Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Further Proof That I Bought Anything (pt1)


My wife and I bought this house when we were first married. The two extra bedrooms were turned into offices and I was determined to fill mine up with all things Orioles.

I went to shows at least once a month, hung out at card shops and combed through the publications like The Trader Speaks and SCD. I was making yearly trips to Baltimore and had some long-distance friendships I developed with Baltimore area fans/collectors.

And without the foresight to realize that one day I'd have three kids to put through college, I spent every spare dime on 'stuff'. Like these two 3x5 inch 'sketch cards'. I can't remember how (or why) I picked these up but I'd guess it was out of a box of paper junk at a Baltimore card shop. Dealers and card shop owners used to dump odds and ends into boxes. I think some still do. And I loved picking through them. I added lots of ticket stubs, pocket schedules and bumper stickers that way.

Since Lee May last played for the O's in 1980 these things have to be about 35 years old, at least. The Paul Blair card's artwork is better but the May card more closely resembles the subject. In both cases the stick-on letters are about mint. LOL


The next two items are probably even harder to explain. They are just snapshots of Gary Roenicke and Lenn Sakata, both of whom played for the Orioles up until 1985. I sure hope I didn't pay much. I think I bought these as part of a larger lot of Oriole photos. I'll have more of those posted tomorrow. Try and contain your enthusiasm. 



3 comments:

  1. Pay for college? Shoot -- those kids should know that the 1989 Topps boxes in the basement will pay for college. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I know exactly what you're talking about. Both card shops I worked out back in the day had "odds and ends" boxes. Whenever I go to shows, I'm always on the lookout for them.

    P.S. Great shot of Sakata. He was part of my childhood memories because he was the only Japanese guy around when I was younger. If you're bored, I wrote up a post about my autographed photo of him...

    http://sanjosefuji.blogspot.com/2011/04/i-love-80s-baseball-edition-5-lenn.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Somewhere I have a picture of him with me and my Orioles buddy that we took in the lobby of the hotel in Arlington where the O's stayed.

      Delete