Did this ever happen to you?

[Fastball]

Thought I'd share this...

Found this old newspaper from 1981 which talked about the American Tragedy of moms throwing out their kids' baseball cards and collectibles.

Did this ever happen to you?

[packs]

My dad lost all his cards when he went to college. He came back during Christmas break to find his room was no longer his and his cards weren't either. I remember when I was a kid we'd walk the aisles at card shows and he'd always point out the cards he had. It was heartbreaking for us both. Although my grandmother is a very sweet lady and it's hard to hold anything against her.

[steve B]

Not with cards, but with a couple other things.

One party we went to when I was 3 or 4 they had soda with pictures under the caps! Baseball players! I gathered up a couple pockets full of them, only to have mom declare on leaving that we weren't keeping anyones dirty old bottlecaps and out they went. I'm not sure what bugged her, I was always bringing home stuff like frogs, snakes turtles, bugs, fish...........

Later on I had a Cape Kennedy playset with springloaded rockets. The big one didn't really work, but the little ones were pretty good, going maybe 6 feet up. Then comes the news article about how kids are putting their eyes out with the rockets and all the ones that worked got tossed despite my protests that I wasn't stupid enough to fire it ay myself. This made the set basically a metal suitcase with a totally lame rocket and a bunch of plastic fuel truck and fire extinguisher guys.

I'm sure there was other stuff too.

Steve B

[Jantz]

After reading your post Steve, I guess there is no reason for me to ask if you ever had a Red Rider BB gun.

Originally Posted by steve B

Not with cards, but with a couple other things.

One party we went to when I was 3 or 4 they had soda with pictures under the caps! Baseball players! I gathered up a couple pockets full of them, only to have mom declare on leaving that we weren't keeping anyones dirty old bottlecaps and out they went. I'm not sure what bugged her, I was always bringing home stuff like frogs, snakes turtles, bugs, fish...........

Later on I had a Cape Kennedy playset with springloaded rockets. The big one didn't really work, but the little ones were pretty good, going maybe 6 feet up. Then comes the news article about how kids are putting their eyes out with the rockets and all the ones that worked got tossed despite my protests that I wasn't stupid enough to fire it ay myself. This made the set basically a metal suitcase with a totally lame rocket and a bunch of plastic fuel truck and fire extinguisher guys.

I'm sure there was other stuff too.

Steve B

[Joshchisox08]

I know it happened to my dad. But he was however able to get some of his dad's collection 1934-36 Batter-Ups.

My dad had mainly 60s and 70s cards that all got tossed one day. I remember visiting my Grandfather at the house and we would get to go in my dad's room and he used to have all sorts of cool toys and cards all over the place. We always got to pick out a toy. Then one day the cards were gone!

[steve B]

Originally Posted by Jantz

After reading your post Steve, I guess there is no reason for me to ask if you ever had a Red Rider BB gun.

Nope.

Later on though I did go to a science summer camp and built a small rocket. They were rather lax on things like supervision and safety. So it got built with rubber cement since they had stopped rockets a couple years before and didn't have stronger glue.

I picked a two stage one, and when we launched it they didn't have lower stage engines. So I had to chose between engines that were A-8- X with choices for X being I think 3, 5 or 7 figuring bigger was better I went with 7 (Approved by the "responsible adult" of course) The last number was the delay between the engine stopping and it firing the charge to send out the parachute or in this case light stage 2. Seven seconds of delay is enough for the rocket to turn almost 180 degrees from vertical up to vertical down.

It was exciting. Everyone ran except me. When the adult in charge asked why I told him the since I could see the side of the rocket I knew I was safe.

We launched the remains as smaller rockets with a few other failures mostly because of the rubber cement. By the time we were done there wasn't much left.

Got more into that in Jr High, with better results which were somehow less fun.

Steve B

[the 'stache]

Happened to my father, too. Grandma Ann, God rest her soul....why....why????

Occasionally, when I get in a catalog from BST, Lelands or REA, I'll look through it with my Dad. He was born in 1947, and started collecting when he was about 10, if I recall correctly. Though he was born and raised in Chicago, and liked the Cubs, he was a diehard Milwaukee Braves fan. That's partly why he so enjoyed going to Milwaukee County Stadium when the Brewers played there. Memories! Anyway, he had all the mid to late 50s cards, and some from the early 60s-- Aaron, Mathews, Spahn, Burdette, Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Ron Santo, Red Schoendienst when he was a Brave. He also liked the Pirates. He tells me about the time he saw the Pirates at Wrigley, and met Smoky Burgess and Vinegar Bend Mizell, who the Pirates got from the Cardinals early in the season, and went 13-5 with a 3.12 ERA for his new team. This was 1960, the year the Bucs won the Series. He got their autographs, and chatted with them a bit. He said both were real gents. And my Grandma threw out all those cards.

More than anything, I hate hearing about some of the games he went to. Like the game he saw in '60 when Warren Spahn threw a complete game beating the Cubs....with seven future Hall of Famers on the field that day (Aaron, Mathews, Schoendienst, Spahn, Ashburn, Banks and Santo). Man, I missed out not being alive back then.

[DHogan]

My mother wouldn't have thrown my cards out. But my father sure would have. I came home from Jr high one afternoon, I could see my father throwing clothes out the bedroom window that I shared with my brother. I turned around and went over a friends house until after my brother came home. We were about the same size in clothes.

[egri]

I happened to one of my neighbors. He collected throughout the 1960s and '70s. He is a Yankees fan, so plenty of Mantles, Marises, Fords, etc. When he went to college, his mom tossed everything.

I should add though, that his dad was a LCDR in the Navy during World War II. He got to meet Dizzy Dean and a few other members of the Gashouse Gang when they came through as part of a USO tour. He got a postcard signed by them that is still in the family. He's still going strong at 96 years old (will be 97 in July). Next time I see him, I'll ask if he has any memories of Ol' Diz.

[Stampsfan]

My mom, who passed away too young at 63, never threw any of my cards out (from late 60's-early 70's). As long as I kept them out of site and in a drawer, they could be around.

Given that, because they were always out of the way, I ended up with very nice, NM or better cards from my youth, when I got back into the hobby.

She was a good woman...

[judsonhamlin]

I was the beneficiary of my friend's mom tossing out his cards- in 1977 or 78 I wound up with near complete sets of 1972-74 baseball, with multiple Aaron's, Mays, Gibsons, etc. and a random assortment of hockey and football from the same time. I did strike out when one of the other moms had already thrown away her sons 1968-69 cards.

[pokerplyr80]

I still have boxes and albums full of cards from 1989-1996 lying around my Mom's house. It probably wouldn't have been a big loss if they had gotten tossed. I really should go through them the next time I'm home.