If you could travel back in time... [Archive]

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10-11-2005, 06:12 PM

Posted By: Brad Green If you could travel back in time to just one year in history and collect as many baseball cards from that year as possible, what year would you go to? Of course, you would want to take as many screwdown holders, rigid toploaders and albums as you could to preserve the cards that you've just pulled out of the cigarette packs, gum packs and exhibit machines. After the year was up, then you could bring the cards back in time to the present. What year would you go to? Perhaps you would choose a particular year that you knew you could get the most valuable cards. Or perhaps you would choose the year in which your favorite set was produced, irregardless of value. Maybe you would choose the year because a particular player that you collect had a lot of cards that year. I would choose to go back to 1933. More cards of Lefty were distributed in 1933. His DeLong, Goudey, Tattoo Orbit, George C. Miller, Eclipse Import and Rittenhouse Candy cards (among others) were made that year. Of course, this scenerio will likely never be possible, but it certainly is fun to imagine what it might be like if it was!

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10-11-2005, 06:15 PM

Posted By: barrysloateI would go back to 1869 and hang around Peck & Snyder's on Nassau and Ann Street, and pick up a few hundred of their various trade cards. Of course, I'd have to find a way to bring them back to the present.

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10-11-2005, 06:24 PM

Posted By: Al Crisafulli1933, no doubt. For all the reasons indicated above, and for four Goudey Ruth cards. -Al

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10-11-2005, 06:27 PM

Posted By: Bill Stone1910

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10-11-2005, 06:28 PM

Posted By: Brian E.No doubt 1909, VA and NC....T's and E's. I'd also have to take a trip to Detroit and see the greatest ballplayer whoever lived <img src="/images/happy.gif" height=14 width=14> But if I brought all the cards back, the pop reports would look much different than they do now! Brian E.

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10-11-2005, 06:30 PM

Posted By: Charlie O'NealI would go back in time to work at a cigrette factory for a couple of weeks and lift every card I could, maybe even bring back a case or two of those fine cigrettes. In my down time I would pick up every T3 I could. Most importantly I would pay attention to how the cards were made so I could come back to write a book that explains how the T206's were made. I'm sure that what I made off of the sales from the book would help me buy the T206's from 1911 and a couple of 1914 Cracker Jacks. Now I got all worked up just tinking about it. Whose got that time machine!!!

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10-11-2005, 06:42 PM

Posted By: Ted ZanidakisIf you allow me....my fantasy time period is twofold. 1st......I can just imagine in the Summer of 1888, as an 8 year old spending all my allowance on Old Judges, Allen & Ginters, and N162 Goodwin Champions. 2nd......By the fall of 1949 I would be 69 years old and I would be re-living my actual youth buying 1949 Bowman High #s (Satch Paige, Duke Snider, Bob Lemon) and 1949 (2nd series - scarce) Leafs (Doby, Feller, Kell, Slaughter, and Satch Paige). And, if God willing, in this fantasy I was still alive today....I would be 125 years old. And, hopefully not too feeble to enjoy my vast collection of sports cards.

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10-11-2005, 06:57 PM

Posted By: Rhett YeakleyIf I was doing it purely to get cards, I would probably choose to go back to the 1930's (before the big paper drives of WWII) and simply advertise in newspapers around the country that I was buying worthless baseball cards for seemingly high prices--then you would get all kinds of cards coming out of attics, etc. from all eras. As a baseball fan I would love to go back to the 1870's to 1880's and watch some baseball games-I've always been curious as to what it would be like to see Radbourne pitch, Anson bat, etc.--that would be worth more to me than baseball cards. -Rhett

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10-11-2005, 07:33 PM

Posted By: AnonymousTed. I wonder how many 8 year olds that spent all thier money on cigarettes in 1887 made it to 1949..

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10-11-2005, 07:55 PM

Posted By: Ted ZanidakisMurcerfan My Uncle John (Rochester, NY) did. He was born in the old country (Greece) in the 1880's and lived till the late 1960's. And, he smoked tobacco. My wife's Father lived into his 80's and smoked tobacco all his life. It's in your genetic makeup. Everyone is different. Pennsylvania Ted

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10-11-2005, 08:42 PM

Posted By: honus3415....but only if I was lucky enough to live next door to the chain-smoking old man with no friends or relatives, who had a 20 pack a day smoking habit and took me under his wing because of my angelic nature. WOW......can you imagine the first mass distribution of hundreds of different COLOR CARDS with pictures that actually looked like the players. That had to be the advent of the first baseball card woody....and a tobacco habit that would kill those first card fanatics by the age of 30. If he had lived through serving in WWI. Remembering back to seeing my first Babe Ruth card....a 1961 Nu-Card Baseball Scoops and asking the neighbor where he got it...well the rest is history...which if I had all the money I have spent over the years on tobacco I'd could own a GAI 1.5 T206 Honus Wagner (and all the controversy that would go with it). AND if I had all THAT money AND the money I've spent on my baseball card addiction over the years....I could afford to pay the medical bills for all my tobacco smoking relatives since 1909. No production in any year since has provided a greater change in the landscape of baseball cards, after that we began to care more about who was on the card. Final answer....1909. I remember less than most people have forgotten but I still remember more than I really care to.

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10-11-2005, 09:45 PM

Posted By: Paul1888. I'd scoop up all the N172s I could find, order all the N173s, get every N175 small card I could find, hang out in tobacco shops looking for N175 larges, chew that G&B brand chewing gum until I completed their set (with several copies of the Spalding), get a few nice N162 sets, some N43 Ewings, maybe a Yum Yum set or two, and see if I could find any collectors out there with a few "old" N167s from two years earlier. I also like Barry's idea of hanging out at the Peck & Snyder store in 1869. Another interesting time would be 1903, opening packs of Breisch Williams caramel, and seeing if the good folks at Sporting Life would still send me their cabinet cards from 1902.

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10-11-2005, 10:15 PM

Posted By: David Vargha1948 -- I would solve the Hal Lewis/Leaf Card/1948 or 1949 controversy once and for all. I would write a brilliant pamphlet entitled, "The Hal Lewis Controversy -- Settled!". I would be ridiculed by society and written off as an eccentric madman. However, some 57 years later, my brilliant pamphlet will be rediscovered and I will be vindicated. From then on, I will be known as the prescient and brilliant David Vargha. Both the warden and my fellow asylum inmates will never look at me the same after that. DavidVargha@hotmail.com

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10-11-2005, 10:48 PM

Posted By: Julie VognarI'd like to see Radbourne pitch, the first game of the 1919 World Series (close enough to hear Schalk blow his stack at Cicotte), and see Reese casually drape his arm over Jackie's shoulder, discussing ss-2nd base strategy... Cards would be nice too.

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10-12-2005, 07:12 AM

Posted By: Kevin CummingsOne year? Probably 1889 then. I could pick up Old Judge cards of some of the best players of the era but better yet get to see them play the game. How great would it be to see HOFers like Mack, Robinson, Clarkson, Beckley, Thompson, Keefe, O'Rourke, Ward, Welch, Rusie, Nichols, Kelly, Anson, McPhee, Galvin, Radbourn, Ewing, Connor, Brouthers and Hamilton ply their trade? Not to mention guys like Hoy, Browning, Van Haltren, Caruthers, Mullane and White among others. I'd be like a kid in the backseat of the car on the family vacation - "Are we there yet?"

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10-12-2005, 07:29 AM

Posted By: Scott ForrestI couldn't afford to bring back all that 1888 currency to pay for the Old Judge cigarettes, but Barber dimes wouldn't be so bad. Same goes for clothing - easier to get hold of 1909-ish duds on ebay. The women were also hotter-looking (IMO) in 1909...hey, if I'm going back for a full year... Finally, there would be better spare parts available in 1909 to make repairs to my time machine, and gas-powered vehicles to move it if necessary.

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10-12-2005, 08:06 AM

Posted By: warshawlawLate 1933 with a pile of vintage lincoln pennies to pay for all the gum packs I'd be able to get at a discount from local merchants eager to get rid of old stock of cards, plus a nice stash of folding money to pay for ads in local papers so I could buy up all the cards I could find. I'd also visit every candy wholesaler and candy store I could find and ask the owners about old unopened materials.

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10-12-2005, 08:09 AM

Posted By: Mike Campbell1933. What a great year for cards. Depression period. Forth coming military conflict. New Era in Politics. Ruth, Gehrig, Foxx, Grove etc. etc. Interesting time in history. My favorite time for baseball, and the cards that evolved during it.

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10-12-2005, 08:35 AM

Posted By: Ted ZanidakiscDave, you'll have a year's wait if you go back to 1948. We have settled this controversy many, many threads ago. Back in the 1980's I had a full uncut 49-card sheet of these LEAFs (1st series). The cards on that sheet have a mixture of 1948 and 1949 Copyrights. Dave, did you ever collect these Leafs as a kid ? I did, I clearly remember when they were first available; it was positively with all certainty, very early spring of 1949. I grew up in Northern NJ. Peter Thomas (Forum member) collected these cards in his youth in the Boston area, has also confirmed that these cards were NOT available before 1949. And, most older hobbyst who collected them also agree. In 1948 us kids collected all kinds of Bowmans Sports cards, Movie Stars, etc. We also collected 1948 LEAF Football, Boxing, and even "Pirates of the Seas" cards. Dave....TRUST ME....THERE WERE NO LEAF BASEBALL CARDS issued in 1948....PERIOD.

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10-12-2005, 08:43 AM

Posted By: identify7Id go back to when you could buy Cracker Jack sets by mail from the manufacturer. And I would order a few per day for about a month, then hang out and try to stay out of trouble, but since I already know the outcome of major sporting events and other things, becoming a "gambler" is a natural. Actually, forget the Cracker Jacks. If I had access to a time machine and a knowledge of history, why invest? That takes too long. Just bet.

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10-12-2005, 10:47 AM

Posted By: John SIt makes me feel better to read posts regarding this topic. I realize that I am not the only deluded board contributor. I have actually had dreams (on multiple occasions) about going back in time a purchasing cigarettes for the cards. My years would be 1894-1895 to collect the N300 and N302 sets.

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10-12-2005, 11:07 AM

Posted By: Josh A.I'd have to say 1933, to pick up some of that great Goudey Gum, er, I mean cards! Or 1914 and buy as much Cracker Jack as I could stuff into my pockets. Julie, you may not have to travel back to 1919 to see the Sox in the Series. Just come to 35th and Shields this month to see the '05 Sox! That is, if they play better than last night. But the important question is, where would you all get the money to pay for this stuff? Because, as we all know, if you bring money minted in 2005 back to 1933, well, you won't have anything! Unless you have a coin collection, then you are in business. "I'm thinking about getting a plasma T.V., in case I need a transfusion."- Steven Wright

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10-12-2005, 11:13 AM

Posted By: Chris McI would travel to 1928. Fantastic candy and ice cream cards, strip cards and other black and white issues.

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10-12-2005, 11:35 AM

Posted By: Hal LewisI would go back to 1948 so that I could hang out with my other time-traveling buddy, David Vargha, before he started his long stint in the looney bin for predicting that baseball cards would actully be WORTH something... and for talking about some futuristic demonry known as the "Internet." Then, in early 1949, Vargha and I would hang around outside the stores in New York and New Jersey and when a young little kid named Ted Zanidakis came out of the store with his cards... we would trade him all of our 1949 Leaf Luke Appling cards (a well-known commodity at the time) for all of his 1949 Leaf Leroy Paige cards (who has ever heard of "Leroy" Paige??). Then... I would get back in my time machine... come back to 2005... and remind Ted Z. about how he once was the owner of 75 Satchell Paige rookie cards... and I would ask him if he still had those 75 Luke Appling cards. <img src="/images/happy.gif" height=14 width=14> So Ted... tell the truth.... did you ever trade away a bunch of Satchell rookie cards as a kid??

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10-12-2005, 11:41 AM

Posted By: David VarghaHal -- Do you know something I don't? Do they actually release me for a short period of time in 1949 as your scenario seems to indicate? DavidVargha@hotmail.com

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10-12-2005, 11:49 AM

Posted By: Hal LewisYes, I break you and a few other loonies out of the nuthouse under the guise of going to a Yankees game. I learned the trick in our future life by watching that Michael Keaton movie... but the name escapes me.

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10-12-2005, 12:00 PM

Posted By: David VarghaSadly enough, I've seen that movie -- "The Dream Team". I didn't know that it was based upon my life. Any chance of retaining you as counsel in pursuit of the royalties owed to me? DavidVargha@hotmail.com

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10-12-2005, 12:10 PM

Posted By: Hal LewisNo, because you are incompetent and therefore cannot enter into a legally binding contract or testify in court. I will, however, offer you the option of chosing which of the 3 crazy guys in the movie was based on your life. I already took the Michael Keaton role... but you still have three very good choices: 1) The Dad from "Everybody Loves Raymond" (Peter Boyle) 2) The Mad Professor from "Back to the Future" (Christopher Lloyd) 3) Flounder from "Animal House" (Stephen Furst) Which character in that movie was you?

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10-12-2005, 12:13 PM

Posted By: David VarghaGeez, I kinda wanted to be Keaton. I'll settle for Christopher Lloyd so I can make the DeLorean time machine that gets me back to 1948 in the first place. Now I'm beginning to see how all of the pieces fall into place. DavidVargha@hotmail.com

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10-12-2005, 12:31 PM

Posted By: jay behrensI'm surprised no one has opted for 1903 so they load up on Breisch-Williams cards. I'd also be snatching up any books, guides and programs along with any game used equipment I could get my hands on. Jay Sometimes when I reflect on all the beer I drink I feel ashamed. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn't drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. I think, "It is better to drink this beer and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver."-- Babe Ruth

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10-12-2005, 01:09 PM

Posted By: barrysloateEveryone is also forgetting that you must bring period money with you in order to make purchases. From 1878 on, you could bring back circulated Morgan dollars which would cost you today under $10, and I imagine a single Morgan dollar could get you quite a few Old Judges, Kalamazoo Bats, maybe even a few Four Base Hits if you could find them. For my trip back to 1869, best thing to do is bring a double eagle from the 1860's which you could purchase today for about $500. I would say that a $20 gold piece could buy an awful lot from Peck & Snyder's, which might include uniforms, bats, and a thick handful of Brooklyn Atlantic and Cincinnati Reds trade cards. That would be a solid $500 purchase.

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10-12-2005, 01:15 PM

Posted By: barrysloateHere's an even more complicated dilemma. Let's say I went back to 1869 just to get a single Peck & Snyder Cincinnati Red Stockings card. And let's also imagine that by some amazing coincidence it was the one that is currently owned by Julie (since that is one we are familiar with). Since I purchased it before it ever made it to the present, would it suddenly disappear from Julie's collection? That could be an episode of the Twilight Zone. Rod Serling might have called it "The Tale of the Missing Peck & Snyder."

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10-12-2005, 01:16 PM

Posted By: Darren J. Duet1917 That way I may be able to obtain everything I care to produced up to that year. In particular, cracker jacks, T's, E's, and M's.

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10-12-2005, 01:25 PM

Posted By: will watsonI'd travel back and forth through time to solve all the hobby mysteries - Wagner, Plank, etc.

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10-12-2005, 01:28 PM

Posted By: identify7Barry: you'd rather bring $20 gold at a cost of $500, over 20 silver dollars @ $200. Wow, you value travelling light. Im going to need a time machine with a big trunk. And I think that Julie's Peck & Snyder disappears from your possession the minute she buys it (unless you are fast).

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10-12-2005, 01:43 PM

Posted By: barrysloateIf you go back before 1878, the first year of Morgan dollars, you have to buy Seated Dollars and they are quite expensive. Twenty of them would cost far more than a double eagle. After 1878, go with the Morgans all the way. Re: bringing back cards- most cards that were issued 100 or so years ago have been destroyed, so if you bring one of those back to the present you are saving it from destruction. But, to use another example, if you go back to 1888 and find a Four Base Hit of Kelly and bring it back to the present, and that example happens to be the one that ended up in Leon's collection, it can't be in two different places at the same time. So you would now own it and Leon's would disappear. He would go to his vault one day, find it gone, and would never know to his dying day what happened to it. Very spooky stuff. <img src="http://www.network54.com/Realm/tmp/1129147001.JPG">

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10-12-2005, 01:44 PM

Posted By: Wesley1933 is tough to beat. So many great sets that year...Goudeys, Diamond Star, US Caramels, Delongs, Tattoo Orbits, George C Millers....

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10-12-2005, 01:44 PM

Posted By: Marc S.I would go back and purchase an actual baseball team or two. Let's say Phillies and Red Sox. And then I would force my players to sign agreements that they could only have their portraits used on cards that were published by me. And then I'd have my very own proprietary set of baseball cards - one for every year that I'm owner. I would distribute just enough of them to the public so people knew that they existed, but thought that they were extremely scarce. And then I would travel back to today - with my hoarde of Marc 101 cards - and I would trade them for a bunch of 1/1 game-used refractor cards.

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10-12-2005, 01:45 PM

Posted By: Marc S.<<But, to use another example, if you go back to 1888 and find a Four Base Hit of Kelly and bring it back to the present, and that example happens to be the one that ended up in Leon's collection, it can't be in two different places at the same time. So you would now own it and Leon's would disppear. He would go to his vault one day, find it gone, and would never know to his dying day what happened to it. Very spooky stuff.>> Well, Barry, that's not really true. Because he would not have had the card in the first place. He had the card in the "past past", but in the "present past", he never had the card. So it would essentially just disappear - and all knowledge of that "past past" would have disappeared with it. Right?

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10-12-2005, 01:51 PM

Posted By: Charlie O'NealIf you went back and time to grab Leon's 4 base hit Kelly then wouldn't it cause a ripple effect where he never would have purchased it in the first place? Kind of like he had a dream that he owned the 4 base hit Kelly. If anyone does go back in time make sure you DON'T get into a fight and kill one of my relatives so that I was never born just b/c of some card.

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10-12-2005, 01:55 PM

Posted By: Marc S.I would go back to 1909. Find EVERY SINGLE T-206 Honus Wagner card that was made or scrapped - and I would carefully go to desk/drawer/furniture manufacturers, and make sure that I slyly affix the Wagner card somewhere in that furniture. Just to confuse people in the 21st century, so that when they go onto Ebay and see "Found at an estate sale, selling 'as is' ", the Wagner may very well be authentic. Boo-haa-haa-haa

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10-12-2005, 01:57 PM

Posted By: barrysloateO.K., so how about if I went back in time and purchased the Four Base Hit and at precisely that moment your were on the phone with Leon and asked him what the best card in his collection is? Would he or wouldn't he respond "my Four Base Hit of Kelly." At what point does it disappear from his consciousness?

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10-12-2005, 02:04 PM

Posted By: Charlie O'NealIf you purchased it at the exact moment that I was trying to purchase it then imo the conversation would have never taken place. Since you bought it then Leon never would have purchased it and I never would have known that he owned it. Kinda like Back To The Future 2 and Biff getting the book with all the sports scores. Since he place the bets it changed everything that happend after that.

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10-12-2005, 02:04 PM

Posted By: barrysloateYou see, Leon owns the card today. But if I take the time machine back tomorrow, and purchase his card before he ever did, does it slip out of his consciousness that he ever owned it? It's an existential conundrum, or to put it another way- I have no idea what I'm talking about.

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10-12-2005, 02:05 PM

Posted By: Kevin CummingsBarry is onto something here. In our answers above most of us have been guilty of breaking the cardinal rule of time travel - do not change anything! If we took all the cards back then that are valuable today, we would seriously negatively warp the underlying fabric of the fragile time/space continuum to the point that John Dreker would be the richest man on earth (since he has cornered the market on N172 Larry Corcoran cards) followed closely by Tom Boblitt (still having several cases of 1987 Topps in his garage). <img src="/images/happy.gif" height=14 width=14>

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10-12-2005, 02:07 PM

Posted By: barrysloateCharlie- so you are saying Leon would have no knowledge that he ever owned the card, because in fact he never did? Quite possibly correct. You see, this is why nobody ever invented a time machine- it's just too complicated. And Leon, sorry to drag your Kelly through this whole sordid affair.

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10-12-2005, 02:17 PM

Posted By: Charlie O'NealYou are correct...

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10-12-2005, 02:27 PM

Posted By: barrysloateHey Leon- the Kelly magically appeared on one of my posts- probably originating from some vortex or some other dimension- this is just getting too spooky for me.

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10-12-2005, 02:48 PM

Posted By: Hal LewisWhat if I went back in time to 1832 and married Knig Kelly's mom... so that our child would NOT be married "King Kelly" but would instead be named "King Lewis"?? Then not only would Leon's King Kelly CARD have never existed... but King Kelly HIMSELF would have never existed. At least this way, once Leon's card disappears from his vault... he hasn't lost anything of value. PS - Yes, his mother was definitely a MILF. I've seen pictures...errr, dags....errr, paintings of her.

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10-12-2005, 02:52 PM

Posted By: Matt GoebelDoes anybody's answer change if you are not allowed to sell any of the cards you bring back?

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10-12-2005, 03:01 PM

Posted By: barrysloateHal- that is exactly why the time machine wasn't invented. Did you see the episode of the Simpsons where Homer goes back to prehistoric times, squashes a mosquito, comes back to the present and the whole world has changed? It's just too complicated to mess with time. And Matt, I'm not sure it matters if you keep or sell the card. P.S. Hal- I have been trying to figure out for the longest time what MILF means. I don't think you can post it here so please email me at bsloate@att.net. I think we need to take that one off the board.

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10-12-2005, 03:09 PM

Posted By: Hal LewisBarry: It is a quote from the movie "American Pie"... so I'm sure you could do a Google search and get the answer... but I agree that you should NOT post it on the board when you do. <img src="/images/happy.gif" height=14 width=14>

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10-12-2005, 03:21 PM

Posted By: Matt GoebelI guess my question was out of context as I had not read the entire thread yet. I never felt that the prospect of not being able to sell your time-traveling booty would have any impact on the time space continuum, but rather it might impact the decision of which year to go back to. Your choice of 1869, for example, would yield many examples of the same card. If you could not sell any of them would your choice be the same? BTW, my favorite time travelling movie moment that messes with your mind is in "Bill & Ted's Excellent Advanture" when they can't find their keys. Also, I forgot to make my choice - which is 1910. Not for the obvious T-cards, E-cards, etc. But I would try to find passage down to Cuba and acquire as many Punch and Cabanas cards as I could find.

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10-12-2005, 03:32 PM

Posted By: barrysloateMatt- Of course you run the risk of flooding the market, so you would bring things back judiciously. And Hal- I got three responses from board members and I thank them. I sort of knew what it was but I was missing a word or two. I got the key word though.

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10-12-2005, 03:43 PM

Posted By: will watsonMILF: Mother I'd Like to FourLetterWord

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10-12-2005, 03:53 PM

Posted By: barrysloateThanks Will- as off topic as we could possibly get.

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10-12-2005, 04:14 PM

Posted By: Space CowboyIt's why I listen to "Devil music" and watch old B&W's on Turner Classic Movies. It's why I love lurking Net54 to hear the latest gossip about Matty and Wagner and Cobb and the rest. It is why I collect baseball cards in the first place; it's the next best thing to time travel. I would deal with the Devil to go back in time to watch Matty pitch and hear Bix play and and lust after Rita Hayworth. I'd trade a body part or two to see Prince Oana fire stikes to home plate from centerfield at Seals Stadium or hear Coleman Hawkins play "Hello Lola" with the Mound City Blue Blowers. [Check it out; you won't be sorry: <a href="http://www.redhotjazz.com/mound.html" target="_new" rel="nofollow">http://www.redhotjazz.com/mound.html</a> ] Rather than loot the past for fresh out of the box cards to make my fortune back in the present, and risk serious negative warping of the underlying fabric of the fragile time/space continuum (God forbid!), I would just stay in the past. I could live comfortably off gambling and market earnings with my "insider information." I'd be an old man ready to buy the farm by the time I was due to be born in 1950. Existential conundrum? No problem-o. Remember how Superman could travel through time by spinning really fast? Clockwise to go to the future; counterclockwise to go to the past. I tried this a couple of times back in 1958. Didn't work for me. It was still 1958 and I was nauseous. But now I got me a Boxster that will turn tight on a dime; maybe it's time for another try.

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10-12-2005, 06:42 PM

Posted By: Al CrisafulliI was driving home from work tonight, and I was thinking about this thread, and something occurred to me. If we all had the opportunity to go back in time to any year we wanted to, to buy baseball cards, it wouldn't matter. None of us would buy modern cards. Could you see any one of us in 1933? "Jeez, this hobby is a nightmare. Used to be just one company, making beautiful baseball cards. Now, look at all these companies, making these ugly modern cards. Goudey, Tattoo Orbit, George C Miller, all these others. If you're a kid today, trying to collect baseball cards, where do you start? What set do you collect? And GOUDEY, what a ripoff! What a marketing scam! They actually put FOUR Babe Ruths in the set, just to get us to have to keep buying packs, over and over again. And the Lajoie? I'm convinced it doesn't even EXIST. I've gone through cases of the stuff, and haven't gotten ONE. And you can't possibly tell me that it's worth it to pay all that money for this Ruth guy anyway. Talk to me in fifty years, when Babe Ruth is forgotten with all these other modern players. Cap Anson, now HE was a PLAYER. All this modern garbage is killing the hobby." -Al

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10-12-2005, 06:57 PM

Posted By: barrysloateBut Al, you would only feel that way about Goudeys if 1933 was the present and you were thinking about the good old days of the 1880's. If you time travel, you would go to 1933 with a 2005 sensibility, and the world would look great to you. And imagine buying penny packs of Goudeys and Delongs by the hundreds and opening them up and pulling a mint card out of each one- you would be the literal kid at the candy shop.

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10-13-2005, 07:35 AM

Posted By: john/z28jdKevin wanted me to respond to his post about me so id definitely go back to the year before Kevin was born,watch the Black Sox scandal unfold right before my eyes then go to the Cummings residence dressed as a door to door salesman giving away free 100 count trial boxes of condoms and warning them of a possible market crash in the near future and the worry they would go thru possibly having a son or daughter go away to war in the 40's which will be inevitable.My job would then be done and all of those cards Kevin went back to accumulate will be all for not. In reality i dont have the money now to buy dated currency so when i go back in time i better be a thug.Luckily people were smaller back then

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10-13-2005, 07:39 AM

Posted By: Kevin CummingsJohn: You realize, I'm sure, that in so doing, you'd never get that N172 Corcoran London, Ontario version from me in 2004! <img src="/images/happy.gif" height=14 width=14> Kevin

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10-13-2005, 07:51 AM

Posted By: john/z28jdDid you want a well thought out answer or just something spiteful? You shouldve been more specific in the email. I would now reconsider and go back to 1889 and buy all of the Taylor Shaffer OJ cards and destroy all but one of each pose which i would then keep and put on display at my lemonade stand outside of Kevins house(Im assuming thats where the money for a time machine came from)

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10-13-2005, 09:05 AM

Posted By: Ted ZanidakisHAL I am honored that you and Dave V. would join me as a 9 year old in Hillside, NJ. Forget for the moment BB cards.....think "Stick Ball". Hopefully, you and Dave have your favorite stick bats. If not, then we just find some neighbor's brooms or rakes and we saw them down for you. You better be in shape to play stickball from day break till our Mom calls us home for dinner. Conveniently, we had a Country Club near us, so we al- ways had a fresh supply of tennis balls to play with. The "Pink Spaldings" were cheap, but did not compare with the performance of a "free" new tennis ball. After dinner we might walk two blocks and visit with "the Scooter, Phil Rizzuto. He was always very nice to us kids, who peppered him with an endless number of questions after that afternoon's ballgame. Unfortunately, where we lived only the 1st series of 1949 Leaf BB cards were available. Of course, after some time we realized there were only 49 cards for our sets. But, Leaf's skip-numbering scheme certainly did work. Mizell Platt was #159 and we kept spending our pennies thinking we needed 110 more Leaf cards in order to complete the set. Subsequently, the 1949 Bowmans were available, they did not appeal to us kids at first. The Leafs were bigger and made of heavier cardboard; therefore, really great for flipping. Finally, to answer your question....YES....I did trade a Satchell Paige for a Luke Appling. But, they were Bowmans; Appling (#175) was a much tougher card in the Hi# series than Paige (#224) that year. And Hal, we did indeed know of Paige. He had a short but impressive year on the mound in 1948. But, even more im- portant was that we tried to emulate his patented "double- loop" wind-up in his pitching motion.

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10-13-2005, 09:18 AM

Posted By: Hal LewisBoy that sounds fun! I grew up 30 years too late!! We had all-day whiffle ball games in the vacant lot next door... but stick ball in the streets and talking to the Scooter sounds like the perfect life! I will be sure to pack a few "corked broomsticks" in the time machine before I make the trip.

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10-13-2005, 10:06 AM

Posted By: Ted ZanidakisHAL No need to bring "corked" bats. If we couldn't do a "midnite requistion" of some neighbor's heavy duty rake or shovel; then, we go to Jake's hardware store and buy one for you. You say....how can we afford it? We go around the neighborhood and collect as many soda pop bottles as we can find to turn in at the grocery store for $$. With one of those "Babe Ruth" type stick ball bats you would be the Home Run king. Believe or not we used to get on the public buses with these "weapons" to go to the other side of the town for some serious stickball games. And, I would give away a Mickey Mantle card (or two) to once again see the expressions and listen to the whispers of the passengers and the bus driver when they saw us kids getting on the bus.

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10-13-2005, 10:18 AM

Posted By: identify7It ain't stick ball if you don't use a Spauldeen.

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10-13-2005, 10:20 AM

Posted By: barrysloateI grew up playing stickball pitching against my friend's garage and Strat-o-Matic. Those were fun memories. I remember getting a below average report card and my mom took away my Strat-o-Matic until I got better grades. True story.

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10-13-2005, 10:30 AM

Posted By: identify7That sounds like stickball with ball and strike pitching, Barry. You had a rectangular strike zone drawn on the garage door too, I bet.

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10-13-2005, 10:38 AM

Posted By: ScotFor me it would be 1927. Me, my son and brother eating York Caramels in Yankee stadium, watching that fantastic Yankee lineup murder the competition. Where do we board this machine, I'm ready to go now!

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10-13-2005, 10:43 AM

Posted By: barrysloateIt wasn't actually the garage door, but the brick post between the two doors. You got a nice rebound off the brick; the garage door created a loud thud. But in the nearby schoolyard someone did paint a box for the strike zone. You never forget those childhood memories.

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10-13-2005, 11:26 AM

Posted By: Keith O'LearyYep, we played as kids. I lived in a housing development where baseball fields were at a premium.We used the outside wall of a neighborhood shed. An old white wooden wall with a masking tape "strike box" full of dirty marks from previous meetings. We used broom stick handles for bats and when one of them broke and another wasn't available, one of the kids parents had a pile of tobacco lathe we'd take from. Used the tennis balls till they were hit around so hard they punctured. The wall was just firm enough to cushion the impact of the ball (we threw as hard as we could of course) that they just about trickled back to the pitcher. If he was accurate enough, he barely had to take 3 steps to field the catcher's throw back <IMG height=14 src="/images/happy.gif" width=14>.....(the pitcher was also responsible for calling balls and strikes). Flies had to be caught in the air (where they landed determined how many bases were achieved) and grounders had to be gloved or bare handed before they stopped for an out (we never had enough gloves). Fun times <IMG height=14 src="/images/happy.gif" width=14>.

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10-13-2005, 11:52 AM

Posted By: identify7We mainly played in the street with manhole covers as home and second base, and car fenders as 1st + 3rd. Made for a narrow field. No balls and strikes (unless you missed the ball) and often no pitcher ----> just throw it up and hit it like a fungo. It seemed that we were always trying to fish the ball out of a sewer. But often enuff there were other balls in the sewer, so since you were there, might as well build up an inventory of smelly, slimy spauldeens, tennis balls, sponge balls, etc.

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10-13-2005, 01:31 PM

Posted By: Pennsylvania TedGil That last sentence of yours cracked me up. We made an "art" out of retrieving balls from the open gutter type street sewers. But, just about the time we got be real "pro's" at it, we moved the games off the street. Our neighbor- hood Catholic School paved over their school grounds. We thought it couldn't get any better for stick ball playing. But, it did.....hoping to keep us off their school grounds, they put up a cyclone fence. Of course we were good climbers, so now our playing field had a fenced wall to shoot for. We even put up distance markers.

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10-13-2005, 02:15 PM

Posted By: identify7When I reread that sewer statement I was about to delete it (because it is soo disgusting - I could have never actually done it); but I was interrupted by work - you know - gainful employment type stuff - and I didn't get to erase it in time. But when I think back about the sponge balls which never dry out completely, and continue to spray sewer juice over everything when you hit them (no, some stories are better not told). But Old Lady Lipencott who always yelled "don't hit my car, don't hit my ... no, thats another story better not told. But that Catholic School field is a dream come true. I bet they didn't even put barbed wire on their fence.

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10-13-2005, 08:24 PM

Posted By: Ted ZanidakisGil It even gets better than I said in previous post. By the time we were 13 the Catholic School tore down their old wooden school bldg. and built a modern "L - shaped" brick bldg. It was great for playing baseball as the "inside" of the "L" layout formed a perfect BB diamond. And, it was landscaped with green, green grass. So, we neatly layed out a regulation size infield diamond with portable bases. And, put portable foul poles in the outfield. The distance down the RF line to the nearby woods was 250 Ft. And, down the LF line to a housing development was 220 Ft. So, when we could organize 14 (or more) kids from the neighborhood we would play HARDBALL on this field on a W/E. This was a real treat for us, as it did not occur but once or twice a month.