What is your most cherished piece, and why?

[whitehse]

I have a couple of items that are considered cherished.

My mom and dad would always try to take us to a few baseball games every year at Wrigley Field. I knew they didnt have much money and my dad would always say he got the tickets from "some guy" but I knew dang well my dad had to work some OT to get them for us. My dad always had a habit of buying a scorecard at every game he went and he would keep score like an offical scorer. Fast forward to the '80's when I was working for the Cubs. My dad still loved the game and I would take him to work with me every weekend and make sure he had great seats and a scorecard. I would pop in to check on him once in awhile and bring him something to drink but he always kept score at these games. A year or so ago I was cleaning out some of the "stuff" we had packed away and I found a stack of scorecards my dad had completed and instantly I was taken back to that time and in my minds eye I could see my dad, who has now been gone for 8 years, scoring the game with a huge smile on his face. It felt so good that I could give back to my dad in that way and to have those scorecards as reminders is just dang cool for me.

One of my other items is a ball that was hit by Ken Reitz of the Cardinals in '72 or '73 that my mom actually caught. I remember begging my mom to let me take my glove to the game but she would not let me as she felt I would lose it and besides....there is no way a ball will even come close to us. I have never let her forget this!

And finally, I have a small amount of cards I had as a child that I wrote the new team name on when the player was traded. I came across these a few years ago as well and I instantly put them in top loaders and put them next to my best cards.

Great memories and a great thread!!!!