Rollercoaster's Suck!
So i hate rollercoasters, they are up and down, sometimes side to side, all it is, is vicious mood swings that you have to pay for! So therefore i hate rollercoaster days. Here was my wonderful friday....
5:15 am - I wake up. Today is gonna ROCK! I have 4 Red Sox tickets in wicked nice seats, how can today be anywhere near bad!
5:30 am - I take a shower and brush my teeth. Hmmmm that tooth that has kinda been bothering me is starting to hurt a little. Meh whatever redsoxredsoxredsoxredsoxredsox...
6:00 am - Heading in to work.
6:30 am - Start working
6:45 am - Stop working, go get a bagel, read up on ...redsoxredsoxredsoxredsoxredsox...
7:45 am - Start doing work again. Hmm...my tooth is hurting, maybe i got a little food in it.
7:47 am - Alright, that cold water helped a lot, doesnt hurt anymore, *swallows the water*
7:48 am - HOLY CRAP MY FRIGGIN TOOTH HURTS!! *Takes another sip* Hmmm now it feels better....*swallows water*
7:48.35 am - AHHHHH IT FRIGGIN HURTS!!!....
8:00 am - after numerous times, finally realizes that i should keep cold water in my mouth.
8:30 am - Hmmm maybe i should call the dentist...nah i'm fine it's just an ache...*swallows water*
8:31 am - HOLY TOM CRUISE THAT HURTS!! All right All right i'll call the dentist.
8:40- am - I am told that my dentist is leaving for vacation in 7 hours, so i need to come in at 2:30. No problem, dad will pick me up from work.
11:30 am - I leave, dad picks me up, i have the most miserable car ride home...no water... redsoxredsoxredsoxowwwmytoothhurtsredsoxredsox
12:01 pm - I run inside and put water in my mouth.
1:45 pm - leave for dentist
1:49 pm - Traffic....Crap....
2:00 pm - redsoxredsoxredsoxowwmytoothhurtsredsoxredsox GODDAMN FRIGGIN TRAFFIC!! redsoxredsoxredsoxowwmytoothhurtsredsox
2:30 pm - "Hey it's Greg...Um....I don't think I will uhhh make it for my 2:30 appointment...I hit a little traffic, but i'll uhhh try to get there ASAP."
2:45 pm - Finally arrive at dentist
2:47 pm - Dr. Benoit: "So Greg, what's up, what hurts." Greg: "Well it throbs a lot and it only feels good when i have cold water in my mouth and..." Dr. Benoit: "Root Canal." Greg: "Alrighty then."
3:00 pm - Leave with meds, redsoxredsoxredsoxowwmytoothhurtsredsoxredsoxYAHOO MEDS!!redsoxredsox
3:30 pm - Hmmm I'm hungry, I'll stop at McDonalds and grab some food, then head to Walgreens to fill my meds, then ill pick them up before i leave at 4:15.
3:36 pm - Hmmm where is that change that i dropped on the floor....*BUMP*.....Shit......
3:37 pm - Apologize to the person in front of me for love tapping them..."No i don't see any damage....oh...oh i see a little, its not bad at all, just a little paint from my car...yea its not a big deal....oh it's a rental car (GOD I'M SCREWED!)....Yea ill pull over after we get our food."
4:00 pm - Friggin bitch is gonna file a claim over two 1 inch scratches on her 2005 dodge neon bumber. Her husband owns a rental company so im sure her paper work is completely legit for that car. Yea...uh huh....I'm sure it is. ........YOU DRIVE A NEON!! I'M DOING YOU A FAVOR!!
4:15 pm - Eat cold french fries and drop off meds.
4:25 pm - I'm home, let's get the frig out of here.
4:30 pm - Oh right...because of the accident, i can't get my meds for the game now....meh whatever....redsoxredsoxredsoxfuckingdodgeneonredsoxredsoxredsoxowwmytoothhurtsredsox
6:00 pm - FRIGGIN SWEET SEATS!!
6:45 pm - Hello Mr. Announcer man! Yes! Let's play ball!
6:46 pm - What the hell are they doing with the tarp?!? It's not even raining..
6:46.23 pm - HOLY CRAP IT'S RAINING!!
6:46.30 pm - Maybe i should fine cover....
6.46.33 pm - HOLY CRAP IT'S POURING!!??!!
7:05 pm - Friggin game should be starting now....f'n rain.....
7:10 pm - redsox....redsox....o fuck it... friggindodgeneonowwmytoothhurtsfrigginmedsfrigginrainowwmytoothhurtsfriggindodgestratus.
7:45 pm - I go to first aid station to get Advil.
8:00 pm - man...that Advil isn't doing anything "Ok guys if it doesn't stop raining by 8:15, we leave..."
8:13 pm - "Whoa...it's starting to stop...ok 8:30 and then we leave. That would make it an hour and a half rain delay, if they don't call it by then, they will play it."
8:25 pm - "I think it's starting to stop raining.."
8:28 pm - Tarp comes off the field.
9:05 pm - Game Starts!!
9:06 pm - Slowly realize that the "Advil" they gave me that was supposed to be 500mg (advil is usually bout 200mg) was clearly a placebo. Awesome. Back to cold water in my mouth.
9:07 pm - *Swallows water* YEA TROT! YOU THE MAN!!
9:08 pm - OWWW *Back to drinking water*
11:15 pm - We leave cuz Lester is getting Shelled.
1:00 pm - Finally get home, take meds and go to sleep.
8:00 am - Get Up for Maine
9:30 am-11:30 am - Stuck in traffic takes two hours to go 20 minutes worth of distance
11:30 am - 3:30 pm - Driving along with a killingly painful tooth
3:45 pm - Greated by Meghan Flynn with a big group hug. Willams, Matt and Tim are all shooting each other with Air Soft Rifles while Corn and Meghan snipe at them from the roof. I don't know what it is about two girls sniping Army guys from a roof in nothing but their bikini's that just makes me laugh a little...friggin hilarious.
4:00 pm - start drinking to numb the pain
4:30 pm - alcohol kicks in and i am fine for the weekend!
8:00 pm - Amazing game of beruit with Meffer
8:30 pm-1:30 pm - Hilarity Ensues.
10:15 am - Wake up, tooth feels great. Penecilin finally kicks in.
3:30 pm - After cleaning up, we hit the road. Goodbye glorious Casa De Willams!
5:30 pm - Start on the highway, Greg passes Willams and Co. while dancing to "September" by Earth, Wind, and Fire.
5:35 pm - 7:15 pm - Greg continues to randomly pull up next to Willams and Co. and dance to various songs such as :Running with the devil, Power of love (celine dion), I just can't wait to be king (Lion King...don't ask), Feel Like making love, Keep on rocking in the free world, and of course, Bohemian Rhapsody. Good shit right there.....
8:45 pm - Surprise a sick Ashley to make her feel better! =)
9:45 pm - Regretfully have to leave Ashley....
11:00 pm - Home and ready for bed.
And now I'm here at work typing this....this...and this.....hehe this is fun...
Keep On Rocking In The Free World!!
Comment to Jena's Blog
So here is my comment to Jena's blog about homosexualality and her writing. I'm posting here, because my work computer doesn't allow me to get past the word verification things on blogger. But i wanted Jena to know that i thought it was a good post, so here is my response.
"Great question Jena. For me, I am like you in a way. I say, "Whatever, just don't molest me." Heh, In a macho way I am saying "I admire your guts in doing what you feel is right, however, I am not gay, just so you know." That is my philosophy on it and i know it because i have been friends with gay men, and i've only been uncomfortable because i made a gay joke by accident (cuz i always do) and i wasnt sure how he would take it, but once i saw how graphicly funny he could be, i knew that i was ok and i laughed my ass off. (He graphicly said to his roommate that he would do him in the ass if he did something again. Can't remember what it was, but boy do i remember the ass-doing part...it....was....graphic! Heh) So not only that, but i have had numerous Crossdressers/transgenders hit on me. (you'd be amazed at how many of them come into Walgreens).
So yea, great post jena, and don't worry, you're a writer, you can write about anything you want and no one will question you, Cuz it's only writing, it's not your life story. Unless you write your life story...then that would screw everything up...."
There ya go Jena!
Keep On Rocking In The free World!!
Oh Baseball cards...
The title says it all.....baseball cards. I love them. There is no better feeling then holding a unopened pack of cards in your hand. The suspense, the mystery. WHAT CARDS ARE INSIDE!!?? And that is why baseball cards will always be successful. Especially now where you can win so many contests or get so many great cards. Like Babe Ruth autographed cards, or hell now they have John Hancock autogrpahed cards! But still, baseball cards and autographs will always be my ultimate guilty pleasure. And as i was perusing
ESPN.com, i stumbled upon a great article that i would like to share with you. Also, to force you to read it (or at least scroll through it) i also have a big announcement at the end. So enjoy, i know its a long post, but it is a whole article, and even if you dont read it all, at least read "DJ GALLO"'s blurb, because it is absolutely hilarious:
"A Pack of Baseball Memories
By Eric Neel
Page 2
I believe baseball cards have magical powers.
That is why, in the summer of 1988, I arranged my Dodgers cards like players on a baseball diamond on the floor of my friend Michael's Berkeley apartment. And I challenged him to do the same with his beloved Giants cards. Just moments before our teams faced off on TV, we would set them out -- starters on the hardwood field, reserves side-by-side in an imaginary dugout -- and sit cross-legged beside them. (And I should say at this point, we were grown men at the time; me in my 20s, Michael in his 30s.)
The cards were voodoo warriors to us, every bit as bad-ass as Chewbacca's holographic chess players. We knew, laid out on the floor, with their energy unleashed and with each of us passing his hands over them like some proud Ouija wizard, that they could make a difference, make all the difference, in the outcome of the game.
I used to put hexes on Michael's Will Clark. He once threatened to tear my Orel Hershiser in half. I mocked him for Kevin Mitchell's sleepy look. He was all over me because Alfredo Griffin's 1988 card actually was shot when Griffin was still with the A's. We thumbed the cards like rosaries. We shuffled pinch-hitters and relievers in and out. We were at war. We were compadres.
When Michael died suddenly in a car accident five years later, it wasn't the eulogies at his funeral, the old photographs or the stories and memories of friends that made it possible to wrap my mind around him being gone. It was a card. Back at Michael's house after the services, I stood in his den and looked at the CDs and books on his shelves, and then I saw it, the Will Clark, perched on the shelf in front of his Coltrane discs, sitting there like some sacred object on an altar. Like Michael, Clark looked like he was jawing at me, like he was having a last laugh, like he was giving me the business. And like me, Clark looked incredulous, too, like he couldn't believe he and I were the only ones left, like this was madness.
I took the little bastard down off the shelf and put him on the floor, in front of the TV, on the first base side. And then I sat down cross-legged beside him. Just sat there. Missing Michael. Feeling good and bad at once. Knowing everything was different. Feeling somehow, just for a moment, as if it were all the same.
Even when you and I were kids, first collecting, baseball cards were about memories. You held Mike Schmidt's card in your hand and you pictured the flight of his last long home run into the seats in left at the Vet. You saw in the close-up shot of Nolan Ryan the steely eyes you'd gotten a glimpse of on TV weeks before, peeking out from under his cap as he racked up another double-digit strikeout afternoon.
Over time, as we got older, the cards -- the collecting, the sorting, the trading, the hours spent in their company and in the company of friends who felt their magic, too -- became memories themselves.
That's what this piece, this collection of pieces, is about. It's about the way some special card opens a door to a particular place and time. It's about the way a card, for whatever reason, stays with you, lingers in the imagination, does some kind of magic.
I asked my colleagues at Page 2 to tell me about a card like that in their lives. Here's what they had to say:
SKIP BAYLESSI was the oldest child, and my dad wasn't a sports fan. Nobody in my extended family was. So my baseball card addiction wasn't inherited, nor was it influenced by brothers or cousins.
It all started because I loved playing baseball and listening to St. Louis Cardinals games, which were brought to life via the radio in the bedroom I shared with my destined-to-become-a-famous-chef brother. In Oklahoma City, the voice and conscience of the Cardinals, Harry Caray, came in as loudly and clearly on KMOX out of St. Louis as my little brother telling my mother to make me turn down my bloomin' radio.
As fate would have it, the first card on top of the first pack I ever bought, at the neighborhood 7-Eleven in 1960, was … a St. Louis Cardinal! Well, at least Gino Cimoli had been a Cardinal the previous year. In fact, Gino was a Cardinal for only the '59 season, batting .279 with eight homers and 72 RBI for a pretty lousy 71-83 team.
But all I saw was that Cardinals logo on his chest -- those cartoonish redbirds perched on either end of a bat -- and I was hooked. I began buying more and more baseball cards just for the rush of tearing off the wrapper and slowly revealing each card to see if I got another Cardinal. Stan Musial! Curt Flood! Ken Boyer! Bob Gibson! Bill White!
This became my private little Cardinal lotto game. I somehow thought if a Cardinal popped up in the pack I bought that day, my Little League team would win that evening and my Cardinals would win that night. So after I opened my cards, I was pretty much done with them. Never traded a single one. I just took them home -- including the Mantles and the Koufaxes -- and tossed them in this giant box that would barely slide under the bunk bed.
After that first summer, I tired of playing Cardinal lotto -- but I kept buying baseball cards for several more years. Only now do I realize why.
What I actually got hooked on was the bubble gum. Yes, I lived to smell those flat sticks of pink gum that were almost as wide and as thin as the cards themselves. Ah, that fine white sugar coating that came off like fairy dust on a Musial or a Gibson.
Baseball card gum gave you the greatest initial burst of flavor of anything you could put in your mouth, from Reese's to Nestle's. The problem was, that flavor lasted about 45 seconds before baseball card gum began to taste like asparagus. So you were constantly chucking barely chewed gum in favor of a brand new fairy-dusted stick.
Only now do I realize this was a plot to make America's kids buy more cards. In the end, I must have had 10,000 crammed into that giant box.
Years later, when I realized some of them might be valuable, I called my mom to see if that box was still in her attic. Of course, she had thrown it out when I left for college. Probably justice. I was really no more than a gum collector.
MICHAEL KNISLEYJim Pisoni played nine games for the Milwaukee Braves in 1959. Nine games!!! So why was his baseball card in every other pack I bought or was given that year? It surely wasn't because of Pisoni's stellar statistics the previous season, because he wasn't even in the major leagues in 1958; and in 1957, he appeared in a grand total of 44 games for the A's. I doubt the manufacturers were flooding the market to satisfy an adoring public's insatiable demand for his card.
I know Jim Pisoni's stats now 'cause I just looked 'em up. He hit .167 in his nine 1959 games in a Braves' uniform. In five major league seasons, including stints with the A's and the Yankees, his career batting average was .212.
Back then, though, all I knew was that he was a nobody, and I seemed to have a shoe box stuffed to the gills with his nobody cards.
We -- and by "we" I mean me and the scores of other Braves fans I presumed to be out there in the big, wide, wonderful world beyond Fairborn, Ohio, who wanted nothing more for our birthdays than a full box of card packs to open -- ached for Hank Aaron's card. Or Eddie Matthews, or Warren Spahn, or Billy Bruton, Lew Burdette, Joe Adcock, Del Crandall, Wes Covington … anybody who played a key role on the Milwaukee juggernaut that won the World Series in '57, lost it in '58 and dropped a three-game playoff series against the Dodgers for the National League pennant in '59.
Instead, we -- and by "we" I mean "me" this time -- always got Pisoni. Over and over again. He played nine games for the Braves that year, and I had at least 20 of his cards. Something's wrong with that picture.
You know what? You go back and look at his baseball card picture now, and you can see what's wrong. In Pisoni's posed photo, he wears the expression of a .212 career hitter. It's the look of a player who suspects he doesn't really belong in a real major league uniform on a real major league baseball card, a player who knows he won't be in that uniform very much longer. He looks worried.
It's the look of a man who carries with him every day the awful knowledge that his card keeps disappointing and frustrating an 8-year-old kid in Ohio, over and over again.
KEVIN JACKSONIt was a crumpled-up, old grocery bag, bursting at the seams, sporting a few good rips and appearing to be at least 5 years old.
And it contained pure gold.
My jaw dropped as I saw its contents come pouring out onto the carpet.
A '75 George Brett. A '78 Eddie Murray. A '75 Robin Yount. A '77 Andre Dawson. A '78 Jack Morris.
My best friend and I didn't need a Beckett's guide to tell us that we'd just hit the mother lode.
The year was 1986, and my buddy and I spent every spare cent bolstering our baseball collection. We called it an "investment," but that was just a fancy way of saying that girls weren't returning our phone calls at the time.
So, we poured ourselves into our hobby of carefully sliding 3x5 pieces of cardboard into plastic sheets that we kept in a three-ring binder. On weekends, we hit the rummage sales with the senior circuit, hoping to find that shoe box loaded with thousands of dollars of cards, selling for 50 cents or a buck.
Finally, on that spring day in '86, we found our holy grail.
Hearing that a senior jock needed to sell part of his collection, we followed him home from school one day. Maybe he needed beer money. Maybe he wanted speakers for his car. Maybe he needed extra cash to take his hot senior girlfriend to the prom.
We didn't ask questions. We just sat in his living room, waiting for him to come back with the "bag."
Seconds later, we were staring at a virtual murderer's row from the 1970s. Rookies, All-Stars, Hot Prospects, aging Hall of Famers. They were all there in front of us.
Two cards glowed at me like fluorescent needles in that wonderful haystack.
Both from 1975. Both Topps rookie cards. Both the "mini" versions -- rumored to have been only distributed in California (or so the legend went) and worth even more than the full-sized version.
Two of my favorite players: George Brett and Robin Yount.
I didn't care that these cards were less than perfect. The frayed edges and off-center borders meant nothing to me.
This was Brett, the hot-hitting Royals third baseman with the movie-star looks who could do no wrong in my book. (Especially since I had no idea what hemorrhoids were back in 1980.)
This was Yount, the guy who led Harvey's Wallbangers to the '82 World Series (damn you, Willie McGee) and was cool enough to play both shortstop and center field.
"We'll give you 50 bucks," barked my partner as I stood there drooling over cardboard porn.
"Done," said the senior jock, punctuating it with a chuckle as if he were taking a couple of sophomores for a ride.
In reality, we'd committed a felony. But we didn't really care. After all, he had a girlfriend and a car … what did he need with an awesome card collection?
My buddy and I later split up our windfall. He got the Brett. I took the Yount.
It still sits on the mantle in my TV room -- a reminder of the great heist of '86, the good ol' days before eBay taught everyone that even a ripped-up grocery bag can be priceless.
DAN SHANOFFMy favorite baseball card of all time is the No. 21 card from the Topps 1982 set. It was labeled "Future Stars" and showcased three rising talents in the farm system of the Baltimore Orioles, my local team when I was growing up.
(In my childhood naiveté, I thought that the "Future Stars" card was some sort of bargain: Three players for the price of one! I only later realized that they probably really put three players on their "Future" cards to hedge their bets.)
Long before touted young players were minted into "rookie" cards the moment they were drafted, they were stuck in a photo array with a couple of minor league teammates, like the card collector was supposed to look at them as if they were a book of mug shots down at the police station and pick out the right one: "Yes! That's the one!"
Each team got a "Future Stars" card, and, if a fan was lucky, you heard about one of them a year or two (or more) later. If you were really lucky, one of the players turned out to be more "star" than "future."
That 1982 Topps No. 21? From the Orioles: Shortstop Bob Bonner, pitcher Jeff Schneider and, in the middle, a third baseman named Cal Ripken Jr.
This would become Ripken's "rookie" card, currently valued around $20 or $30, but it took more than 20 years for me to finally realize my focus on the player in the middle led me to ignore the far more fascinating stories on the "Future Stars" on the margins.
We know what happened to Ripken. What happened to the other two guys? (Well, aside from not becoming stars.) Do you think they have copies of this card? Does it make them smile? Wistful? Frustrated?
Inevitably, one player (at most) of any "Future Stars" trio would make it; the other two faded into obscurity, with their biggest baseball legacy likely being that they were featured on the rookie baseball card of someone far more successful.
As I look back on that card, which for so long for me was all about Ripken, its drama turned out to be just as much about the whiffs as the hit.
DJ GALLOIn 1989 I set about on a mission that millions of boys my age did that year -- yes, ridding girls of the scourge of cooties -- but also gaining ownership of the Bill Ripken Fleer card in which the words "F--- FACE" were visible on the knob of his bat. Unfortunately for me, I never did get that card. And unfortunately for Bill Ripken, he probably never stopped getting referred to his new nickname by baseball fans due to his .247 career batting average and 20 home runs over 12 seasons.
My disappointment over missing out on the Ripken card was relieved, however, by my first and only quest to compile an entire set. And in my infinite little-kid wisdom I chose the 1989 Topps set, which was made unique by its bland design and lack of valuable rookie cards. After using almost all my allowance to purchase well over $100 worth of packs throughout the summer, I finally got the entire set. Sure, the 1989 Topps set was only worth 20 bucks in 1989, I told myself, but it would be worth far more in the future. And I was right. Today it is worth … let's see … let me consult an online price guide here … it's now worth … $26. Twenty-six dollars?! What the … six bucks of value gained in 17 years?! That's horrible. That's below inflation. At this rate, by the time I'm 80, the only thing I'll be able to get with the sale of my '89 Topps set is a delicious glass of orange juice.
But, hey, it's not all bad. At least I have my dozen or so Gregg Jefferies rookie cards. They're like money in the bank. They call him the next Pete Rose, you know.
KIERAN DARCYI began my baseball card-collecting career in 1986, when I was 8 years old. Perhaps that's why I still find the '86 Topps design so aesthetically pleasing, with those large block letters spelling out the team name on top.
My favorite card? The '86 Topps card of my favorite player, Don Mattingly. Now, for the record, I'm no bandwagon Yankees fan. My father grew up a few blocks away from Yankee Stadium on the Grand Concourse. He actually worked for the Yankees, helping handle fan mail, during the famed summer of 1961 (and you can imagine there was a lot of fan mail that summer). I'm a born and bred Bronx Bomber.
And yes, I've been spoiled over the past decade. But I will never forget the desperate teams that the Yankees fielded during the prime of my card-collecting years. Back then I couldn't imagine the Yankees winning a World Series. I still have nightmares about some of those teams, the pitching staffs in particular (Andy Hawkins and Melido Perez ring a bell?).
But I always had one reason to turn on Channel 11, or WABC, or beg my father to take me to the Stadium. And that was No. 23, batting third, playing first base. Oh, that sweet swing, and that slick glove. Mattingly was the reason I kept watching the Yankees. Donnie Baseball is the reason I'm still a baseball fan.
When I got my hands on my first Mattingly card, it instantly became the prize of my collection. It wasn't his rookie card -- heck, Mattingly already had won an AL MVP by 1986. But it was my first … and you never forget your first.
Other fans might scoff at this -- especially Cubs fans, I imagine -- but I actually kinda miss that dreadful Yankee period. Maybe I just miss my dad. Maybe I miss a time when my most important pursuit could be collecting baseball cards. All I know is, I just found my second favorite baseball card. I just spent $24.99 (plus sales tax and shipping) on a Don Mattingly
1984 rookie card. I've never spent that much on a card.
There's no more worthy player. And there never will be. At least to me.
KURT SNIBBEI did it at last. I had to give up a lot, but my ultimate All-Star baseball card collection became complete with the addition of Johnny Bench.
I prefer the action shots for cards. I always liked the ones where you could see Bench's bare-handed swing, or the grease lines under his eyes as he guarded the plate. Too bad his 1978 Topps card was a boring profile. But I didn't care. I had Bench on the team and that's all that mattered.
You'd think his card would be in every pack back then, but not where I grew up. A few of us kids around the block had set out collecting and trading cards that summer. We all had our team of favorites, and now I'd upgraded mine. With so many great players, it was a relief to have the one guy I wanted. It cost me a Rod Carew rookie card, a Tom Seaver card (I had doubles of both cards), a Wacky Packages set and my favorite football-shaped eraser. That might sound like an unbalanced deal, but to me Johnny Bench meant my ultimate goal with trading cards was reached. Not only did I have my favorite catcher, I had all my favorites on the desk, in position, at my fingertips.
These cards were kept separate from the foot-high stack of cards in the storage box in my closet. So separate that when my mom cleaned out my vacated room years later, they found their way into a box for the thrift store. "I didn't take anything from your box," she told me. Urrrrgh. At least I had my team, for a couple seasons.
BOMANI JONESI went with my mother to a baseball card show at the Astroarena when I was 9 years old. She'd given me 10 bucks to spend any way I saw fit, so I went to town. After a couple of hours of shopping, I saw a table with a 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. card.
The card, which showed a young, smiling Griffey in his San Bernardino Spirits duds, was the first card in the first Upper Deck set. Junior was on the fast track to stardom, so I really, really wanted this, his rookie card.
Plus, I figured it would be worth a lot of money some day.
But it cost 12 bucks. I had only two. I went and begged my mother for some more dough, but she told me that was too much for a child to pay for a baseball card.
It must not have been too much for an adult to pay, however. Ten minutes later, I came back to the table to find my mother using the negotiation skills she learned in Nigerian marketplaces to get a deal on my card. Mom talked the dude down to 10 bucks and had herself a baseball card.
Needless to say, I wasn't too happy.
My old man swore to me that she was just waiting for the right time to give the card to me, maybe after a good report card or something.
Sixteen years later, the card is still sitting on her dresser in a protective case. And 16 years later, it's still a helluva card.
JIM CAPLEEveryone claims their mother threw away their baseball cards, but that's simply an unfair stereotype. I don't know why everyone insists on blaming their poor, devoted mothers for such a hideous crime when they know full well the true blame usually lies elsewhere.
For instance, my father threw mine away.
He probably doesn't remember it, but one night when I was 6 years old I had my cards spread all over the living room. My father is a very patient man, but when I ignored his repeated orders to clean up the cards or have them thrown away, he simply stomped in, swept them up in his arms and whisked them away.
For years I searched for those cards, certain that he had carefully hidden them. But I never found them. For all I know, they're buried with Jimmy Hoffa.
But I haven't given up. He took those cards away almost 40 years ago, yet when I was helping him clean out the house to put it on sale last winter, I still hoped to find them somewhere.
I didn't. And the worst thing is, I know, I mean I just know, that there were about four Nolan Ryan rookie cards in there.
DAVID SCHOENFIELDI was once, I admit, a baseball card nerd.
Piles of cards, plastic sleeves, price guides, cardboard boxes … let's just say I spent a few hours sorting those 1983 Topps … and 1984 Topps … and 1985 Topps … OK, you get the picture.
(My wife likes to say I was "playing" with the baseball cards. I think she means it affectionately. But why does she laugh when she says this?)
Anyway, this obsession (which, by the way, is long past; I haven't purchased a pack of cards for myself in probably 15 years) began back in 1978.
With George Foster.
It was the season after he hit 52 home runs. For you kids out there, that was a lot of home runs once upon a time. The year before, in 1976, the league leaders had hit 38 and 32. So George Foster, with his black bat, menacing stare, long sideburns and 52 home runs, was a very, very big deal.
Every kid in the neighborhood had to have the George Foster baseball card.
I turned 9 that spring. My birthday was in May, which was an advantage -- back then, you didn't find the packs of Topps cards in the local drugstore until April, so when my birthday party rolled around I told all my friends I just wanted packs of cards as presents.
I ripped through the packs, passed out the pieces of pink gum to everyone, kept getting John Ellis (some stiff backup catcher for the Rangers) and Ron LeFlore … until, finally, there it was … George Foster, NL All-Star OF, bat on shoulder, Reds cap perched on his head. The first kid to have it. They cheered and patted me on the back. It was a big deal.
And better yet -- I now had a whole pile of cards to play with. "
Well there it is, a great collection of stories. And an article that prompted me to start writing down my memorabilia experience again. And that is why i am making a new blog just for memorabilia. 1. so that you guys dont have to suffer through my "boring" memorabilia posts (i know you think they are boring) and 2. because i want to capture all my great stories. So I will begine cataloging all my great stories, how i started collecting...EVERYTHING! From day one, until i catch up to the present time. So check it out once and awhile because it'll give you a better understaning of me and who knows, you might actually like it.
Keep On Rocking In The Free World!!
Final Baseball Memorabilia Timetable
Hey everyone! It's your favorite slacker Greg! I'm here at work, and I just finished typing up my second 46 page manual! Yay! So I am celebrating by posting a blog. Anyways, as you can tell by the title this post is again about memorabilia, but I'll get to that in a second. First though, a promise is a promise and I said anyone who posted by 630am this morning would get a nice comment by me, so here it is!!
Erin - Nice blog, always enjoyable due to your complete and utter randomness and babbling, yet you tie it all together to make it sound very intellectual and thought-provoking. But I do think you worry WAY to friggin much about what you look like exercising. Heh, seriously, you're only adding stress to your life by worrying about that when exercising is supposed to relieve stress. And kudos to you for even working out in the first place, it's tough to get used to it and motivated to do it, so if you ran into someone (no pun intended) then they will probly praise you for working out and not look down on you for not wearing makeup. Makeup is wicked overrated anyways, and natural beauty is what counts. Remember when me and Ash came back to the room after the gym and your parents where there? I was a ball of sweat, and I didn't have my makeup on! But did I care? Nope! Heh, because your working out to look better, therefore, people don't look down on you for looking "bad" while working out, however they do look down on you if you stay in the same clothes for three days, don't shower or brush your teeth, and have BBQ sauce all over your face, and the only reason for it was because of a Star Trek marathon on the Sci-Fi channel. So as long as you stay away from that, people won't look down on you. But all in all, don't worry about what others think, because at the end of the day, you are all that matters. You will drive yourself insane if you worry only about what others think, because then you become more like others and less like yourself, and we like you for you, not everyone else!
Jenn - Once again, great thought provoking entry, (times two!) so that makes up for the whole two months of non-posts. :P But great posts nonetheless! My response to it; same with Erin, you worry too much. Relax, and go with the flow. Do whatever you feel like doing not, what you think you should be doing. College comes for 4 years and then its over. So make the most of it, but make sure you do what you want too. I am guilty of not doing everything I have wanted to do in college, but guess what? I still have two years to do that! So I loved my first two years, even if I spent a good portion of it in a room, I still had a blast with everyone around me! So do what you feel is right for you right now, and don't worry about the future. There is a great job out there for everyone and thankfully we don't have to worry about finding it until after college. (Granted we have to network and all that jazz but that's beside the point I swear! :) ) So don't worry about our life plans, keep it in the back of your mind yes, def don't forget about it, but don't worry about it either. Especially you. You're gonna be a successful worker at whatever you want to do, because you have a drive to be great. So relax for awhile and enjoy the ride that is college. Because I think you will find that there is a perfect mix of fun and work out there.
So there are my rewards to Erin and Jenn for updating, and in no way where either of those anything but humor. I was merely responding to their posts with my own opinion and sarcastic humor. It's a little hard to tell when written, but it was all humor! Heh, so enjoy those you two and keep on posting buddies!
So on to my memorabilia!!
I have set a timetable of what I am getting for the rest of the summer, and unless an unbelievable deal comes along, I am sticking to this! So here are the autographs I will be getting for the rest of the summer.
(Keep in mind, for every pay check I get, I am saving 500 dollars, so I am not just spending all my money on autographs.)
Pay Period: July 14th - Yogi Berra from his site
Bob Feller, Bill Mazeroski from Bob Feller's site
Pay Period: July 28th - Whitey Ford from his site
*Save money for Duke Snider*
Pay Period: August 11th - Brooks Robinson from his site
Juan Marichal, Rollie Fingers, and *Duke Snider* from Bob Feller's site
Pay Period: August 25th (last day of work) - Johnny Bench from his site
Pay Period: September 8th (last paycheck, not sure if it'll be for one week of pay or two, but I'm counting on one just in case, and if I get two, BONUS!)
Nolan Ryan from his site
Fergie Jenkins from his site
*Duke Snider* - His autograph is available from Bob Feller's museum site. Right now it is unavailable, but they may get some more in. If they don' t get it in By August 11th, I am going to buy it from the more expensive (only slightly) reggiejackson.com but I will save for that from the week previous where I am only buying Whitey Ford.
So that's my goal, and if I save 500 dollars every week, then I will have 2,650 dollars saved up for my Italy trip and my Toronto trip. So that is wicked kick ass. Not to mention I should at least have 1,000 dollars if not a lot more in my checking account. So there you have it people. By the end of the summer my collection will be amazingly impressive and I will stair at it for days and cry when I have to leave it for school....but life will carry on.
Keep On Rocking In The Free World!!
Third post in three days!
Hey everyone! Yes this is my third post in three days and yes that is a record for me. But it's also an incentive and an example to others. Hopefully this motivates people to blog about anything (Ashley) or what is going on in their everyday lives (Jena).
Speaking of which. Ashley and Jena are amazing. They updated, and therefore i will say something special about them both as a reward and a thank you.
Ashley - Don't really know what else there is to say. You are the greatest girlfriend ever! (sorry to all other girls, Ash just wins, really I'm sorry you had to find out this way...) You don't just bring the party, you ARE the party. Whether it's a night on the town, a party in Baypoint, or just a simple hour of 'Friends', you are a big reason everyone has so much fun. Keep on truckin' babe!
Jena - Oh the days of MASH. My dad was watching the M*A*S*H* movie the other day and it made me realize how great that show is....cuz the movie is terrible. Absolutely awful. If you have a chance to see it....DON'T! But anyways, what i am trying to say, is that it made me realize how special it was to intrude on you and steve's MASH dates. Whether it was me "going to class" or me just flat out skipping it, you made the afternoons amazingly fun. You have a great sense of humor and you take a lot of crap from me, but the best part is....you give it right back! Oh man, when you bought the Clemens shirt...FRIGGIN AWESOME! Amyways, don't ever change who you are! Cuz you're awesome and i love you just the way you are! I'm excited for our random double dates that will be had next year!
Anyways that little blerb to them was an incentive to all of you. They made me happy by updating, and if you want kind words from Greg, update by Monday morning at 6:30am and i will say kind words about you too!
Well today is friday, and that means only one thing.....SPORTS MEMORABILIA!! I got paid today and i saved enough money over the last two weeks (my compromise to myself, if i save enough money for it from my last paycheck, i can buy whatever memorabilia i saved for when i get my next paycheck.) Well i saved money and by shopping around, and stumbling onto Bob Feller's museum site, i found some great deals. I was gonna pay 70 bucks for a bob feller autograph, but now im buying it direct from him with another Hall of Famers autograph too! Here is what i bought from Bob Feller's site:
1. Bob Feller (HOF62) signed Official Major League Baseball
2. Bill Mazeroski signed 8 x 10 photo
3. Yogi Berra signed Official Major League Baseball (from www.yogiberra.com)
So there is three amazing autographs to add to my collection, and cheaper then i thought i would have had to spend! So that rocks...now i just need a room to display these things....:(
Anyways here is my updated list of memorabilia i am attempting to get/already got!
1.
Stan Musial - bought autograph online
2.
Jim Rice - Bought an authentic autogrpahed card on eBay.
3. Harmon Killebrew - Attempting to get his autograph on eBay/Wrote him a letter asking for prcie list for a baseball
4.
Bob Gibson - Bought his autograph on a certified card from eBay
5.
Rod Carew - Bought a game used jersey/Autographed card on eBay
6.
Yogi Berra - Will buy autograph from his personal site
7.
Al Kaline - Wrote a letter to get an autogrpahed card and got it back in 7 days!
8. Jim Lonborg - Thinking of going to his dentist office in Hanover
9.
Wade Boggs - Bought a Dual Autographed card on eBay featuring him and Bobby Doerr
10.
Lou Brock - Bought a Game Used Bat/Autograph card on eBay.
11. Ernie Banks - Attempting to buy on eBay
12. Gaylord Perry - Attempting to buy on eBay
13. Rollie Fingers - Will buy from Bob Feller's Site when Duke Snider's autograph becomes available.
14.
Carlton Fisk - Bought his autograph on a certified card from eBay
15. Whitey Ford - Thinking of buying from his personal site
16.
Bill Mazeroski - Bought 8x10 from Bob Feller's museum
17. Dom DiMaggio - Sent a letter with a card asking for his price list for an autographed baseball.
18. Reggie Jackson - Attempting to get his autograph on eBay/Online
19. Duke Snider - Will either buy from
www.reggiejackson.com or wait for his autograph to become available on Feller's site.
20. Nolan Ryan - Thinking of buying from his personal site
21. Johnny Bench - Thinking of buying from his personal site
No Longer thinking of purchasing:
1. Pete Rose - His site deals through a third party and it doesn't seem reliable.
2. Carl Yastrzemski - His site deals through a third party and doesn't seem reliable.
3. Hank Aaron - Signs exclusivelt with Stiener Sports (the most respectable authenticity site around) and it's a little too epensive (200.00)
4. Bobby Orr - His site deals through a third party and it doesn't seem reliable.
5. Sandy Koufax - Just about impossible to find a real one that isnt crazy expensive.
6. Willie Mays - Charges through his charity
So there you have it. My list is slightly growning, but also shrinking as i am not giving in to the temptation to overpay, even it it is for....Bobby Orr....Hank Aaron.....Mays......Rose......YAZ!......Oh good i want them! Heh
Anyways....
Keep On Rocking In The Free World!!
A sad day for Greg
Well folks, today is a sad day for me. Let me fill you in:
So back in 1998 i was tired of sharing a room with my brother. So i lead a strike on the house and convinced my parents to give me my own room. But this meant that i would be moving into the "Laundry" room. It sounds worse then it is, the laundry room is one of the biggest rooms in the house and it used to be it's own apartment. There is a bathroom in there and two rooms. One room is my mothers beauty shop, the other is our laundry room. Now the laundry room is a big room with a massive closet (where the washer goes) and a tiny room extending off of the room (where the dryer goes). The rest of the room is mine. It's about as big as a corner room in Stonewall, so i have plenty of room, even with my mom hanging clothes in there to dry. So, this room has always kind of been a pit, so we have always talked about re-doing it. Well now we actually are, because we had to get a new washer and dryer and we have to rip up the rug cuz the washer leaked.
So, i have moved into the living room temporarily, and things were fine. Until the mover guys were scheduled to come in. Knowing that my dad wasnt going to stand there at watch them install the washer and dryer into MY room, i knew that....sigh....my memorabilia had to be moved. So i took everything off of my walls and put them in the living room...just stacked up on the ground before they get packed into a box. Oh i am tearing up a bit right now. My poor babies with no place to go!
Well now we have to act fast and get my room redone so that i can move back in and display my memorabilia again! Especially since i am getting more!! (I have bumped Yogi Berra back to next pay check and this week i am buying Duke Snider and Bob Feller from Reggie Jackson's site.) So those will be really cool additions to my collection, but will have no place to go. But they come in sexy cases, so they will be all set, but Yogi....Yogi needs a home people!! So we gotta get cracking and fix up my room! Well i am excited to finally be getting a nice looking room. Who knows, i might actually keep it clean if it looks nice.....actually i know i wont...heh.
So there is my update....WHERE IS YOUR UPDATE PEOPLE!!!???!!! I wanna see some updated blogs guys! So hurry up! Or at least leave me a comment. It makes me happy to know (or be humored) that people actually care about these words.
Keep On Rocking In The Free World!!
Greg "The Go-Rilla" Walsh
I was surfing around the 'net, and i stumbled upon the trailer for Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (the absolutely friggin hilarious looking Will Ferrell) and I used their Nickname generator and I got my kick ass NASCAR nickname!!
But serious, the movie opens August 4th, and it looks absolutely hilarious. An instant quote quoter movie.
So head on over to
http://www.rickybobby.com/ and type your name into the name generator and you can get an insanely cool NASCAR nickname just like me! And then you guys can us the banner as an excuse to UPDATE!!! JESUS GUYS!!! Who do you think you are!!?? I know u guys dont have LIVES...and JOBS...and FRIENDS....psssh stupid lame excuses. Its erroneous!!
Well anyways......
Keep On Rocking In The Free World!!
My Fingers HATE Me!!
Hello to all my loyal readers!
Well here i am, another week down (this one didn't really count cuz it was only three days) and another week closer to *GASP* Move In Day! Can you believe it, we are halfway through our summer vacation! It's easy for me to say that, because i have been really busy so i dont really feel guilty about the summer halfway over. I have, as you all know, been very busy with work (typing up 46 pages of a manual, shreding massive amounts of paper with my BARE HANDS (EEEEEEERRRR *My tough guy growl*) and i have also been going places on the weekends. Speaking of which, i just got back from Wenham after a kick ass Fourth O' July weekend! It was awesome, i got to see my wonderful girlfriend for an extended amount of time, (which was friggin awesome!) and i also got to see a lot of people i hadn't seen in awhile; Willams and Meg (obvi), my fellow "King" STEVE and Amanda, and Ellen and Jay. It was great to see everyone! I also got to see Ted, Nolan, Hank, Willie, and Mickey too which rocked! :P
So all in all it was a great weekend filled with cookouts, Mini-Golf, Bocci, Crocchet, WiffleBall, and soccer (i obviously didn't play....cuz its a pansy sport....). So i was sorry to leave, but i had to get back to the rat race that is working.
Speaking of working, I finally started saving money (money i get from my job...see thats how i related it....)!!! So I'm wicked proud of myself, because i have 400.00 in my savings account....and 400.00 in my checking aka "my spending" account. But i have starting saving and that was the tough part, because now, every week i will be placing another 400 in my account every week so that i can save for my spring break in Italy....which is gonna be a lot more expensive then i thought. I was looking up tickets and even now, the tickets are $700-$1000. So that's awesome. I'll continue to look around, but I also cant buy it yet anyways because Ash hasn't "Officially" been accepted. (even thought there is a billion and a half spots open) So i will wait until she is definately going before i buy my ticket. Which means i'll have to buy it around November or December, which means it'll probly be about 1000.00 for the ticket (I did a little research). So even though i might be spending more then i thought (Hey Ash, we can still go to Florida again...My treat!! No? ....Noooo? ......No seriously.....Still No? Damnit...it was worth a shot...) it'll def be worth it and a lot of fun. So i figured out that if i save $400 a paycheck, ill have saved $2,300 for the trip, and still have almost $2,500 in my savings account, and I'm probly not gonna spend anywhere near $1,300 on my trip, but i don't wanna be in Italy and not have money.
So with all that figured out, i realized that i will have to cut down on my Memorabilia spending just a little. But this is a good thins, because this means i just wont buy some of the things i was planning on, like autographs from third party dealers (who are the sole distributer of the player, so its not really that sketchy, but a still a little) like Pete Rose and Carl Yastrzemski. And i probly won't over spend on a Reggie Jackson auto either, (i still might, we will see how well i do saving.) But i am still planning on buying the following autographs:
Stan Musial - Already bought and recieved....Oh god is it sexy....
Yogi Berra - He is getting up there in age, is a HOFer and still has a reasonably cheap pricetag.
Johnny Bench - More expensive then Yogi, but he was better anyways, so i dont feel bad.
Nolan Ryan - Autograph is a steal! One of the greatest pitchers ever and a very nice guy.
Duke Snider - HOFer with a very cheap pricetag.
Bob Feller - Underrated dominating pitcher who is seriously getting up there in age.
*Reggie Jackson - Pricey, but worth it in a few years.
*= Not sure yet....yet.
So thats my plan for memorabilia, and as for eBay, i am finishing up my last auctions and then i am retiring for the summer. No more eBaying for me, I'm going cold turkey i swear!
Well i need to get back to work and continue typing the NEW 46 page manual, yup...I am on my second one.... So ill let you guys go so that you can get back to work....UPDATING YOU BLOGS THAT IS!! Come on people! I need something to distract me from work! Seriously! Come on guys! Heh
Anyways, you guys take care and UPDATE!!
Keep On Rocking In The Free World!!
