Well, you asked for it. Not Pre-War, and not even the right sport.
1978 Topps Gary Green Rookie Card
4 time Pro-Bowler and 5 time All-Pro. Member of the Kansas City Chiefs Ring of Honor and Chiefs Hall of Fame.
No, I don't have any special attachment to Gary Green or the Kansas City Chiefs.
Several years ago my dad was renovating his kitchen with my mom (the house I grew up in).
He pulled out the kitchen radiator and tucked behind the panel was this lone football card from my childhood. I used to practice "Knockdowns" against that radiator as a child.
Not to brag, but I was the "King" of knockdowns and all the other various sports card games we played in Elementary and Middle school. To the point we'd get to a certain point in the school year, and nobody would want to play against me anymore. I'd take everybody else's cards, and was probably waaaaaay too competitive about it. I'd win hundreds of cards and add them to my pile every week. I was kind of an as#hole about it to be honest.
I know, it's like saying I was the fastest kid in the 4th grade at my small town school. It doesn't really mean anything.
If only I was as good at actual baseball as I was at throwing a card straight out of a wax pack, at another card set up against a wall, I might have made something of myself.
Anyways, this is the one lone card I have left from those days of trading card dominance. Found in a kitchen radiator about 40 years after my card throwing prime. My dad remembered me practicing against that very radiator enough to call me in excitement as soon as he found it tucked back there.
I've been carrying it around in my wallet ever since, just like Bob Costas carries around his Mickey Mantle card in his. As you can see, my wallet has taken much more of a toll on the card then a game of knockdowns and decades of radiator dirt and grime took on it.