[ullmandds]

Originally Posted by JTysver

Being from a nomadic clan, my travels often took me to the nether ends of the globe. I traversed the Kalahari solo with just a camel and a bucket of water at the age of 6.

By the age of 8 while playing stickball with my friends on the streets of Ceylon, I was captured and forced into servitude by the king of Siam. Thank you very much oh great Ceylon-Siam war!
At the age of 12, after four years of hard labor, I escaped by burrowing a 247 mile tunnel to the sea. Used my hands too! By that time they had turned as hard as shovels from all of the hard labor I had done. (Note to self- If I ever become king and seek servants, don't build up their strength, speed and endurance with hard labor). I crossed the sea by creating a raft out of bamboo shutes. A little trick a wise old man taught me in the camp.

For four years, I was completely bothered by not finishing that game of stickball. We had just finished the top of the ninth with the score being 87-20 and the other team ahead, but we were home team so I knew we had a chance still.

I had to find all of the players and convince them to finish the game.

I started seeking the players. They weren't too hard to find, but they were very hesitant to finish the game. The opposition claimed that I vacated the field and thus forfeited. The players on my team claimed they had moved on. I hadn't. For four years, I had nothing else to look forward to than that game. That argument, however, was not nearly enough to convince them. I needed more.

Around this time, the great baseball card glut of the late 1980s was beginning. All of the players were collecting them. This was my opportunity. I could find cards and use them to convince players to resume the game.
I started out hoarding a stack of 1985 Fleer Glenn Davis rookies. Two or three of these per man convinced half of the opposition to resume the game. I then moved on to 1983 Topps Willie McGee. This convinced all of the rest but one of the other team's players to resume the game.
Convincing Grixto (that was his name) to join in the game would be difficult. "I only want a rookie Red Rolfe" he would say. I searched for the inaugural Rolfe high and low. My travels took me to many more places. I wound up buying lots from dealers, hoping I could find the elusive Rolfe. I had 27 Rolfe cards, 42 Jackie Robinsons but not a single one of the Rolfe cards were rookies.

Then, I met a dealer on the outskirts of Wyoming (otherwise known as South Dakota) who had the Rolfe. It would be difficult to obtain. He was planning on traversing the Badlands and wanted some reliable transportation. I didn't have a horse to offer him. Just then a light went off in my head. GET THE CAMEL. I went back to the Kalahari and found my old camel grazing in the same field I had left him in 8 years before. I took my camel back to the dealer, traded it for Rolfe and was back to Ceylon to finish my game.

I had forgotten to ask my own team to play. That, I thought would be easy. Just hit them up with a couple of Davis rookies (Glen, not Eric) and a Galarraga or two and throw in one of the Jackie Robinson cards and they should all comply. It worked like a charm!
So, I was stuck then with 33 Jackie Robinson cards, 14 Mantle Rookies and about 12,000 other cards before 1954. So I decided to broaden my collection and try to finish out the Topps run.

And that is how I got into collecting a Topps run!

holy shnikes...my life has been relatively uneventful in comparison!!!!! still have those mantle rookies?