ESPN aritcle on the national - ton of pics
 

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/...abilia-madness

Funny read, hopefully this has not been posted yet.....

Tim

Fantastic.:)

Apparently, my brother Rhys and I were the butt of his joke on page 8... if he only knew how many "Pre-War Sports" wierdos there are out there!:D

He's pretty funny overall, but I didn't see the humor when I saw your booth singled out...........

Tom, it's all good! No problem with it honestly. If you think of the article from an "outsiders" point of view (which he really is) they probably don't imagine too many people are interested in the "old stuff" and the bulk of the rest of the stuff he seems to be "into" dates from the 1970-80's so it doesn't surprise me all that much.

It's all in good fun, we "pre-war" people are strange though, you know that right!?! :D

At least I can tell people I was on the front page of ESPN.com (Well, kinda...My body is partially seen in the picture on the far left!)

Great article. I know UNcle Dick from page 13... i just emailed him the link

I got a pretty good chuckle out of the look on Yogi's face in the yoo-hoo picture.:D

Thanks for posting that. It was funny, although it hit a bit close to home.

Yeah that was great !

Awesome link.....!

Fun article and pics. I admit to also being a bit baffled by the Prewar Sports booth photo caption. I thought perhaps it was a jibe at a booth being vacant during a trade show where customers were supposedly around--there is always quite a bit of that at shows with lots of resulting whining--rather than a shot at the prewar items themselves.

I think it's just a guy trying to be funny...... For the most part it worked....

They thought the Wagner gamer would easily fetch 7 figures? It went for just over $33,000.. Cool read!

The did get 7 figures if you count the pennies.

Loved it, great sense of humor.

Loved the picture of 54er Todd S. in his Hawaiian shirt :D This was the known sighting of Todd before he went to the White Sox game and disappeared....

Great link! Alot of what the captions said cracked me up.

Like Simmons said, too bad YouTube was not around for that 1983 Billy Martin roast!

Funny
 

Funny stuff! It was hysterical. Great sense of humor! We tend to take this too seriously anyway and it was nice for an outsider's perspective. Laugh a little.. it is only baseball cards!

The key question that emerges from those pics is..............
 

.....Who is the individual on the cutting edge of fashion, wearing the "jorts," in
the "Hawaiian Shirt" picture? :D

Thanks for the fun read. I really liked the Ryan/Ventura "Don't mess with Texas" :D

Also, learned something new.......I didn't know those were called "jorts" :D:o:p

Someday I hope I can make it to one of these Nationals. Thanks again for the link.

Sincerely, Clayton

Hahahaha this is hilarious... I loved the comment about Al Davis..."This signed Al Davis check is going to skyrocket in value when he dies six years ago..." :p

Ricky Y

If I remember correctly, they weren't "jorts"...they were "daidujorts" or "daisy duke shorts". Hawaiian shirts are bad enough, daidujorts....no comment:D

Fashion Police
 

The term "jorts," as being modeled by that very fashionable fellow in the Hawaiian Shirt pic, is current slang/shortened version of "Jean Shorts." They are generally referred to as such, when worn by a guy.

When worn by a woman with good legs, they are indeed often called "Daisy Dukes."

"Daisy Dukes" are a subset of jean shorts. They have to be very short to be "Daisy Dukes". Take that pair of "jorts" from the article and put them on a woman with long legs, they don't suddenly become "Daisy Dukes".

Tabe

Now you guys are getting too technical...

I just meant that they were pretty damn short & tight (my eyes still hurt) for a guy to be wearing.

Let's just say that those jorts on a man are the equivalent of daisy dukes on a woman.

follow-up from the Sports Guy mailbag today
 

Q: Enjoyed your sports memorabilia piece. A question though: Were there ANY women there at all? I mean, if there is 'press box hot' what constitutes as 'sports memorabilia convention' hot?
— Torey, Pittsburgh

SG: I tackled this subject in 2009's photo essay, writing things like "There are sausage fests, there are mega-sausage fests and then there's the National Sports Collectors Convention. You have a better chance of meeting your future wife in an all-male penitentiary during a Gay Pride parade." Press Box Hot is a much higher caliber than NSCC Hot; I'd put NSCC Hot just below Female Prison Guard Hot. It's so bad that you're startled every time you see a woman under 40. Even pregnant moms pushing baby strollers get checked out. One collector had the bright idea of having a pretty women in her early 20s sit in his station with him; she was clearly hired for the event (like a convention escort), but the ploy worked. Guys in Hawaiian shirts were awkwardly wobbling by like they'd just seen a lunar eclipse. That's my suggestion to any major dealer out there: Hire a local Hooters girl or model to hang out in your booth for five afternoons and just flirt with customers. Pay her $200 a day. You'll make the money back.

That is some seriously funny (and true) stuff!

Article
 

Funny stuff but there is a limit! Uncle Dick is a great guy that has been setting up at the National for over 29 years...some outsider shouldn't poke fun at his trade name in a way as to compare him to a porno show.

No way that guy in jorts is a pre-war guy. Must have been a collector of shiney cards. If he were a pre-war guy he wouldn't have gone 5 minutes without a fellow pre-war collector telling him what a nerd he looked like.
As far as the women go, I agree with Bill C., although there was one hot blonde in pink who caught the eye of every collector I spoke to. I have no idea what she was doing there, perhaps she thought it was the Hooter's Swim Suit convention contest.

Dick is a LEGEND in the hobby and a truly nice man to boot.
He is well...like an uncle that everyone would be so lucky to have

I think there were a few models there related to the "Benchwarmers" card releases, which feature swimsuit/lingerie models and Playmates...and yes, all chatter went quiet when one of them strolled by at the Nat...:eek:.

Cheers,
Blair

So what you're saying is you really like Dick?

Not that there's anything wrong with that...

I was the one set up with the pictured pinball game in my booth.

There are not many female collecter in this hobby. I did had a small number of sales to women. There was one female collecter who I saw on three different days who made a $500 purchase on the last day. She was from out of town. She was attractive and I never saw her with anyone else.

Oh come on, you dozed off and dreamed an attractive woman spent $500 at your table. :p