[xplainer]

Originally Posted by HercDriver

Day 22 brings two more gems to the party...Ron Kline and Rip Repulski. I was going to write something about cool baseball nicknames, like Johnny "Ugly" Dickshot. But when I looked up Repulski, I noticed that he was born and died in Sauk Rapids, MN. Going to Google Maps, it's a town of about 12,000 people by St Cloud, MN. That must have been cool, having a big leaguer in a small town, where kids could listen to his stories at the diner after church on Sunday. I looked up my hometown of Freeport, IL, and only found one guy, who pitched in four games, in 2002-03. For those four games, he earned $500K. I'm guessing Rip didn't make $500K and had way better stories to tell. My dad grew up near Quincy, IL, where the Reuschel brothers were baseball kings. He was about the same age, and played against them in high school, if I remember right. My brothers and I always watched Cubs games, and we'd tell our friends that my dad was pals with the Reuschel boys. That was pretty cool, until this card came out in 1977:



Seriously? Could there be a worse card than that? Those uniforms the Cubs had back then were appalling. They couldn't even get the names with the right brother. And it looks like two N54 members just signed up for Cubs Fantasy Camp. Ugghhh...I hate that card. Anyway, we stopped telling people our dad was friends with them after that. I'm not sure how I got onto that this morning, but the again, my mind is not too clear, after waking up to the sound of the dog barfing next to my bed. Somehow it got me here. Oh yeah...Sauk Rapids, MN. RIP, Rip. Time for more coffee...have a great day!

Card Tracker:
79 cards, at 63 cents each, shipped.

I too, am enjoying the stories. But, if you throw in the Reuschel card, I might pull the trigger.
That is my golden era. Mid 70s to mid 80’s.
Born 1963.
And, yeah, it does look like a fantasy camp photo.
-Jimmy