I'm so sad to hear that Jimmy has passed away.
FWIW, I would absolutely agree with everything that has been said.
From my first day on net54 I was drawn to Jimmy's terrific posts.
That being said, his real gift was starting some of the very best "Show me your..." threads that ever appeared here on net54.
As much as I love net54, I really believe that when he stopped collecting baseball and being a regular contributor here, it's never has been the same since...
Jimmy was a
passionate, knowledgeable collector, great hobby friend and all-around great guy.
I remember him posting my favorite snapshot that I have ever seen of Nolan Ryan in 1968 out in front of Shea Stadium, which was actually vintage signed by Nolan. Many of you know that Nolan Ryan is one of my major collecting focuses. His snapshot was an absolute "must have" for my collection, although I didn't initially approach him about the possibility of selling or trading it to me.
At some point he mentioned to the net54 community that he had been having some health issues and said that if there was anything that he owned that anyone was particularly keen about to please let him know.
At that time I reached out to him about the 1968 Ryan snapshot. To make a long story short, he allowed me to add this awesome photo to my collection. After this we continued to e-mail and call each other each other off net54 & he became a good friend.
Jimmy's early support of Graig Kreindler led me to make one of the best hobby decisions I've ever made: I commissioned Graig to paint Johnny Vander Meer in late 2011. His painting is one of my absolute favorite pieces in my collection.
RIP Jimmy, you will be missed by many buddy!
