Posted By:
David McDonaldSteve: Thanks very much for your post and for bringing Carlton Willey alive to this erstwhile eight year old boy. Back in the day it was Mantle and Berra and Mays and Aaron and Banks that I wanted to pull from those five cent Topps waxpacks, not some Milwaukee rookie I never heard of.
I googled around and learned a bit about Willey. He had a decent career (38-58) on some good Braves teams and some not-so-good Mets teams. Pitched against the Yankees in the '58 WS. A .099 hitter who hit a grand slam in the Polo Grounds. I hope the tone in my post above wasn't taken as disparaging. The rookie and the boy are fifty years older. He had an exciting career in The Show; he lived the dream of every American lad. I read your article ( http://www.nyfuturestars.com/userblurb.php?item=200 ); one only has to see his picture today to know that he is a very nice man, a contented soul living in one of the nicer corners of the planet.
Just the other day the '58 Topps Carlton Willey I bought from eBay arrived in the mail (cost a lot more than a nickle). This time I didn't groan. Next time you see Mr. Willey, tell him he's got a fan in Honolulu.
Um. Wow. Vintage cards, scantily-clad Dutch people, uku-zillion penguins, authentic Polynesian maidens, spam musubi and more at . .
http://ImageEvent.com/kawika_o_ka_pakipika
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