Quote:
Originally Posted by philliesphan
Arguably the best catcher to ever play in PCL:
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Until I was 10 (in 1955), I lived in the Oakland district called Montclair. The Raimondi's has the local paint store. His brother's name was Phil. In the 1980's, I set up at a monthly flea market at Chabot College in Hayward (a couple of cities away from Oakland). A baseball card collector came by wanting to trade for a "hot" rookie card I had.
What did he have to offer? A bunch of stuff, but the thing that caught my eye (and he could have had everything I had brought with me for it) was an inscribed silver lighter given Phil Raimondi at the end of the 1948 season by the Oakland Oaks in appreciation for him working in the family store for so many years so his brother could play baseball.
Oakland won the Pacific Coast League championship that year under manager, Casey Stengel. Take a look at the players on the 1948 team at
https://www.baseball-reference.com/r...gi?id=db772f44
I asked the Raimondi's about the lighter. They said they had thrown it away because Phil was a heavy smoker and had died of lung cancer.
When I dig it out, I'll post a scan. Philliesphan, you are lucky. I've been looking for a Billy Raimondi Zeenut card with a coupon but haven't found one yet.
Mike