Ernest L. Krotz was born in 1917 in Cleveland Ohio. In his lifetime, he was an accomplished artist, cartoonist, sculptor, poet, musician, and athlete. He had a poem published and was accepted to the "Mud Hens" a St. Louis farm team. A handsome man when he was young. Ernest, also spoke fluent German and during World War II served gallantly in the OSS (precursor to the CIA). In addition to all of this, he was a budding entrepreneur, starting a small company called "The Baseball Bureau" back in the early 1940's. He put out a small booklet in 1943 with a list of baseball publications. Remember, this is during World War II and paper was a precious commodity. Here are a few pic's from his booklet...
Fast forward to the year 2009, Ernest's younger brother passes away.
Ernest's nephew, who ends-up inheriting his uncle's and father's possessions,
starts putting some of their stuff on eBay. Ernest, being a big baseball fan,
collected some baseball cards during his lifetime. As siblings are prone to do,
both brothers wrote down their names on the back of their cards. Here is a
picture of the back of one of Ernest L Krotz cards...
A couple of weeks ago, I saw eight different auctions running on eBay with the following title....
"MLB Hall of Famer Gordon S. (Mickey) Cochrane 5x7 vint.". All eight cards were in the right
category. Perhaps some of you card junkies saw them? The cards were 1930 W554 strip cards.
They were in okay shape, some glue and scrapbook residue on the back side and a couple with
haphazard cutting.....nothing that the Bruce's of the world would collect. But, since I chase after
baseball cards like a co-worker of mine chases after skirts (he does not care whether the skirts are
ugly, tall, short, wrinkled, or dull and I try to apply that principle to my baseball card quest).
I put in some snipes and won seven of the eight cards. They arrive in a prompt manner, along with
a bonus....the small booklet (shown in the first picture). Here is a picture of the cards I won for $100...
Last night, my wife, who is a very practical women, asked me why I collect old cards? My answer.........
"sometimes, they talk to me". If you go to the World War II memorial site
(
http://www.wwiimemorial.com/default....subpage=search)
and type in the name "
Ernest L. Krotz" here is what you see...
Ernest L. Krotz life ended tragically in 1944 at the age of 27 ("killed in action"); defending this great country during World War II. To this day, the War Department has yet to release his military record to the family. Thank you Ernest P. Krotz for the cards as well as the ultimate sacrifice!
Lovely Day...