Musings: last 4 months and just how did these cards survive...

[Kevin]

This has been a very busy 4-5 months. A lots of ups and downs. Mostly downs. But here I am awaiting the results of my wife's exploratory surgery here in Manhassett, Long Island.

She was hospitalized in April for a few days. Diverticulitis. We avoided surgery, but upon discharge, she had to follow up with a GI doc and schedule a colonoscopy. Colonoscopy was scheduled for June 13. On June 12, I got home and she was on the couch in a lot of pain. She went up to shower and I watched the Panthers-Oilers game. When i went upstairs, she was doubled over in pain. We wound up at the ER and her colon ruptured (from the colonoscopy prep). She had surgery on June 27th and was discharged with an ileostomy bag.

Running with this is my son. Over night in 2024, he became a mini-celebrity in the Little League. We play the next town over because they had Fall Ball and because it is run slightly better than our local Little League. (Baseball is the #1 sport the next town over, in Franklin Square, Baseball runs behind football, soccer, lacrosse.). My son: picture a young Greg Luzinski. Slow, powerful, can field what is hit to him, but limited range. We all want him to catch, but he caught one in the chest during a practice in November and that was it.

Anyway, in March, he started Travel Ball. He promptly went 1 for 20 and the coaches started sitting him. They discussed his "swing", not using his hips. Then he started to complain about back pain. Went to orthopedist and he was diagnosed with something I can't write or spell (spondolithosis (?)) - like a slipped vertebrae in the L5. An MRI revealed a slight fracture in the L4.

So, baseball and all athletic activites were curbed. I am friendly with the coach of the travel team. We went to all the games and practices even though the boy was sidelined. I told him he had to go to support his teammates. But the coach intimated to me that cuts were coming. He actually told me Arthur could practice with the team in Fall Ball, but wouldn't play. We were a little upset, seeing the handwriting on the wall. But the boy and I went to PT 3x a week. He worked hard in PT. The team struggled in May but rallied in June and made the playoffs. All without Arthur. The team played well in July, missed the playoffs. But there was a final tournament in Hershey Park for late August. I spoke with the coach and it seemed like Arthur's "swan song" with the team. There would be 3 more games in his travel career. Now there are travel teams in our town, but we didn't know those people. (Turns out, we do know them, but that's the twist.). Privately, Arthur and I have been practicing pitching. Something he never did before.

Anyway, we drive out to Hershey from Long Island and we got into a fender bender on the Belt Parkway. Kid was smoking reefer, not wearing shoes, not insured, not registered. Cops never showed up. We get to Hershey and play on Saturday. He DH's the first game and went 3 for 4. Team won 10-0. Our pitcher tossed a no hitter. (I am not sure why the team didn't make a bigger deal out of that.). The next game, our team went down 8-0. The shoulders were down, the bench was quiet. The coach, who had caught Arthur in practice a couple of times, told me to warn him up. Arthur led off the 4th with a line single. Then the flood gates opened and the team scored 7 runs. Our pitcher gave up back to back hits in the bottom of the 4th. Coach called in my boy. He mowed them down. The team put up 6 runs the next inning; my son in the middle of that rally too. Arthur shut the opposition down again.

In these tournaments, the teams for the next game show up. Who is playing in Pennsylvania in the next game? Our home town travel team. His classmates are on that team. No one had any clue Arthur pitched (I don't think any one of our parents knew either); the classmates on the home town team were like , "Arthur pitches??" "Arthur's here???" The game ends, the boy gets carried off the field. The other coaches (who coached Arthur when he was 5 and 6) came up and asked if we were "happy" and told us there was space on his 10u team if we wanted to make a move...great!

Anyway, we get back and my wife's reversal surgery was scheduled for September 4th. Surgery went well, but it is September 16th and she is still in hospital. They just wheeled her in to exploratory surgery. A blockage showed up on the scans yesterday. It's been a long 4 months.

As for how this relates to baseball cards, particularly anything prior to 1980 and especially the tobacco cards, how did so many of these make it to the present day? I am a special ed teacher and I moved classes in the middle of last year. I had a toxic paraprofessional that I hated. Couldn't stand. Another position opened up mid year and I took it. I left about 5 years of materials in that room. Some I bought, a lot were program materials. A lot of stuff. Useful stuff. But...stuff nevertheless. I saw it all get trashed. Everything thrown away. The new teacher and her staff gutted the room. Decluttered. I was shocked, a bit saddned and then somewhat 'inspired'. Instead of digging through the materials and salvaging items, I let them go. Now...just how did so many tobacco cards make it to us? How did 3 or 4 generations of mothers or spouses or family members that didn't know what they had...how did people not just toss these things? I know this has been asked many times. I'm not expecting an answer. I'm just stating my complete amazement that these little cards have made it to the present day.

(And if anyone has a raw Al Orth T206 available, get at me. I see you, NateDog. Well played last night.)

- Kevin

[NiceDocter]

Hope your wife and son feel better quickly! I guess many of these cards were in boxes or trunks for decades until rediscovered. It is amazing what sometimes still turns up.

[D. Bergin]

I guess if you think about how many were actually printed…only a very small % of them have survived through the years.