The One That Got Away

[Kevin]

There are a few stories that stand out in my mind. Reading what you guys have stated, it seems we have all similar stories. I was born in 1973, got really into collecting cards in 1980 as I have a smattering of 1978 Burger King, a few 1979 Topps and then a lot of 1980 Topps. I peaked in 1981 as I have tons and tons of Topps, Fleer and Donruss.

Dad started taking me to card shows around the same time. He collected Brooklyn Dodgers and StL Browns. One show, I think in Massapequa, Allie Reynolds and Mel Stottlemyer were signing autorgraphs. Dad was telling me a story about Cookie Lavagetto breaking up Bill Bevens World Series no hitter while we were online. The next day, the Sunday Newsday ran a long piece based on our conversation. Not sure if dad still has that, but the writer must have been behind us and thought it was a nostalgic type puff piece. He never let me look at the T206 sets, or simply ignored them, focusing mostly on the Dodgers, Browns and 62 Mets cards. One day, while he was talking to a dealer, I bought an old, beat up Irv Young! My first T206!

So, where was I? My 6 and 4 year old are downstairs, so I really have to make this quick as they are driving my wife crazy on this Saturday afternoon. Fast forward to mid 1980s. Now my uncle covered the Pirates for the Pittsburgh Post Gazette from 1966-86 (previously, he covered both baseball and football Giants for the Journal American and Long Island Press). We were a "baseball family" and took the journey up to Cooperstown from Long Island a few times in the mid 80s. Again, we stopped at yard sales and tag sales and I bought old cards along the way. So, we were up in Cooperstown in the mid 80s and Larry Fritsch had just opened up his Baseball Card Museum there. I had $100 from a paper route I worked and I was thinking I was going to buy some cool retro hats or other memorabilia. I wasn't expecting a "Baseball Card" museum.

Now for some reason, there wasn't a lot of action in the Larry Fritsch's place that day. It must have been brand new; the place was freshly painted. I don't recall how the following set of events happened, but we met Larry Fritsch and he invited us behind the scene. There were tons and tons of old baseball cards. He must have thought dad was a high roller. There we were, in a big back room, looking at all these 70-80 year old cards. And then he shows us "The Doyle". Now, this is a 35 year old memory, but I believe the story he was telling us was that he "discovered" the error. He had one on display up there, but he had a few in the back room that he , get this, let my father and I handle. At the time, I knew about "Donruss errors" and was collecting Buck Martinez with the reversed "Brewers" or Paul Spittorff from 1981! But the Joe Doyle and its significance was definitely lost on me. If it was lost on me, it was definitely lost on dad. I think he offered one to dad for a couple of thousand. Dad passed. (I recently brought this story up to dad and he has no recollection.). This is not the "missed out" part of the story, however.

So, we come out from behind the museum and store and Larry has: 5 T206s for sale: Evers, Chance, Matthewson, 2 Cobbs (red). I only had the $100 or so on me, and then dad, ever the business man, goes into action: Evers was $50, Chance was $60, Matthewson $70 and Cobb (A) was $225 and Cobb (B) was $250. So, dad negotiates $400 for 4. (Not much of a deal, thinking back now, but I think dad was happy). But which Cobb? Dad differed to me. Do I take the Cobb with the paper loss on the back for $225 or do I go for the intact Cobb for $250? I remember feeling guilty the dad was spending so much money. I went with the lesser Cobb. And as you have written above, it is a decision that has bothered me to this day. I have talked to dad about it afterwards and he always said, "You can trade up for a better Cobb". I don't think I'll part with him, but I think about that deal a lot.

A few things: can you guys either debunk or verify the Larry Fritsch story he told us about "discovering the Joe Doyle"? We spend about an hour with the man and he had a personality.

I have another story from a few years later. It might be a worse story. It involves W551 cards. Cringe worthy story about innocence and honesty triumphing over the devil on your shoulder...