After three years of writing and research and interviews, my book is finally here. I owe a debt of gratitude to Leon and this board for a lot of insight and knowledge, and to several members for their assistance and encouragement. I am also grateful to the numerous former players who responded ttm to my questions and to the dealers, collectors, and to Dr. Beckett for allowing me to interview them.
The premise of the book is this: Back in the late 1970's my Dad, like so many middle-aged men, discovered that the baseball cards he collected as a kid were now valuable. One day he went over to his parents' house to fish them out of the attic, only to find out they had been tossed out and lost forever. Our story takes a different turn when this event actually spurred Dad on to "buy back" the cards of his childhood. He took me along for that journey and the memories we made will last forever.
The book is about the relationship between a father and son, the people we met, the cards we collected, and the experiences we had along the way.
Dad has been passed on now for almost eleven years and so this was in many ways an attempt to archive those memories and experiences. It is a personal book but not so personal that people who don't know me would not enjoy it. There are sections on the cards and players themselves as well as the market and the future of our wonderful hobby.
The book is printed in color and so it is not cheap. It cost me about $13 each to make. This is not a money making venture at all, but a labor of love to preserve the stories. If anybody happens to be interested in picking up a copy they are available online to the public at $18 but I will sell them shipped for $15 to any Net54 user. Any kind of payment method would be fine. My ppal is
plymouthpastor@hotmail.com.
Thank you and God Bless!
Chris Partin