Jeff:
My brush with Jim Bouton was not as grand and glorious as yours, but very similar.
When my son was born in 1983, we wanted to do a "different" kind of birth announcement. Since I was back into collecting cards at that point we thought it would be cool to do a custom baseball card. When I searched for someone who could do it, I found just such a local business - Big League Cards, Inc.
Sounds like a big deal, right? We went to an office building in Teaneck, New Jersey and found the room number. When we went in the door - the "corporation" was Jim Bouton. He was sitting behind the desk; he took the order; he handled the payment. He was a one-man show! It was awesome to just talk to the guy because he was a local hero, but just one of us! We talked about a bunch of Yankee stuff, but also some generic stuff. My wife is a phys ed/health teacher and we started talking about the dangers of chewing tobacco and how kids look up to (and emulate) big leaguers. That's when we found out about his Big League Chew (bubble gum) venture. Just a real down-to-earth guy.
I'm so glad we decided on a baseball card!
RIP, Jim!
|