NonSports Forum

Net54baseball.com
Welcome to Net54baseball.com. These forums are devoted to both Pre- and Post- war baseball cards and vintage memorabilia, as well as other sports. There is a separate section for Buying, Selling and Trading - the B/S/T area!! If you write anything concerning a person or company your full name needs to be in your post or obtainable from it. . Contact the moderator at leon@net54baseball.com should you have any questions or concerns. When you click on links to eBay on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network. Enjoy!
Net54baseball.com
Net54baseball.com
T206s on eBay
Babe Ruth Cards on eBay
t206 Ty Cobb on eBay
Ty Cobb Cards on eBay
Lou Gehrig Cards on eBay
Baseball T201-T217 on eBay
Baseball E90-E107 on eBay
T205 Cards on eBay
Baseball Postcards on eBay
Goudey Cards on eBay
Baseball Memorabilia on eBay
Baseball Exhibit Cards on eBay
Baseball Strip Cards on eBay
Baseball Baking Cards on eBay
Sporting News Cards on eBay
Play Ball Cards on eBay
Joe DiMaggio Cards on eBay
Mickey Mantle Cards on eBay
Bowman 1951-1955 on eBay
Football Cards on eBay

Go Back   Net54baseball.com Forums > Net54baseball Postwar Sportscard Forums > Modern Baseball Cards Forum (1980-Present)

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 03-12-2022, 04:27 PM
frankhardy's Avatar
frankhardy frankhardy is offline
Shane
Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Western KY
Posts: 662
Default Do you have a card that tells a personal story?

Do you have a card that tells a personal story? If you do post it and lets hear about it.

This is mine. I had this card signed at a private signing in February of this year to add to my signed Topps Cardinals collection.

= = =

This card has vaulted to one of my favorites in my entire collection. Not only does it have tremendous eye appeal, it has a story behind it as well.

It was the summer of 1998. I had just married my high school sweetheart on June 6th. We are still happily married with 2 children (son 21 and daughter will turn 19 in a few weeks), but I digress. After the frenzy of a wedding and a honeymoon we settled into our rental house just in time to see Michael Jordan and the Bulls win their 6th NBA championship. Even though I had steadily kept up with the Cardinals and the home run chase, I focused my "sports attention" solely on McGwire and the Cardinals.

My wife had never been a baseball fan at all. She told me she had heard of a few players from when she was a child. She remembered getting a Darryl Strawberry baseball card out of a cereal box when she was little but never cared anything about it....until the summer of 1998.

With the McGwire and Sosa battling it out all summer long we were both keeping up with the chase every single day. We did not have cable or satellite TV at the time, so we were making plans on how in the world we would see the record breaking home run when it happened. Then I thought.....why don't we just get tickets for later in the year in hopes that we see it live! So, we did. I figured McGwire would get tired and the pressure would get to him a little, but he would finally pull it out in the final series of the season. I made a calculated guess that he would break the record on the second to the last day of the season, so we bought tickets for that game, which was on Saturday, September 26. Turns out it was really just a guess out of thin air.

The first of September rolls around and we could see clearly that McGwire was going to break the record well before September 26th. The only question was, "Would Sosa do it first?" The answer would be, "No", and we would confirm this on September 8th.

By this time, my wife was all in on the Home Run Chase of 1998. She was now a die hard Cardinals fan and could give you the starting lineup off the top of her head. On September 7th, we found out he had hit number 61, so we were determined to see him hit number 62 somehow. We decided to drive 45 minutes away to my grandmother's house who had cable TV. This is what we saw that night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TiO...ab_channel=MLB

With the record broken, all that was left was to see how many he would hit and what the final number would be. My question was always....would it be better to have seen number 62 or the final number, which would theoretically be the number every player would be chasing for the rest of time. Since we had tickets on the second to the last day of the season, we decided that, of course, it would be better to see the final number!

On Saturday, September 26, we made the 3.5 hour drive from the western part of Kentucky to St Louis to see the Cardinals in hopes that Mark McGwire would hit a home run. We got there early for batting practice, and, boy, did he put on a show. One practice HR hit the scoreboard. I remember the sound it made. It was spectacular!

Not only did McGwire hit a home run that day....he hit 2 of them! He hit number 67 and 68 that day. I don't think I have ever heard a crowd of people cheer so loud! As a side note, every time McGwire came to the plate, I had my 35 mm camera ready to take a picture. I was able to get number 67, but it wasn't very clear. But the best news was that I was able to get a fairly decent picture of number 68. You can see it in the picture below. The ball is in mid flight, but I have looked at this picture for years and cannot determine exactly where it is at. All I know is that this is the swing that struck number 68 and the picture was taken by me. Here it is!



If you will pause this video at the 25 second mark, that is the exact instant that I snapped the picture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b3_...LouisCardinals

After that exciting day, all we could think about is that we saw history! Little did we know that the HR mark would only last about 24 hours because he would hit 2 more the next day for a total of 70. However, it was an exciting day of baseball that I will never forget!

As a side note to my collection, in my non signed Cardinals team set, when it comes to the 1999 Topps #220 card, I started off years ago with having only #67 and #68 in my team set. A few years ago I was able to get all 70 variations of those cards. However, with my signed team set, I would go broke if I was so OCD that I had to get all 70 cards signed. So, I settled for number 68 for my signed collection. I think it is fitting since I was there!

This card is one of the four cards I had signed at a private signing.


Last edited by frankhardy; 03-12-2022 at 04:28 PM.
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 03-12-2022, 06:19 PM
John1941's Avatar
John1941 John1941 is offline
John I.
Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2021
Location: Texas
Posts: 361
Default

Cool story!
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 03-12-2022, 06:56 PM
ALR-bishop ALR-bishop is offline
Al Richter
Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: San Antonio
Posts: 8,946
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by John1941 View Post
Cool story!
+ 1
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 03-17-2022, 07:45 PM
GrewUpWithJunkWax GrewUpWithJunkWax is offline
member
 
Join Date: Sep 2021
Posts: 73
Default

Great story to share.
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 03-24-2022, 03:45 PM
irv's Avatar
irv irv is offline
D@le Irv*n
Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: Ontario, Canada.
Posts: 6,662
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by frankhardy View Post
Do you have a card that tells a personal story? If you do post it and lets hear about it.

This is mine. I had this card signed at a private signing in February of this year to add to my signed Topps Cardinals collection.

= = =

This card has vaulted to one of my favorites in my entire collection. Not only does it have tremendous eye appeal, it has a story behind it as well.

It was the summer of 1998. I had just married my high school sweetheart on June 6th. We are still happily married with 2 children (son 21 and daughter will turn 19 in a few weeks), but I digress. After the frenzy of a wedding and a honeymoon we settled into our rental house just in time to see Michael Jordan and the Bulls win their 6th NBA championship. Even though I had steadily kept up with the Cardinals and the home run chase, I focused my "sports attention" solely on McGwire and the Cardinals.

My wife had never been a baseball fan at all. She told me she had heard of a few players from when she was a child. She remembered getting a Darryl Strawberry baseball card out of a cereal box when she was little but never cared anything about it....until the summer of 1998.

With the McGwire and Sosa battling it out all summer long we were both keeping up with the chase every single day. We did not have cable or satellite TV at the time, so we were making plans on how in the world we would see the record breaking home run when it happened. Then I thought.....why don't we just get tickets for later in the year in hopes that we see it live! So, we did. I figured McGwire would get tired and the pressure would get to him a little, but he would finally pull it out in the final series of the season. I made a calculated guess that he would break the record on the second to the last day of the season, so we bought tickets for that game, which was on Saturday, September 26. Turns out it was really just a guess out of thin air.

The first of September rolls around and we could see clearly that McGwire was going to break the record well before September 26th. The only question was, "Would Sosa do it first?" The answer would be, "No", and we would confirm this on September 8th.

By this time, my wife was all in on the Home Run Chase of 1998. She was now a die hard Cardinals fan and could give you the starting lineup off the top of her head. On September 7th, we found out he had hit number 61, so we were determined to see him hit number 62 somehow. We decided to drive 45 minutes away to my grandmother's house who had cable TV. This is what we saw that night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TiO...ab_channel=MLB

With the record broken, all that was left was to see how many he would hit and what the final number would be. My question was always....would it be better to have seen number 62 or the final number, which would theoretically be the number every player would be chasing for the rest of time. Since we had tickets on the second to the last day of the season, we decided that, of course, it would be better to see the final number!

On Saturday, September 26, we made the 3.5 hour drive from the western part of Kentucky to St Louis to see the Cardinals in hopes that Mark McGwire would hit a home run. We got there early for batting practice, and, boy, did he put on a show. One practice HR hit the scoreboard. I remember the sound it made. It was spectacular!

Not only did McGwire hit a home run that day....he hit 2 of them! He hit number 67 and 68 that day. I don't think I have ever heard a crowd of people cheer so loud! As a side note, every time McGwire came to the plate, I had my 35 mm camera ready to take a picture. I was able to get number 67, but it wasn't very clear. But the best news was that I was able to get a fairly decent picture of number 68. You can see it in the picture below. The ball is in mid flight, but I have looked at this picture for years and cannot determine exactly where it is at. All I know is that this is the swing that struck number 68 and the picture was taken by me. Here it is!



If you will pause this video at the 25 second mark, that is the exact instant that I snapped the picture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b3_...LouisCardinals

After that exciting day, all we could think about is that we saw history! Little did we know that the HR mark would only last about 24 hours because he would hit 2 more the next day for a total of 70. However, it was an exciting day of baseball that I will never forget!

As a side note to my collection, in my non signed Cardinals team set, when it comes to the 1999 Topps #220 card, I started off years ago with having only #67 and #68 in my team set. A few years ago I was able to get all 70 variations of those cards. However, with my signed team set, I would go broke if I was so OCD that I had to get all 70 cards signed. So, I settled for number 68 for my signed collection. I think it is fitting since I was there!

This card is one of the four cards I had signed at a private signing.
Is it possible it is above the Yellow sign, which is to the right of the Bud sign in right field just below the second deck/standing area bleachers? I see a white spot/dot there.
Just a guess, of course, but that white spot/dot is the only thing I see that "might" be it?
Great story, BTW.
Thanks for sharing.

Last edited by irv; 03-24-2022 at 03:54 PM.
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old 04-02-2022, 04:17 PM
frankhardy's Avatar
frankhardy frankhardy is offline
Shane
Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Western KY
Posts: 662
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by irv View Post
Is it possible it is above the Yellow sign, which is to the right of the Bud sign in right field just below the second deck/standing area bleachers? I see a white spot/dot there.
Just a guess, of course, but that white spot/dot is the only thing I see that "might" be it?
Great story, BTW.
Thanks for sharing.
For years I thought your description was the ball. I have concluded that it is skylight coming through the stadium.
Reply With Quote
Reply



Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
George Carlin tells it like it is,, RichardSimon WaterCooler Talk- Off Topics 2 03-04-2018 07:47 AM
What Are The Best Tells For Stamped Signature Versus Genuine? btcarfagno Autograph Forum- Primarily Sports 12 07-22-2013 12:08 PM
1952 Topps Trim Tells/Help Archive Postwar Baseball Cards Forum (Pre-1980) 0 12-27-2007 09:04 AM
This description tells it all, at least this seller is honest. Archive Net54baseball Vintage (WWII & Older) Baseball Cards & New Member Introductions 8 02-18-2007 02:41 PM
Favorite personal vintage "find" or research story Archive Net54baseball Vintage (WWII & Older) Baseball Cards & New Member Introductions 10 05-06-2006 01:08 PM


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 12:52 PM.


ebay GSB