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Hate to bring bad news to the forum but one of my best friends, Mike Brockman, passed away from a heart attack yesterday. I'm still in shock. Got the call late evening that he'd had a heart attack and talked to his brother shortly afterward who told me that he had passed.

If you know me from shows, you'd know Mike as well. Since about 1996 we hung together at shows. Every National during that time and many other shows from Chicago to Pittsburgh to Louisville to Nashville. Back in the early 1990's, when I was doing mall shows, Mike would come around and buy stuff here and there and I knew him briefly from that. At the 1996 National in Anaheim, my mom and dad went with me and that was when I hooked up with Mike and Dave Willinger--another Louisville friend. From then on, we forged a friendship through cards that grew from there.

Mike was a veterinarian by trade and has three kids--Julia, Leah and Mitchell. Julia and Leah have graduated college and Mitchell is a freshman at University of Cincinnati. His wife Missy is a teacher in our public schools. I can't imagine what they're going through and with this bullshit virus floating around, I couldn't go to the hospital last night.

Mike has always collected vintage cards--Old Judges, T206, BF2's, R312's and just pretty cards that passed the eye test. I always called him the "picky bastard" in the earlier days when he could afford to be more condition conscious. Those standards had to be relaxed in the later years as those cards all became graded and so tough to afford anymore. I think he passed a couple cards shy of R312's and maybe 15-20 BF2's short.

Mike also collected equipment--bats, gloves and balls, bobbin heads, unopened bazooka boxes and other miscellaneous stuff. He has a phenomenal bat collection with ring bats, early Louisville Slugger pieces and decal bats. During a woodworking phase, he built a bat rack for his bats that is sized like a Louisville Slugger rack and just a beautiful piece.

Most of all, Mike was just basically a good, decent man. It can't be put any simpler than that. He worked hard to take care of his family. Put his kids through school and saved for his future. He'd just bought a house at a lake about 1.5 hours from Louisville and had sold his veterinary practice a few years ago and was working as a pay vet for a friend of his. He and Missy planned on retiring in about 5-6 years and planned to move to their lake house. He literally just bought a pontoon about 3-4 weeks ago and was excited about that. His daughter Julia was to be married in August I believe.

Sorry I'm rambling. There are tons of stories as there always are in these situations. I'll end with all the cliche's that we all do--hug your loved ones, take time to tell people you love them and yadda yadda. They always hold true but right now it's tough to adhere to my own thoughts. I know a LOT of good, decent men in this forum and just wanted to share a little about Mike with you who know him and also those who don't. Most of us have that close hobby friend or friends and can understand my angst.

Thanks for listening.....there may be more down the road.