Diamondbacks. The distinction matters if your goal is to build a visually consistent Arizona team collection.
It also illustrates something I like about this hobby: a modest purchase can lead to a much larger conversation. You do not need an expensive card to remember a good player, and you do not need a market chart to explain why a friend matters to you.
There is a different collecting lane, too. The same sales source reports a 1993 Topps Finest Refractor Reggie Sanders #20 in PSA 9 selling for $199.99 on February 19, 2026. That is a different issue, finish and condition category, with a much thinner visible sales history. It is a premium example to research—not evidence that every Reggie card should cost more. [12]
The friendship comes first. Tom and Reggie’s photograph sits beside a reference image of Reggie’s 1993 Topps Finest Refractor #20.
Mark Grace, and the hit before the hit
Luis Gonzalez’s winning single is the image that closes the story. Mark Grace’s single helped open the door.
Grace led off the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 7 with a hit against Mariano Rivera. Arizona was trailing, 2–1. David Dellucci replaced Grace as a pinch-runner, and the inning developed into the rally that changed the championship. Tony Womack supplied the tying double; Jay Bell ultimately scored on Gonzalez’s single.
That is why Grace belongs in this conversation. He had spent 13 seasons with the Cubs before joining Arizona. His career is strongly associated with Chicago, but his championship chapter belongs to the Diamondbacks.
A Cubs rookie card and an Arizona-era card therefore tell different parts of the same story.
Consider his 1988 Donruss #40. SportsCardsPro reports a raw sale at $0.99 on September 18, 2026. PSA’s sales records show a PSA 10 example of that issue selling at auction for $89.88 on September 17. Those are separate cards in different condition categories, not interchangeable prices for anything with Mark Grace’s name on it.
For a collector, the question is personal: do you want the affordable card that lets you start the story, or a particular condition standard you enjoy pursuing? Neither choice changes what Grace contributed in that ninth inning.
Two earlier career cards connect the players behind the Game 7 rally: 1988 Donruss Mark Grace #40 and 1991 Topps Traded Luis Gonzalez #48T.
The aces, the finishing touch, and the national audience
Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling shared World Series MVP honors. Johnson won three games, including Game 7 in relief after starting Game 6. Schilling started three times in the Series. Their workload and results remain central to how that championship is remembered.
Before Arizona: Randy Johnson’s 1989 Upper Deck #25 Star Rookie and Curt Schilling’s 1989 Donruss #635.
Johnson also has a collecting story that reaches well beyond one team. His career included five Cy Young Awards, 303 wins and induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2015. Collectors may approach him through Arizona, Seattle, Montreal, Hall of Fame collections or a favorite rookie issue.
That wider range of possible collecting interests helps explain why a national star can attract attention from people who never rooted for the Diamondbacks. It does not tell us that every Johnson card is expensive—or equally easy to resell.
The public Card Ladder page for his 1989 Upper Deck #25 Star Rookie in PSA 10 reported a last sale of $285 on September 23, 2026. That card shows Johnson as an Expo, years before the Arizona championship. A buyer pursuing the 2001 team in its own uniforms would still need a different card.
Schilling presents another version of the same collecting question. Are you collecting the young pitcher, his Arizona championship years, another chapter of his career, or a certified autograph? A signed card is a different item from its unsigned counterpart, even when the printed year, set and number match. The signature’s authentication and the card’s condition both need to be understood.
His unsigned 1989 Donruss #635 illustrates the accessible route: SportsCardsPro reports a raw sale at $0.99 on September 23, 2026, and a PSA 10 sale at $77 on September 1. Those Baltimore-era cards remember the beginning of his major-league career rather than the championship uniform.
Then there is Gonzalez. His championship-winning single is one of those moments a hometown fan can carry for life. But the market does not assign prices according to how loudly a city cheered.
An ungraded 1991 Topps Traded Luis Gonzalez #48T—a Houston card—appears in SportsCardsPro’s completed-sale records at $1 on September 10, 2026. That small transaction price does not measure the importance of his Game 7 hit. It measures a reported sale of that particular card.
This is where collecting and pricing meet without becoming the same thing. A player can be enormously important to a community while many of his cards remain affordable.
The names that make it a team collection
A full roster project also gives us a reason to revisit Steve Finley, Matt Williams, Tony Womack and Craig Counsell; catchers Damian Miller and Rod Barajas; and Danny Bautista, Jay Bell, Greg Colbrunn, Erubiel Durazo, David Dellucci and Midre Cummings.
Some names bring back a swing. Others bring back a position, a substitution or the feeling of watching that club. A collector does not have to assign each player a dollar-weighted share of the championship to give him a place in the binder.
Beyond Johnson and Schilling, the pitching group included Brian Anderson, Miguel Batista, Byung-Hyun Kim, Albie Lopez, Mike Morgan, Greg Swindell, Bobby Witt and Troy Brohawn.
The 25-player 2001 Diamondbacks World Series roster, rather than the larger regular-season roster. This is not an anniversary attendance list.
Those names are worth treating carefully when searching cards. The Bobby Witt on this roster is the pitcher, not Bobby Witt Jr. Brian Anderson needs to be identified as the pitcher from that team, rather than another major leaguer with the same name. An attractive search result is not useful if it is the wrong person.
For some of these players, a basic card may be easy to identify while a dependable recent premium-card sale is difficult to find. That is not a reason to drop them from the collection. It is a reason to be honest about how much pricing evidence we have.
A championship needed a roster. A collection that remembers only the most expensive names misses part of the fun.
Across the field: the Yankees belong in a separate chapter
The opponent matters to the memory, too.
Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada, Bernie Williams, Tino Martinez, Scott Brosius, Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte and Mike Mussina were among the Yankees who participated in that World Series. They belong in the comparison, not in Arizona’s roster count.
Jeter’s extra-inning Game 4 home run, the Yankees’ late comebacks and Arizona’s eventual rally against Rivera made this a Series that would not settle into an easy script. It also took place in the aftermath of September 11, giving the baseball an emotional setting far beyond the standings.
From a collecting perspective, Jeter offers a useful contrast. Someone might collect him because of the Yankees, his entire career, a specific rookie set or a childhood memory. An Arizona fan might want his card because he was central to the opponent in the greatest Series that fan ever watched.
Those are different reasons to buy. A comparison of collector attention should account for those reasons, the exact cards and actual transactions—not simply line up two players’ names and assume their prices ought to match.
Derek Jeter’s 1993 SP Foil #279 rookie. Reference specimen from PSA CardFacts: PSA 10, certification 08157303.
What today’s card market can—and cannot—tell us
My background makes me interested in the numbers. But the first job is to know what a number represents.
The prices above are dated, source-reported completed sales. They are not current offers, guaranteed replacement costs or estimates for every card of those players. Shipping, taxes and seller expenses are not consistently supplied in those records. A raw card is ungraded; it should not be compared as though it already carries a PSA 10 label.
Nor should a large market-cap figure be confused with money waiting to buy your card.
On the public Card Ladder page for Johnson’s 1989 Upper Deck #25 PSA 10, the displayed market cap was approximately $1.60 million alongside a population of 5,604 and a last sale of $285. The displayed cap is consistent with those two numbers multiplied together. It is a figure attached to that card-and-grade entry—not Johnson’s entire career market, Arizona’s franchise value or cash available to a seller.
That same page reported 48 sales for its displayed June 25–September 25, 2026 period, with “Auctions only” shown. That is useful evidence of activity within the page’s coverage. It is not a count of distinct collectors, and it does not include every transaction everywhere.
We did not obtain compatible, same-date player market-cap figures for all 25 Diamondbacks, or a verified definition of the proposed player-level aggregate. There is therefore no defensible combined team figure to publish here. The research file marks missing data as unavailable rather than pretending it is zero.
Even with more complete data, a combined tracked-player figure could include cards from every team and stage of those players’ careers. Calling it the value of the 2001 Diamondbacks’ cards would be misleading.
For an individual purchase, I want to know something more practical: what exact card am I buying, what have comparable buyers actually paid, and what alternatives can I buy now?
Scarcity is interesting. Buyers make a market.
A rare autograph, a difficult parallel or a high-grade example can give a collection a special centerpiece. But scarce does not automatically mean sought after.
A numbered card tells you something about its edition. It does not tell you how many collectors want that edition at the seller’s price. A low grading population does not tell you how many copies are currently available, either.
The same applies to the anniversary. It gives fans a wonderful reason to revisit the team. Whether it creates a lasting increase in demand for a particular card is a question for sales evidence, not an assumption we should build into a price.
A reasonably priced card of a less nationally celebrated player might be exactly right for your collection. That does not make him financially “undervalued.” It means the card meets your collecting goal without requiring a large budget.
That is a good outcome on its own.
Build the collection around the memory
If this team means something to you, start by deciding what you want to remember.
For the championship itself, look for cards showing the players with Arizona. Check the actual photographs: a card issued in 2001 does not automatically show its player in a Diamondbacks uniform. A later retrospective card may tell the championship story more directly than an earlier rookie.
For the careers that came together, build a roster collection across different teams. Johnson as an Expo, Grace as a Cub, Gonzalez as an Astro and Sanders as a Red can be the beginning of a story about how a championship team was assembled.
For a personal connection, start with one player. A favorite card, an authenticated autograph or a photograph can be enough. Set a budget that includes shipping. Take your time. Learn the differences between versions before paying a premium.
The best question might be the simplest: when you pick up this card, what do you remember?
For me, this story begins with Reggie, our St. Louis years and the chance to catch up in Arizona. The 25th anniversary adds another layer. It reminds us that a championship keeps living through the people who played, the fans who remember and the younger collectors discovering it for the first time.
Come share your favorite player, card or memory with us at LyonsCards.com. You can learn more about my story here, and follow The Lyons Edge as we keep meeting people and finding the stories behind the cards.
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SOURCES AND FURTHER READING
Market examples researched September 25, 2026. Individual sale dates appear in the article.
1. Arizona Sports: Diamondbacks’ 25th-anniversary reunion.
2. Reuters: Pavin Smith’s anniversary-night walk-off, September 20, 2026.
3. Baseball Almanac: 2001 World Series records and participants.
4. MLB: Reggie Sanders career record.
5. SportsCardsPro: 1992 Topps Reggie Sanders #283, completed-sale records.
6. SABR: November 4, 2001, Game 7.
7. SportsCardsPro: 1988 Donruss Mark Grace #40, completed-sale records.
8. PSA: Mark Grace #40, sales of similar PSA 10 examples.
9. PSA CardFacts: Randy Johnson career and 1989 Topps Tiffany #647.
10. Card Ladder: 1989 Upper Deck Randy Johnson #25 Star Rookie, PSA 10.
11. SportsCardsPro: 1991 Topps Traded Luis Gonzalez #48T, completed-sale records.
12. SportsCardsPro: 1993 Finest Refractor Reggie Sanders #20, completed-sale records.
13. SportsCardsPro: 1989 Donruss Curt Schilling #635, completed-sale records.
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